Best States for Civil Engineers in 2026

Across the top 10 states, CareerGPS Pro’s rankings show that strong salary levels, sizable employment counts, and identical growth projections can still translate into different Geography Scores. California leads the list with the highest Geography Score and the largest reported employment count, while states such as Alaska and Washington illustrate how higher‑than‑national salaries and smaller employment bases can still place them high in the rankings. The national benchmarks of a $100,840 median salary and 367,840 employed civil engineers provide a reference point for understanding where each top state sits in 2026.

For 2026, civil engineers across the United States have a reported national median annual salary of $100,840. National employment stands at 367,840. When we compare this benchmark to the top 10 states, several stand out as having higher median salaries than the national figure, while others are closer to that level. Employment counts at the state level are much smaller than the national total, reflecting that the national figure aggregates all states and areas combined.

California ranks #1 among states for civil engineers in the CareerGPS Geography Score, with a score of 86.86. It also has the largest supplied state employment count for this occupation at 55,180, which is a subset of the national employment total of 367,840. California’s median salary for civil engineers is $122,500, which is higher than the national median of $100,840. Its employment count of 55,180 is also larger than that of any other state in the top‑10 list. The projected growth rate reported for California is 5.0%.

Several top‑ranked states combine CareerGPS Geography Scores near the top of the list with median salaries above the national median. Washington ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 49.57, a median salary of $110,000, and employment of 12,590. Its median salary is higher than the national median of $100,840. Texas ranks #3 with a Geography Score of 49.01, a median salary of $96,860, and employment of 34,870; its salary is lower than the national median. New York holds rank #4 with a Geography Score of 48.32, a median salary of $103,760, and employment of 17,500. Massachusetts ranks #5 with a Geography Score of 46.41, a median salary of $106,730, and employment of 9,450. Both New York and Massachusetts have median salaries above the national figure. Alaska, ranked #6 with a Geography Score of 46.38, has a median salary of $114,730 and employment of 1,670. Alaska’s median salary is higher than the national median and also higher than the median salaries reported for Washington, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, and North Carolina.

Employment counts vary widely across the 10 highest‑ranked states, even though all share the same reported 5.0% growth rate. Within this group, California has the largest employment count at 55,180 civil engineers. Texas follows with 34,870, and Florida reports 23,750. New York’s employment count is 17,500, while Washington and North Carolina report 12,590 and 12,810 respectively. Colorado, ranked #7 with a Geography Score of 42.09, has employment of 13,290 and a median salary of $101,420. New Jersey, ranked #8 with a Geography Score of 41.99, reports employment of 6,900 and a median salary of $104,660. Massachusetts and Alaska have smaller employment counts of 9,450 and 1,670 respectively, compared with the larger counts in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Colorado, North Carolina, and Washington.

All 10 states in the ranking share the same reported 5.0% growth rate, but their median salaries differ in meaningful ways. Florida, ranked #9 with a Geography Score of 40.81, has a median salary of $98,570 and employment of 23,750. North Carolina, ranked #10 with a Geography Score of 39.42, has a median salary of $100,730 and employment of 12,810. Florida’s median salary is lower than the national median, while North Carolina’s median salary is slightly below the national median of $100,840. Among the top‑10 group, California’s median salary of $122,500 is higher than the median salaries in Washington, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, New Jersey, Florida, and North Carolina. Alaska’s median salary of $114,730 is also higher than the median salaries in Washington, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, New Jersey, Florida, and North Carolina.

The CareerGPS Geography Scores highlight that salary and employment alone do not determine a state’s overall ranking. California’s score of 86.86 at rank #1 is substantially higher than Washington’s 49.57 at rank #2 and Texas’s 49.01 at rank #3, even though all three states share the same reported 5.0% growth rate. Massachusetts and Alaska, ranked #5 and #6, have Geography Scores of 46.41 and 46.38 respectively, which are close to each other despite different employment counts and salaries. Across the top 10, Geography Scores range from 86.86 for California down to 39.42 for North Carolina. These scores summarize multiple factors into a single ranking, providing a structured way to compare states, but they should be considered alongside the specific salary and employment numbers presented above.

CareerGPS Pro uses authoritative labor‑market data to track median annual salaries, employment counts, and projected growth rates for civil engineers, along with its proprietary CareerGPS Geography Score. The Geography Score produces a single ranking for each state based on this structured information. For this Insight, we focus on the 10 highest‑ranked states for civil engineers in 2026 and compare them with the national median salary and total national employment. All figures are reported at the state or national level only, and every comparison in this article relies directly on supplied values. CareerGPS Pro’s rankings and scores are intended as one input into career and relocation decisions. Civil engineers should weigh these data points alongside their own priorities and circumstances, rather than treating any ranking as a prediction of individual outcomes.