Illinois Pesticide Applicator Statistics 2026

Illinois has more than 36,000 registered pesticide applicators, and about a third of them are farmers.

That number comes with a caveat, and so does almost every figure on this page. Neither the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) nor the University of Illinois publishes exam pass rates or a yearly head count of licensees, so we use what is public and say what each number measures.

We list only figures that have a source link. Where sources disagree, we say so.

How many applicators

1More than 36,000 registered applicators

The president of the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association told Brownfield in June 2025 that licensing changes affect more than 36,000 registered pesticide applicators, including 11,000 farmers. This is an association estimate, not an IDOA count.¹

2About 15,000 operators

PSEP's summary of a 2025 bill noted that splitting the General Standards exam would create confusion for roughly 15,000 operators in Illinois. That figure appears in the bill's discussion, not in an official register.⁶

IDOA runs a public search tool where each licensee can be looked up, but it gives no totals.⁷

Training and testing

313,619 people trained in 2018-19

The Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) at the University of Illinois reported that 13,619 people received pesticide certification training in 2018-19: 11,073 commercial applicators and operators and 2,546 private applicators. This counts people trained at PSEP events. It is not the number of exams passed.²

47,706 people trained in 2019-20

The next year the total was 7,706 (6,706 commercial and 1,000 private). PSEP events stopped in mid-March 2020 because of COVID-19, and 13 events were cancelled.⁸

Season	Commercial applicators and operators	Private applicators	Total
2018-19	11,073	2,546	13,619
2019-20	6,706	1,000	7,706

We did not find a published pass rate for the General Standards exam. IDOA says only that hundreds of people take exams each month and that some do not pass on the first attempt.⁹

Misuse complaints

5241 complaints in 2024

IDOA received 241 pesticide misuse complaints in 2024. By early April 2025, 202 cases were complete: 103 were closed with no evidence of misuse, 3 ended in advisory letters, 80 in warning letters and 21 in notices of fines. Of the complaints, 194 were agricultural and 47 involved lawn care.³

6971 complaints in 2019

Investigate Midwest reports that formal complaints reached a record 971 in 2019. Other outlets have published lower totals for that year, depending on the cutoff date and how complaints were counted.⁴

785 fines from about 780 complaints

For April 2022 to July 2025, Investigate Midwest analyzed nearly 780 complaints. Of these, 85 ended in fines totaling $52,750, most between $500 and $750, and 225 applicators got written warnings.⁴

2024 outcome	Cases
Closed, no evidence of misuse	103
Warning letters	80
Notices of fines	21
Advisory letters	3

Complaints are allegations. Many are closed without a finding, as the table shows.

Dicamba

8723 dicamba complaints in 2019, 145 in 2020

Dicamba-related complaints fell about 80 percent from 2019 to 2020.⁴

912 dicamba cases in 2024

IDOA's 2024 case summary says only 12 of the cases involved dicamba, far fewer than in recent years.³

102.2 million pounds on soybeans in 2018

Illinois soybean growers applied roughly 2.2 million pounds of dicamba in 2018, compared with about 65,000 pounds on corn in 2016.⁴

Crop acres

1111 million acres of corn

USDA's June 2025 acreage survey put Illinois corn planted for all purposes at 11 million acres, 200,000 more than 2024.⁵

1210.5 million acres of soybeans

Soybean planting was 10.5 million acres, 300,000 below 2024.⁵

Together that is more than 21 million acres of row crops. These are June survey estimates, not final totals.

License fees

13$90 to $360 for a 3-year license

Since January 1, 2026: commercial applicator $300, commercial operator $240, not-for-hire applicator $180, not-for-hire operator $150, private applicator $90, dealer $360.⁷ The steps are in our guide to getting a pesticide license in Illinois.

See where you stand with a free practice test.

Common questions

How many pesticide applicators are there in Illinois?

More than 36,000 by an industry estimate. IDOA does not publish a total.¹

How many pesticide misuse complaints does Illinois get?

241 in 2024, down sharply from the peak in 2019.³⁴

What is the pass rate of the Illinois pesticide exam?

No official pass rate is published that we could find.

Do complaints mean a violation happened?

No. In 2024, 103 of 202 completed cases were closed with no evidence of misuse.³

Sources

Counts of people trained come from PSEP annual reports. Complaint numbers come from the PSEP summary of IDOA cases and from press analysis. Acre figures come from the USDA June survey as reported by AgriNews.

1. Brownfield Ag News: Pesticide applicator changes pass Illinois legislature (June 5, 2025) (brownfieldagnews.com)
2. University of Illinois Extension: PSEP Annual Report 2018-2019 (extension.illinois.edu)
3. University of Illinois Extension: Misuse case summary for 2024 and tips to prevent misuse in 2025 (Apr. 9, 2025) (extension.illinois.edu)
4. Investigate Midwest: An explosion of pesticide complaints led to reforms in Illinois and now a reporting collapse (Nov. 4, 2025) (investigatemidwest.org)
5. AgriNews: Planted acres move toward more corn (USDA June acreage survey, July 2025) (agrinews-pubs.com)
6. University of Illinois Extension: Pesticide-related bills being considered now (Mar. 11, 2025) (extension.illinois.edu)
7. Illinois Department of Agriculture: Training and Testing Options for Pesticide Applicators/Operators (agr.illinois.gov)
8. University of Illinois Extension: PSEP Annual Report 2019-2020 (extension.illinois.edu)
9. University of Illinois Extension: Know the simplified registration and licensure process 2026-2027 (extension.illinois.edu)