The 2024 edition of NCARB’s annual data publication, NCARB by the Numbers, is now available! Focusing on data from the 2023 calendar year—4 years after the global onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—this year’s publication provides key insights into the pandemic’s long-term impacts on candidates navigating the Architectural Experience Program® (AXP®). Interested in sharing how COVID-19 impacted your AXP experience? Take our brief survey.
Unlike the exam, which has largely recovered, the experience program has continued to show lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just over 26,000 candidates recorded AXP experience in 2023—nearly 3,000 more than the number of candidates reporting experience the previous year. Perhaps more importantly, 2023’s number is also higher than the average number of candidates reporting experience seen prior to the pandemic (approximately 25,000).
But despite high participation rates, fewer candidates have been completing the experience program each year since 2019.
4,730 candidates completed the experience program in 2023—2% less than in 2022.
While other NCARB programs have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, AXP completions remain significantly below the numbers seen in 2017-2019. Just 4,730 candidates completed the AXP in 2023, compared to 6,295 in 2019—even though more candidates than ever are working to complete the program.
NCARB’s data suggests that the ongoing decline is a lingering effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. With an average completion time between 4 and 5 years, most candidates who completed the program in 2023 would have started the AXP in 2019. As emerging professionals beginning their career just before the onset of the pandemic, these individuals may have had their career trajectories significantly altered by the pandemic. As a result, they’re likely still working to gain the experience needed to finish the AXP and advance their career goals.
Time to complete the AXP continues to rise.
The pandemic’s impact on candidates navigating the experience is highlighted further in the steady increase of time to complete the AXP: the average time to complete the program has risen more than 6 months since 2019. And this time will likely increase further in the years ahead, as candidates impacted by the pandemic continue to get their careers back on track.
NCARB will continue seeing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on candidates navigating the AXP until at least 2025—and likely beyond.
Share how COVID-19 impacted your experience progress.
NCARB is closely monitoring the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Help us gain more insight into the lingering effect of the pandemic on your career by taking a brief survey. Your responses will help us identify potential resources or programmatic changes that could address the challenges faced by candidates who navigated the licensure path during the pandemic.
About NCARB by the Numbers
The findings in NCARB by the Numbers are pulled from NCARB’s database of nearly 125,000 licensure candidates and architects, making this annual report the most comprehensive source for licensure statistics.
Learn more about trends on the path to licensure in the 2024 edition of NCARB by the Numbers!
