North Carolina Professional Licensing Scorecard (2026)

Overall Licensing Climate Grade

Score: 77.7/100

Cost

Avg Initial Fees: $1,030

Education

Avg Required Hours: 2,852 hrs

Reciprocity

Interstate Compacts: 14

North Carolina receives a grade of B for professional licensing friendliness, ranking #8 out of 51 graded states.

The state tracks 138 licensed professions with an average initial licensing fee of $1,030 and average training requirement of 2,852 hrs.

Scoring Methodology

Each state is scored on three factors, weighted by their impact on licensing friendliness:

Cost (40%) — Average total initial fees across all tracked professions. Lower fees earn a higher score.
Education (30%) — Average education and training hours required. Fewer required hours earn a higher score.
Reciprocity (30%) — Fraction of professions with interstate compact membership or out-of-state license acceptance. Greater reciprocity earns a higher score.

Each factor is normalized across all qualified states (min-max scaling to 0–100), then combined using the weights above. The final composite score is mapped to a letter grade: A (80–100), B (60–79), C (40–59), D (20–39), and F (0–19). Only states with data for at least five professions are included.

All data comes from LicenseMap's verified state board data, BLS occupational statistics, and official exam administrators.

How North Carolina Compares to Neighbors

State	Grade	Avg Fees	Avg Hours	Compacts
South Carolina (SC)	A	$1,037	2,189 hrs	13
North Carolina (NC)	B	$1,030	2,852 hrs	14
Virginia (VA)	B	$1,489	2,963 hrs	15
Georgia (GA)	B	$1,038	2,911 hrs	14
Tennessee (TN)	C	$5,499	2,717 hrs	15

Related Resources

Back to All State Rankings — Compare licensing climates across all 50 states and DC
Profession Difficulty Rankings — See which professional licenses are hardest to obtain
Browse All State Pages — Detailed licensing requirements by state

State grades are computed from LicenseMap's database of licensing requirements across all tracked professions. Cost reflects government fees only (excludes tuition). Education hours include classroom, clinical, and apprenticeship requirements. Reciprocity measures interstate compact membership and out-of-state license acceptance. Grades are relative comparisons across states, not absolute measures of licensing difficulty.