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Plumber shortage in Iowa: the licensed-supply numbers

Everyone quotes the shortage. Here is the count Iowa actually has, by skill level and per resident, updated every night.

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As of October 5, 2026, Iowa carries 7,528 licensed plumbers on its state register, or 234.7 per 100,000 residents.

7,528
licensed plumbers
234.7
per 100k residents
#12
density rank of 32

Iowa does not issue a separate apprentice license for this trade, so no pipeline ratio is published here. The tier counts below are what the register itself records.

How this compares to nearby states

States nearest Iowa on licensed plumbers per capita.

StateLicensed plumbersPer 100k
Iowa7,528234.7
South Dakota2,691292.7
Arkansas8,924290.9
Minnesota15,091263.0
Hawaii3,345233.1
Texas66,527218.1
Louisiana9,417205.9
Counts, not a capacity opinion. We publish the licensed supply and the pipeline ratio; whether a market can absorb a given project is a judgment for the reader, not a claim we make.

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Common questions

Is there a plumbers shortage in Iowa?
Reporting on the shortage rarely states how many are actually licensed. Iowa carries 7,528 licensed plumbers on its register as of October 5, 2026, or 234.7 per 100,000 residents. Readers can weigh that supply against demand directly.
How many licensed plumbers does Iowa have?
7,528 on the state register as of October 5, 2026.
Where does the shortage narrative come from?
Industry analyses project national shortfalls of hundreds of thousands of skilled-trades workers against data-center and electrification demand. Those are demand-side estimates; the figure here is the licensed supply on the register today.

Related pages

Count
How many plumbers in IowaMarket
Iowa licensed trades supplyCorridor
Electricians and the data-center buildout
This number changes tonight.

This page is a free snapshot of Iowa. Track the same market every night and see which contractors just got licensed, added a trade, or dropped off, and pull the full record, with contact details where available, on any of them. Get the weekly intelligence email on the markets you follow. ATI is in private beta; apply for access.

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