U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao today announced at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show that the total number of drones now registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has eclipsed one million.
The 1,000,000 total registration figure includes 878,000 hobbyists, who receive one identification number for all the drones they own, and 122,000 commercial, public and other drones, which are individually registered.
However, the one million drones cited in the FAA’s database likely far from represents the total number of drones flying. There is very little enforcement of flying a registered drone, and very few hobby drone pilots are aware that drone registration is even an option.