How Many Uber and Lyft Drivers Are in NYC?

Short answer: About 87,000 people drove at least one Uber or Lyft trip in New York City in July 2026 (87,170, TLC industry indicators). In 2025 the monthly average was 83,299. That is less than half of the roughly 180,000 TLC driver licenses, because many license holders drive taxis, car services, both, or not at all in a given month. TLC does not publish separate Uber-only and Lyft-only driver counts.

The numbers and where they come from

Each number answers a different question:

• Drivers working this month (about 87,000): TLC's monthly count of unique drivers who recorded at least one high-volume (Uber or Lyft) trip. This is the best answer to "how many Uber drivers are there."
• Licensed drivers (about 180,000): everyone allowed to drive. TLC's annual report says one TLC Driver License covers taxis, green cabs, black cars, livery cars and limousines, so this is not an app count. TLC's daily active-driver list on NYC Open Data had 180,621 rows on October 12, 2026.
• Vehicles per app (77,541 Uber, 54,380 Lyft in May 2026): cars, not people, from TLC's base report. They overlap, because one car can work both apps.

What the number does and doesn't mean

• It does not show full-time drivers. A driver who did one trip in the month counts the same as one who drove every day. TLC's 2025 data shows app drivers recorded trips on about 21.8 days a month and in about 6.4 hours of each driving day, on average.
• Uber + Lyft is not two separate workforces. The vehicle counts add to about 131,900, but TLC listed 82,225 for-hire vehicles affiliated with high-volume services at the end of 2025. The difference is cars working both apps.
• Other sectors are much smaller. In 2025, about 13,297 drivers a month made yellow taxi trips, 12,007 black car trips and 9,616 livery trips. These can be the same people too.
• The long-run trend is flat. The yearly average was 85,555 in 2019, dropped to 50,944 in 2020 (COVID), and has stayed between about 81,000 and 83,400 from 2023 to 2025.

What to do next

• If you are thinking of joining, compare sectors in yellow taxi vs Uber/Lyft and see the Uber and Lyft driver hub.
• For company size, see Uber vs Lyft market share and top FHV bases by trips.
• For how many cars are out at once, see how many Ubers and taxis are on the road each day.
• For license counts and renewals, see TLC active drivers statistics. App rules you may ask about next: how many hours can I drive for Uber? and can I be deactivated for cancelling trips?.