The middle band is a list of a few thousand.
About 3,660 offices have 10 to 49 staff. Your services page offers dedicated teams that scale up or down with the workload, or a defined scope such as a CD set.
Enquirer Consulting Group
Buyer Map: US Architecture Offices, Welcome to MK
Prepared for Magdalena Lancman | Welcome to MK | October 2026
As of counts read Oct 1, 2026 from public federal files
Your site describes work for US architecture offices, as a dedicated BIM team or project by project. This page counts those offices by size and by state, and the architects and drafters on payrolls across the country. Every number comes from public federal files.
Architecture offices in the US
22,800
Locations of architecture practices with paid staff, 50 states and DC. A practice with three offices counts three times.
Offices with 10 to 49 staff
About 3,660
2,320 with 10 to 19 staff and about 1,340 with 20 to 49.
Offices with 50 or more staff
About 630
624 to 630. The federal file withholds a few size counts in four small states, so 6 offices could sit in either of the two largest bands.
Architects on a payroll
111,000
Plus 110,000 architectural and civil drafters. Jobs in every industry, not only in architecture offices.
Offices by size
Size is the number of paid staff at the location. Most offices are small. Every row counts offices, and together the rows make up the total.
| Office size | Roles to look for (our reading, not counted) | Offices in the US |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 staff | The principal | 14,500 |
| 5 to 9 staff | Principal, project architect | 4,010 |
| 10 to 19 staff | Principals, project architects, a production or technical lead | 2,320 |
| 20 to 49 staff | Principals, project managers, a BIM or technical lead | about 1,340 |
| 50 or more staff | Office or studio leaders, BIM manager | about 630 |
Where the offices are: eight states hold about 55% of them
The eight states with the most architecture offices, largest first.
| State | All offices | 10 to 49 staff | 50 or more staff |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 3,720 | 550 | 95 |
| New York | 2,100 | 260 | 58 |
| Florida | 1,740 | 200 | 22 |
| Texas | 1,640 | 290 | 47 |
| Illinois | 940 | 170 | 30 |
| Colorado | 840 | 120 | 18 |
| Massachusetts | 730 | 140 | 29 |
| Washington | 720 | 130 | 21 |
Where the openings are
Eight states, about 55% of the market.
California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington hold about 55% of US architecture offices. California alone has 3,720, and 550 of them have 10 to 49 staff.
The largest offices fit on one page.
About 630 offices have 50 or more staff. That is short enough to work office by office, by name.
Denominators, definitions and sources
- Offices are establishments in the federal annual count of business establishments by industry, 2023 state file, architectural services, 50 states and DC. An establishment is one physical location with paid employees at some point in the year. Size is paid staff at the location in the mid-March 2023 pay period. Offices with no paid staff in that pay period sit in the smallest size band. Sole proprietors and partners of unincorporated firms are not counted as staff, so a practice run by its partners can sit in a smaller band than its headcount suggests.
- The file withholds some size counts to protect individual firms. In four small states that leaves 6 offices that could sit in either the 20 to 49 or the 50 or more band, so those two rows, and the 10 to 49 figure, are given as about: 20 to 49 is 1,337 to 1,343 and 50 or more is 624 to 630. The eight state rows withhold nothing below 50 staff, so their figures are exact before rounding.
- Architects (except landscape and naval) and architectural and civil drafters are jobs on a payroll in the federal occupational employment survey, May 2024, summed across the 50 states and DC in the survey's state file. The survey leaves out the self-employed. The drafter figure covers architectural and civil drafters together.
- Services are as listed on welcometomk.com on Oct 1, 2026. Figures over 100 in the tiles and tables are rounded on purpose; the intervals in these notes are exact. None is the size of any one opportunity.
The named version of this page, the actual offices inside a row, is built one row at a time. Reply on the thread, or write to my colleague Ben, who is your point of contact from here: ben@enquirerai.com.
Enquirer Consulting Group | enquirerconsulting.com