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Occupational Licensing in the District of Columbia

The District of Columbia requires a licence for 109 of the 246 occupations the Archbridge Institute tracks, against a national median of 124. It ranks 40 of 51 on their index, where 1 is the most burdensome.

Licensed occupations
109
With any entry barrier
145
National rank
#40
In the South Atlantic
#9

Moving to the District of Columbia with a licence

The District of Columbia has no universal-recognition law, so an out-of-state licence generally has to be earned again. Universal recognition is the reform that lets someone already licensed elsewhere practise after moving, instead of repeating the training; 28 of the 51 jurisdictions have some version of it.

Licensed here, rarely elsewhere

These are the occupations the District of Columbia licenses that few other jurisdictions do — the clearest sign of where its rules go further than the national norm.

Every licensed occupation in the District of Columbia

All 109, alphabetically. Archbridge tracks 246 occupations in total, so anything absent here is either unlicensed in District of Columbia or outside their list.

Where this comes from

The Archbridge Institute's State Occupational Licensing Index 2026, retrieved 2026-09-16. The index records whether an occupation needs a licence — it does not record fees or training hours, so nothing here says what a licence costs or how long it takes. The rank is Archbridge's own and is not part of the FreedomRankings score. Check the relevant District of Columbia board before acting on any of it.

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