Did you know that the first person to ever earn a Professional Engineer (P.E.) license in the United States was Charles Bellamy on August 8, 1907? Now, more than a century later, we celebrate Professional Engineers Day around the world.
This year, on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, mark the tenth annual Professional Engineers Day. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness about what engineers do, what it takes to become a P.E., and how professional engineers stay current with rapidly evolving technologies.
Thanks to the visibility this celebration brings, the U.S. now has more than 900,000 licensed professional engineers, with over 25,000 engineers taking the P.E. exam each year, according to the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).
A P.E. license is awarded to engineers who meet specific qualifications and pass examinations administered by NCEES. To obtain a P.E. license, candidates must first pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, followed by the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam. Because licenses are issued by individual states, engineers can hold multiple P.E. licenses across different jurisdictions.
The P.E. exams are discipline-specific, and passing rates vary by field. While some disciplines are more challenging than others, the overall pass rate across all disciplines is approximately 65%. The most commonly taken P.E. exam is in civil engineering, which has an estimated 49% pass rate for first-time test takers, according to NCEES.
