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Drones and drone services

481,760 pilots

The FAA reports 481,760 certificated remote (drone) pilots in the United States.

High Primary source Last verified:

This is a live figure that the source updates. We cite the value displayed on the access date; the current value may differ.

Source

Figure
481,760 pilots
Scope
United States · Accessed 25 Oct 2026
Type of figure
official statistic (live counter)
Source
Primary Government statistics (live counter)
Publisher
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
Title
FAA By the Numbers
Published
Not stated by the source
Date note
Live counter; value as displayed on the access date
Accessed
Last verified
URL
https://www.faa.gov/node/26
Archived copy
Wayback Machine (Sep 30, 2026)
Link check
Server refused the automated check (HTTP 403), Oct 25, 2026

“…481,760 Certificated Remote Pilots…”

Source passage: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration

Caveats

  • Live counter; the FAA UAS Compendium uses a different cut-off and reports a different total.

Figure found in the source text on the access date (automated match, then editorial review).

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Cite this

APA

Whirrwork. (2026, October 25). The FAA reports 481,760 certificated remote (drone) pilots in the United States [Statistic]. Whirrwork Research. Retrieved October 25, 2026, from https://whirrwork.com/research/stats/faa-certificated-remote-pilots/

Chicago

Whirrwork. “The FAA reports 481,760 certificated remote (drone) pilots in the United States.” Whirrwork Research. Published October 25, 2026. Accessed October 25, 2026. https://whirrwork.com/research/stats/faa-certificated-remote-pilots/.

MLA

“The FAA reports 481,760 certificated remote (drone) pilots in the United States.” Whirrwork Research, Whirrwork, 25 Oct. 2026, whirrwork.com/research/stats/faa-certificated-remote-pilots/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2026.

BibTeX

@misc{whirrwork_faa_certificated_remote_pilots,
  author       = {{Whirrwork}},
  title        = {{The FAA reports 481,760 certificated remote (drone) pilots in the United States}},
  howpublished = {Whirrwork Research},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = oct,
  url          = {https://whirrwork.com/research/stats/faa-certificated-remote-pilots/},
  urldate      = {2026-10-25},
  note         = {Original source: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, FAA By the Numbers. Licensed CC BY 4.0}
}

Original source (APA)

U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. (n.d.). FAA By the Numbers. Retrieved October 25, 2026, from https://www.faa.gov/node/26

For third-party figures, please credit the original source as well as (or instead of) Whirrwork.

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Licence and attribution

Text, statistics pages, charts and dataset releases are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Quoted passages remain the property of their publishers, and third-party figures should also be credited to their original source.

Attribution wording: Source: Whirrwork (https://whirrwork.com), CC BY 4.0 · CC BY 4.0