Land Surveying Industry Statistics 2026
How many surveyors and survey firms the U.S. has, how many surveying openings are live right now, and what federal data say about surveyor and survey technician pay and growth.
BLS has no code for party chiefs, survey CAD technicians or survey firms alone, so every federal figure below says which occupation or industry it covers.
Live Land Surveying Openings
These numbers are SurveyorHires’s own: every active listing on the board, from employer career sites and direct postings.
Every other figure on this page comes from a federal agency or the named organization.
| Role | Listings with hourly pay | Median posted low | Median posted high |
|---|---|---|---|
| Party Chiefs | 73 | $30.00/hr | $40.00/hr |
| Survey Technicians | 41 | $25.00/hr | $36.00/hr |
| Land Surveyors | 34 | $35.50/hr | $49.00/hr |
| Survey CAD Technicians | 24 | $25.00/hr | $34.00/hr |
| Instrument Operators | 19 | $18.00/hr | $20.00/hr |
Roles with at least 15 hourly-pay listings are shown; each column is the median of the posted range’s low or high end.
Listings that post an annual salary are not in this table; posted ranges are what employers advertise, not what staff earn, and they do not compare directly with the BLS wages below.
How to read these numbers.
This is a live sample of the openings SurveyorHires tracks, not a count of every surveying job in the country.
Roles follow our job categories, not BLS occupations, and listings we cannot place in a state count only in the total.
If you cite them, include the date shown and link to this page.
How Many Land Surveying Firms Are There?
The Census Bureau counts survey firms under NAICS 541370, Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services.
Statistics of U.S. Businesses counts firms, receipts and employees for 2022, and County Business Patterns counts establishments for 2023.
Employee counts cover every person on a firm’s payroll, from licensed surveyors to office staff, and they are business counts, not a wage.
| Indicator | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Survey firms (NAICS 541370) | ||
| Survey and mapping firms, 2022Operating 7,372 establishments | 6,927 | Census SUSB 2022 |
| Employees of survey and mapping firms, 2022All staff, not only surveyors; annual payroll of about $3.77 billion | 54,801 | Census SUSB 2022 |
| Receipts of survey and mapping firms, 2022Annual receipts of all 6,927 firms | About $8.88 billion | Census SUSB 2022 |
| Firms with receipts under $500,000, 20224,034 of 6,927 firms; 5,272 (about 76%) had receipts under $1 million | 58% | Census SUSB 2022 |
| Firms with receipts of $100 million or more, 2022Operating 209 establishments with 5,997 employees | 47 | Census SUSB 2022 |
| Survey establishments (NAICS 541370) | ||
| Survey and mapping establishments, 2023Employing 58,087 people, with annual payroll of about $4.30 billion | 7,288 | Census CBP 2023 |
| Establishments with fewer than 5 employees, 2023Of 7,288; only 8 had 250 to 499 employees | 4,248 | Census CBP 2023 |
| Establishments organized as S corporations, 2023Of 7,288; 989 were C corporations, 915 sole proprietorships and 448 partnerships | 4,930 | Census CBP 2023 |
| SBA small-business size standardAverage annual receipts (13 CFR 121.201) | $19.0 million | SBA size standards |
A firm can operate several establishments, so the firm and establishment counts differ. SUSB and CBP are separate Census programs with different reference years, and their figures are never added together.
Census County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 541370. Shares are calculated from the 7,288 total; the largest size classes are not shown.
BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, shares of the about 52,000 surveyor jobs in 2025 (Employment Projections count, including the self-employed).
Sources: Census SUSB 2022, Census CBP 2023, SBA size standards, BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: surveyors
How Big Is the Surveying Workforce?
BLS counts surveyors, surveying and mapping technicians, cartographers and photogrammetrists, and architectural and civil drafters as separate occupations, in every industry.
The second column shows how many of them work in architectural, engineering and related services, the narrowest BLS industry that includes survey firms.
Payroll counts leave out self-employed workers, while projection counts include them, and the two come from separate BLS programs.
| BLS occupation | Payroll jobs, all industries, May 2025 | Of which in architectural, engineering and related services | Employment 2025, incl. self-employed | Projected 2035 | Browse |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surveyors and field crews | |||||
| Surveyors SOC 17-1022The BLS occupation for land, boundary, geodetic and construction surveyors; it has no separate code for licensed surveyors. | 50,830 | 37,260 | 52,000 | 55,000 | Land surveyor openings |
| Surveying and Mapping Technicians SOC 17-3031Survey technicians, instrument operators and rod persons, and the closest code for party chiefs; it also counts mapping and GIS technicians. | 58,010 | 35,480 | 58,800 | 62,200 | Survey technician openings |
| Mapping and drafting | |||||
| Cartographers and Photogrammetrists SOC 17-1021Photogrammetrists and the closest code for LiDAR data processing; it also counts cartographers. | 14,260 | 3,280 | 14,700 | 15,700 | Photogrammetrist openings |
| Architectural and Civil Drafters SOC 17-3011A stand-in for survey CAD technicians: civil drafters prepare topographical maps, but the code also counts architectural drafters. | 103,700 | 73,450 | 104,100 | 109,500 | Survey CAD technician openings |
Payroll jobs are BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates for wage and salary workers; the second column is the OEWS row for Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services (NAICS 541300), which includes survey firms along with engineering and architecture firms. Employment 2025 and 2035 are BLS Employment Projections figures for the whole occupation in every industry, including the self-employed. BLS publishes no figures for survey firms alone (NAICS 541370).
Roles BLS does not count on their own
- Party chiefs. BLS has no party chief occupation. An unlicensed crew chief is closest to surveying and mapping technicians, while a licensed surveyor running a crew is counted as a surveyor, so no BLS figure here is party chief pay. Source
- Survey CAD technicians. BLS counts them, at best, inside architectural and civil drafters, a code that also covers architectural drafters, so that row is a stand-in rather than a survey drafter count. Source
- Licensed surveyors (PLS). BLS publishes no figure for licensed surveyors alone. NCEES reports licensee counts state by state, but a surveyor licensed in several states is counted in each one, so those counts cannot be added into a national total. Source
- Drone surveyors, LiDAR technicians and SUE technicians. BLS has no occupation of their own. Drone and GIS work sits closest to surveying and mapping technicians and LiDAR processing to cartographers and photogrammetrists, and subsurface utility work has no fitting occupation, so no BLS figure is shown for it.
Where BLS has no occupation for a role, we name the closest group and label it, or show no figure at all.
Sources: BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates, BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates, BLS Employment Projections 2025–35, NCEES licensure statistics
BLS Pay and Growth Benchmarks for Surveying
In May 2025 the BLS median wage for surveyors was $75,440 across all industries and $73,320 in architectural, engineering and related services.
Surveying and mapping technicians had a median of $54,240 across all industries and $50,340 in the same industry group.
BLS projects 5.8% growth for both occupations from 2025 to 2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with most openings coming from workers who retire or change careers.
| BLS occupation | Median wage, all industries (10th to 90th percentile) | Median, architectural, engineering and related services | Growth 2025–35 | Openings a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surveyors and field crews | ||||
| Surveyors SOC 17-1022 | $75,440$46,880 to $125,590 | $73,320 | +5.8% | 3,100 |
| Surveying and Mapping Technicians SOC 17-3031 | $54,240$37,520 to $81,630 | $50,340 | +5.8% | 6,900 |
| Mapping and drafting | ||||
| Cartographers and Photogrammetrists SOC 17-1021 | $81,390$53,740 to $126,950 | $81,080 | +7.4% | 900 |
| Architectural and Civil Drafters SOC 17-3011 | $66,150$46,260 to $99,710 | $65,980 | +5.2% | 9,100 |
Wages are BLS OEWS May 2025 annual figures for payroll employees: the first column covers all industries and the second the Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services industry (NAICS 541300). No column is survey-firm pay, because BLS publishes no wage for NAICS 541370. Growth and openings are BLS Employment Projections for the whole occupation in every industry; the drafter row is architectural and civil drafters alone, not all drafters.
Sources: BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates, BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates, BLS Employment Projections 2025–35, BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: surveying and mapping technicians
Statistics by Role
Each role page combines live listing figures with the BLS data for that role’s closest occupation.
A role page is published once the board tracks at least 300 of its listings from 25 employers.
- Land Surveyor statistics801 live listings from 304 employers
- Survey Technician statistics455 live listings from 210 employers
- Party Chief statistics421 live listings from 181 employers
Frequently Asked Questions
How many land surveying openings are live right now?
SurveyorHires listed 1,990 live surveying, field crew, CAD and geospatial openings from 526 employers on November 14, 2026. The count covers every active listing on the board and is refreshed every six hours.
How many land surveyors are there in the U.S.?
BLS counted 50,830 surveyors on employer payrolls in May 2025 (OEWS), a figure that leaves out the self-employed. Its Employment Projections, which include the self-employed, put the occupation at 52,000 jobs in 2025. BLS publishes no separate count of licensed surveyors.
How many land surveying firms are there?
The Census Bureau counted 6,927 survey and mapping firms (NAICS 541370) in 2022, operating 7,372 establishments with 54,801 employees and about $8.88 billion in receipts (Statistics of U.S. Businesses). County Business Patterns counted 7,288 survey and mapping establishments employing 58,087 people in 2023.
Are most survey firms small?
Yes. In 2022, 4,034 of the 6,927 survey and mapping firms, about 58%, had annual receipts under $500,000, and about 76% had receipts under $1 million (Census SUSB 2022). In 2023, 4,248 of the 7,288 survey establishments had fewer than five employees (Census CBP 2023).
How much do surveyors make?
The BLS median wage for surveyors was $75,440 a year ($36.27 an hour) in May 2025, across all industries. In architectural, engineering and related services firms, which include survey firms, the median was $73,320. BLS publishes no wage for survey firms alone.
How many survey technicians are there?
BLS counted 58,010 surveying and mapping technicians on payroll in May 2025, at a median of $54,240 a year. The occupation also counts mapping and GIS technicians. BLS Employment Projections, which include the self-employed, put it at 58,800 jobs in 2025.
Is surveying employment growing?
BLS projects employment of surveyors and of surveying and mapping technicians to grow 5.8% each from 2025 to 2035, against 3.5% for all occupations. It expects about 3,100 openings a year for surveyors and 6,900 for technicians, most of them to replace workers who retire or change occupations (BLS Employment Projections 2025–35).
Does BLS publish party chief or instrument operator pay?
No. BLS has no occupation for party chiefs, instrument operators or rod persons, and no wage for licensed surveyors alone. Field crew members are counted as surveying and mapping technicians, and licensed surveyors as surveyors.
Methodology and Sources
Live figures count every active, paid listing on SurveyorHires when the page was generated, and the page refreshes every six hours.
Survey firm counts come from the Census Bureau: Statistics of U.S. Businesses for 2022 and County Business Patterns for 2023, both for NAICS 541370.
Federal pay and employment figures are quoted as BLS published them: OEWS May 2025 for payroll jobs and wages, and Employment Projections 2025–35 for growth and openings.
OEWS counts payroll employees only, while Employment Projections include the self-employed, so the two employment counts for the same occupation differ.
BLS publishes no wage for survey firms alone, so the narrowest industry figure shown is architectural, engineering and related services (NAICS 541300).
Party chiefs, survey CAD technicians, drone, LiDAR and SUE technicians have no BLS occupation of their own, so we show the closest occupation and label it, or no figure at all.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses 2022 (6-digit NAICS by receipts size)Survey and mapping firms, establishments, employees, payroll and receipts (NAICS 541370).
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023Survey and mapping establishments by employment size and legal form of organization.
- SBA small-business size standards, 13 CFR 121.201Receipts size standard for NAICS 541370.
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national filePayroll employment and wage percentiles for each occupation, all industries.
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, industry filePayroll jobs and medians in Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services (NAICS 541300), the narrowest BLS industry that includes survey firms.
- BLS Employment Projections 2025–35, Table 1.22025 and 2035 employment (including the self-employed), percent change and average annual openings.
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: SurveyorsWhere surveyors work and the typical entry-level education.
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Surveying and Mapping TechniciansDuties and employers of survey and mapping technicians.
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: DraftersCivil drafting duties and the split between architectural and civil drafters and other drafters.
- NCEES, 2025 licensure statisticsSurveyor licensee counts by state, resident and nonresident counted separately.
- SurveyorHires job listingsActive, paid listings on the board, queried live.