Texas LTC Statistics: Licensing Data, Trends, and Sources

The headline numbers

• More than 1.6 million Texans held an active License to Carry as of DPS's reporting around the 2021 adoption of permitless carry — roughly one in every dozen adult Texans.
• Permitless carry did not end the license. DPS continues to process hundreds of thousands of applications per year; original applications declined after September 2021 while renewals continue at scale, per the DPS annual firearm reports mandated by HB 1927.
• License holders are convicted of crimes at a small fraction of the general-population rate — DPS publishes yearly conviction-rate comparisons of LTC holders versus non-holders, and the gap is consistently dramatic.
• Demographics are broadening. DPS demographic reports (age, sex, race, county) show licensing growth among women and minority applicants over the past decade — the population L4A was founded to serve.

Official sources (start here)

• DPS Handgun Licensing Reports & Statistics — licenses, applications, and certificates by age, county, sex, race, and zip code, by fiscal year.
• DPS Conviction Rate Reports — annual LTC-holder vs. general-population conviction comparisons.
• DPS Annual Firearm Report (HB 1927) — paid applications and issuance trends, 2010–2022, original vs. renewal.

What the trend means

The post-2021 pattern is the clearest signal in the data: even with no legal requirement to hold a license for in-state carry, Texans keep applying and renewing in large numbers — because the license's remaining functions (interstate reciprocity, faster purchases, the federal school-zone exemption) are worth $150–$200 and a few weeks of process to a substantial share of gun owners. The full argument is laid out in our LTC vs. constitutional carry comparison, and the process itself in the complete Texas LTC guide.

Journalists and researchers: this page is maintained as a stable reference. Figures are attributed to Texas DPS published reports; for citation-grade precision, use the primary sources linked above. Media inquiries: l4atraining.com/media.