What Percentage of Engineers in the US are PE's?

Someone in my family was wondering what percentage of the Engineers in the US are PE's. When I talk about the PE to someone who isn't familiar with engineering they tend to think it is like Doctors, Pharmacist, Nurses, etc in which all of them have passed their state exams. Engineers however do not have to pass the PE to enter the work force therefore much less of them are PEs. The state medical exams for Doctors have a pass rate ~90%. Since Engineers do not have to have a PE to work the passing rate can be much lower.

I bet only about 10% of all engineers with at least a 4 year engineering degree are PEs.

What do you think? I may be way off.

Hey, Joey, how's the studying?

I read 18 percent somewhere on the internet, but now I can't find it. I'd assume that the percentage is very high for civil engineers (maybe over 80%), and probably 10 percent or under for other disciplines.

I am going to go with the fact that this is a trick question... 100% of engineers in the US are P.E.'s. All others are just designers. At least, this is the case in Florida.

MonteBiker said:

I am going to go with the fact that this is a trick question... 100% of engineers in the US are P.E.'s. All others are just designers. At least, this is the case in Florida.

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I read somewhere that only 11% of graduating engineers get their license. It may have been on the ASCE website.

To be fair, you really need to do this poll by industry. If the engineer is doing work that will directly affect the public then most states require that it be stamped by a PE. Hence a large % of engineers (100% if they want responsible charge) get their license. However, if the enigneer is working within a "self-policed" type of industry, i.e. petroleum, automotive, etc. then a PE license is not as necessary so fewer engineers pursue it.

I am a bridge engineer.  We all try to get PE as soon as we get 4 years of experiences or equivalent.   I say over 90% are PEs.  

According to NCEES annual report, 477,000PE are currently registered as resident licensee. According to DOL, there are 1.6 million engineering job. So roughly 1 in 4 engineers are PE.

It varies across disciplines and industries. I've read numbers ranging from 10-20% for all engineers.

Holy schmoley this post started in 2009 (and I replied back then)