The United States has 1,850,034 unique credentials offered by 134,491 providers, according to Counting Credentials 2025, the most recent edition of Credential Engine's national credential count. The nonprofit released the report in Washington, D.C., on December 9, 2025. For registrars, program directors, certification bodies and employers who use credential research & data to plan offerings or screen candidates, the report tallies what is on the market, from doctoral degrees to digital badges.

The count by credential type

The 2025 report sorts credentials into seven categories:

  • Badges: 1,022,028
  • Certificates: 486,352, including certificates of completion, academic certificates and apprenticeships
  • Degrees: 264,099, covering degrees from Title IV institutions, non-Title IV institutions and foreign universities
  • Secondary school credentials: 52,948, including public and private school diplomas, seals and endorsements, alternate diplomas and equivalencies
  • Licenses: 14,331 occupational licenses
  • Certifications: 6,892
  • Micro-credentials: 3,384

Badges alone account for more than half of the total. Badges, certificates and degrees together make up about 96 percent. Credential Engine also estimates total annual spending on education and training across institutions, employers and government programs at $2.34 trillion.

A different way of grouping

The 2025 edition changes the structure of the count. Earlier reports grouped credentials by the type of provider that issued them. This edition groups them by credential type regardless of who offers them, which Credential Engine says makes the categories easier to understand and navigate.

That change matters when comparing editions. The 2022 report, the fourth in the series, identified 1,076,358 unique credentials in 18 detailed categories, organized under four provider types:

  • Postsecondary educational institutions: 350,412 degrees and certificates
  • MOOC providers: 13,014 course completion certificates, micro-credentials and online degrees from foreign universities
  • Non-academic providers: 656,505 badges, course completion certificates, licenses, certifications and apprenticeships
  • Secondary schools: 56,179 diplomas, alternative certificates and high school equivalency diplomas

The 2022 companion report put annual education and training spending at $2.133 trillion. The total rose from about 1.08 million in the 2022 report to 1.85 million in the 2025 report, but because the categories were redefined, the category totals in the two editions do not line up one to one.

Why the count grew, according to Credential Engine

Credential Engine attributes much of the visibility gain to digitization. As companies, schools, governments, nonprofits and training organizations issue more credentials in digital form, the organization says, it can now count credentials that existed before but could not be found, and it describes the 2025 edition as its most accurate count so far. The report ties the size of the badge category, the largest of the seven, directly to that shift. It also notes that the ability to issue a credential has spread beyond registrars and superintendents to teachers, supervisors, professional organizations and online platforms.

The organization's overview also cites outside figures it uses for context: a World Economic Forum projection that 39 percent of workers' skills will be transformed or become outdated between 2025 and 2030, and a median U.S. job tenure of 3.9 years.

From counting to comparing

Credential Engine's argument is that the size of the market creates a navigation problem for learners, workers and employers. Its proposed answer is structured, linked data. The organization maintains the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL), an open-source data standard that describes what a credential represents, who issues it, which skills it covers and what outcomes are associated with it, in a form that people and software, including AI systems, can read. Credential Engine also runs a Credential Registry where organizations publish credential descriptions in that format.

The report lists four uses for that kind of data:

  • Job seekers can see which credentials employers value.
  • Employers can find candidates with specific skills regardless of where those skills were built.
  • Educators can design programs around current labor market demand.
  • Policymakers can locate gaps in regional credential ecosystems.

Who produced it and how to get it

Counting Credentials 2025 is the fifth edition of the count. It was produced with support from Walmart, the Strada Education Foundation and Instructure, with guidance from a Counting Credentials Advisory Group. Credential Engine's board president is Barbara Gellman-Danley, CEO of the Higher Learning Commission. The full report includes, for each category, a definition, the typical provider, the counting method and suggestions for future research, along with a state-by-state breakdown of credentials offered by state-based entities. A companion report, Counting Credentials, In Context 2025, places the count within the wider ecosystem of digital credentials. Both are available from Credential Engine's site, and institutions that want their own offerings reflected in future research & data work can publish them to the Credential Registry.

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