Trade guide, national
Roofing contractors in the United States
This site publishes 50,371 roofing contractor records across all fifty states and the District of Columbia, or 1.50 per 10,000 residents. 2 of them publish a business-level licence source for roofing that a listing can be matched against.
This page is the one place on this site that explains what roofing work involves, what its credentials are and where to check one. The counts for a particular metro area are on that metro’s own page, and what a licence class means in a particular state is on that state’s page.
The national facts
- Roofing contractor records
- 50,371Foursquare Open Source Places, release August 11, 2026
- Per 10,000 residents
- 1.50 per 10,000Population 334,914,895, Census Bureau Vintage 2023 population estimates, as of July 1, 2023
- States publishing a licence source for this trade
- 2 of 51State license files, as of September 2, 2026California and Florida.
- Licensed share where a source exists
- 16.1%State license files, as of September 2, 2026Counted only inside the states that publish a source, and never across a state line. It measures how often a published listing and a published licence could be matched to each other, which is not the same question as whether a business holds one.
- Active licences with no public listing
- 8,777State license files, as of September 2, 2026Active licences covering this trade with no matching record in open place data, summed over the states that publish a source. This is the home-based tail.
- Most records per resident
- Wyoming, 2.50 per 10,000Population 584,057, Census Bureau Vintage 2023 population estimates, as of July 1, 2023The fewest is District of Columbia, at 0.21 per 10,000. Both ends describe where businesses are recorded, not where work is done.
- Employment for this trade, metro areas reporting it
- 110,250 employed across 177 metro areasBLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 OEWS, published May 15, 2026, SOC 47-2181Occupation as the Bureau of Labor Statistics titles it: Roofers. The survey publishes a median by area rather than one national figure, so no national median appears here. Of the metro areas this site covers, the highest published median is Worcester at $50.61 an hour and the lowest is El Paso at $17.45. These count employees in the occupation, not the businesses listed on this site.
- Independent, franchise, corporate
- 49,337 independent, 20 franchise brand, 766 corporate owned, 248 awaiting chain reviewFoursquare Open Source Places, release August 11, 2026
What each row counts, and the universe it counts it in, is set out on the methodology page.
What is particular about roofing work
Roofing demand is written by storms rather than by seasons, most large roofing jobs are paid through an insurance claim rather than out of pocket, and one state's statute changes what this site is willing to do at all.
Storm season, and the sales season that follows it
Roofing is the one trade on this site whose demand arrives in a single afternoon. A hail swath or a straight-line wind event damages thousands of roofs in one pass, and the work that follows is concentrated into the months after it in a way no calendar season explains. Local capacity does not expand at that speed, so crews travel in, and a metro's roofing market after a large storm contains companies that were not in it the week before.
That is not a reason to avoid an out-of-area company, and this site does not label one. It is a reason to keep the ordinary checks: the licence or registration the state or the city requires, a physical address, a written scope rather than a figure, and a warranty from an entity that will still be reachable in five years. A roof is the purchase where the company outliving the warranty is most of the value.
Immediately after a storm the useful sequence is to document, protect and then decide. Photographs from the ground, a tarp or an emergency dry-in to stop water entering, and only then a decision about repair or replacement. Emergency mitigation is normally covered separately from the repair itself.
Source: FEMA, building science and disaster-resistant construction
The claim, and who is on which side of it
In a storm-damage replacement, the homeowner has a contract with the insurer and a separate contract with the roofer, and the two are not the same document. The insurer's adjuster estimates the loss against the policy; the roofer prices the work. Where they disagree, the homeowner is the one holding both agreements.
The deductible is the part that goes wrong most often. It is the homeowner's share of the loss and it is owed. An offer to absorb, waive or rebate it is not a discount; in many states it is a criminal offence for the contractor and jeopardises the claim for the homeowner. A quote that is silent on the deductible is worth a direct question.
Filing at all is a decision rather than an automatic step. A claim below or near the deductible pays nothing and still appears in the claims history that follows the property. Age, the size of the damage and the policy's own treatment of roof replacement, actual cash value against replacement cost, all move that answer.
Source: Federal Trade Commission, consumer advice on hiring contractors
Age, wear and what a roof is actually telling you
An asphalt shingle roof rarely fails all at once. It gives up granules, its shingles cup or curl, the sealant strips let go at the edges, and the flashing at chimneys, valleys and sidewalls opens before the field does. Most leaks are flashing and penetration failures rather than field failures, which is why a leak is not the same question as a replacement.
Ventilation and insulation in the space beneath the deck decide how long the covering above it lasts, and in cold climates they decide whether ice builds at the eaves. A roofer who inspects the attic as well as the roof is answering the whole question.
Source: ENERGY STAR, roof products
Roofing questions answered on this site
Every rule stated above links the public page that states it: FEMA, building science and disaster-resistant construction; Federal Trade Commission, consumer advice on hiring contractors; ENERGY STAR, roof products.
Roofing state by state
Each state page carries its own licence classes, its number formats and what its rules do to this trade in particular. The record counts below are that state’s whole roofing universe, the same figure its own page prints.
| State | Records | Per 10,000 | Licensed share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 765 | 1.50 | Not published |
| Alaska | 85 | 1.16 | Not published |
| Arizona | 788 | 1.06 | Not published |
| Arkansas | 490 | 1.60 | Not published |
| California | 3,786 | 0.97 | 21.5% |
| Colorado | 1,205 | 2.05 | Not published |
| Connecticut | 778 | 2.15 | Not published |
| Delaware | 163 | 1.58 | Not published |
| District of Columbia | 14 | 0.21 | Not published |
| Florida | 3,645 | 1.61 | 10.6% |
| Georgia | 1,922 | 1.74 | Not published |
| Hawaii | 114 | 0.79 | Not published |
| Idaho | 289 | 1.47 | Not published |
| Illinois | 2,108 | 1.68 | Not published |
| Indiana | 1,239 | 1.81 | Not published |
| Iowa | 603 | 1.88 | Not published |
| Kansas | 547 | 1.86 | Not published |
| Kentucky | 721 | 1.59 | Not published |
| Louisiana | 593 | 1.30 | Not published |
| Maine | 237 | 1.70 | Not published |
| Maryland | 776 | 1.26 | Not published |
| Massachusetts | 1,105 | 1.58 | Not published |
| Michigan | 1,621 | 1.61 | Not published |
| Minnesota | 1,210 | 2.11 | Not published |
| Mississippi | 364 | 1.24 | Not published |
| Missouri | 1,304 | 2.10 | Not published |
| Montana | 260 | 2.30 | Not published |
| Nebraska | 138 | 0.70 | Not published |
| Nevada | 125 | 0.39 | Not published |
| New Hampshire | 251 | 1.79 | Not published |
| New Jersey | 1,216 | 1.31 | Not published |
| New Mexico | 300 | 1.42 | Not published |
| New York | 1,851 | 0.95 | Not published |
| North Carolina | 1,974 | 1.82 | Not published |
| North Dakota | 128 | 1.63 | Not published |
| Ohio | 2,656 | 2.25 | Not published |
| Oklahoma | 874 | 2.16 | Not published |
| Oregon | 592 | 1.40 | Not published |
| Pennsylvania | 2,304 | 1.78 | Not published |
| Rhode Island | 165 | 1.51 | Not published |
| South Carolina | 701 | 1.30 | Not published |
| South Dakota | 134 | 1.46 | Not published |
| Tennessee | 1,291 | 1.81 | Not published |
| Texas | 4,572 | 1.50 | Not published |
| Utah | 323 | 0.95 | Not published |
| Vermont | 149 | 2.30 | Not published |
| Virginia | 1,008 | 1.16 | Not published |
| Washington | 1,216 | 1.56 | Not published |
| West Virginia | 209 | 1.18 | Not published |
| Wisconsin | 1,316 | 2.23 | Not published |
| Wyoming | 146 | 2.50 | Not published |
Nothing on this page is a rating, an endorsement, or a recommendation, and no figure here describes any individual business. Ordering never depends on payment, claim status, license status, or any commercial relationship, on this page or any other.