Updated for 2025 · November 2026 sample
Where the American pilot population is actually heading.
There were 887,519 active pilots in the United States at the end of 2025 — +38,749 on the year, and the ninth consecutive year of growth. Below: how that breaks down by certificate and state, what the training pipeline is doing, and what changed in the last month.
Eleven years of the pilot population
Active pilots holding any certificate, as counted by the FAA on 31 December each year. The line turns upward in 2016 — the year student certificates stopped expiring, which changed what “active” means.
What changed last month
Comparing the November 2026 releasable file against October 2026. This file covers 47% of active pilots — airmen who decline address release are omitted entirely — so read these as direction, not as issuance counts. Why.
- Remote pilots1,450
- Private pilots1,047
- Student pilots654
- Commercial pilots588
- Airline transport pilots455
- Flight instructors292
- Mechanics81
- groundInstructor58
The average pilot is getting younger
Average age of an active pilot, 2001–2025. It peaked at 45.7 and has fallen every year since — the clearest evidence that the student surge is real people, not paperwork.