From "News and Views" NSPS bulletin

2012 Statistics Regarding the Number of Surveyors in the US
NSPS
NSPS has compiled the following statistics based on information acquired from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and NCEES.

The BLS statistics are from May 2012, and indicate that there are 40,190 professional surveyors employed in the U.S. The NCEES statistics from January 2012 indicate that 43 states plus District of Columbia (7), Guam (16), Puerto Rico (1087), and Virgin Islands (16) reported resident and non-resident licensees separately. The total number of licensees reported as "resident" is 34,598.

7 states (Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Nebraska, and Vermont) did not segregate resident from non-resident licensees. The total number of licensees reported among those states is 6,638. The NCEES statistics indicate that 70 percent of all licensees are "resident." This would mean that of the 6638 licensees collectively in AR, DE, FL, GA, IN, and NE, 4,646 would be resident.

Combining the "reported" 34,598 resident licensees in the 43 states (plus the territories,) and the calculated 4,646 licensees in the other 7 states, the total number would be 39,245.

This compared favorably with the 40,190 reported by the BLS.

Therefore, it is safe to say there approximately 40,000 licensed professional surveyors in the U.S. based on the combined 2012 statistics from BLS and NCEES.