What is a Certified Public Accountant?

A certified public accountant is an accountant who has passed all parts of the CPA examination, as administered by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and who has completed all additional work and educational requirements of their local state accounting regulatory agency. A CPA is authorized to render an opinion on the fairness of a client's financial statements. The CPA designation implies a certain minimum level of competency, and so is highly prized among accountants.

Why are there so few CPAs?

The number of CPAs has been declining as a proportion of the total workforce, for the following reasons:

Expensive training. Accountants have to complete a five-year undergraduate college training requirement before they can be certified as CPAs, which introduces the cost of an additional year of college.
Lengthy experience requirement. The state boards of accountancy require accountants to complete a lengthy experience requirement before they can be certified, which extends the period before accountants can begin earning a return on the cost of their educations.
High turnover. The turnover rate among new hires at CPA firms is quite high, because many find that they do not like auditing work.

This means that someone contemplating the CPA certification must consider the excessively high cost of college training, a lengthy experience requirement, and the considerable risk of washing out of a CPA firm. Given these concerns, it should be no surprise that there are so few CPAs.