{ "question": "How many lawyers are there in the US?", "answer": "The US had 1,377,600 resident active lawyers in 2025, per the American Bar Association's 2025 National Lawyer Population Survey (the survey PDF), which counts lawyers reported by state licensing bodies as of 31 December 2024. The ABA's own news release on the same survey (8 Dec 2025) gives a slightly lower 1,374,720; both are ABA figures. The survey PDF shows a rise of 1.38% on 2024 and 5.86% since 2015. Women were 41.3% of lawyers whose gender was reported.", "period": "2025", "key_numbers": [ { "value": "1,377,600", "label": "Resident active lawyers in the US", "note": "ABA 2025 National Lawyer Population Survey PDF, counts as of 31 Dec 2024; the ABA's 8 Dec 2025 release says 1,374,720" }, { "value": "863,700", "label": "Jobs held by lawyers", "note": "BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025", "stat": "law-firm-marketing/us-lawyer-jobs" }, { "value": "1,249,000", "label": "People employed by US legal services firms", "note": "BLS, Sep 2026, preliminary; all staff, not only lawyers", "stat": "law-firm-marketing/us-legal-services-employment" }, { "value": "41.3%", "label": "Share of lawyers who are women", "note": "ABA NLPS 2025, lawyers with reported gender; 34.7% in 2015" }, { "value": "11%", "label": "Share of lawyer jobs that are self-employed", "note": "BLS, 2025; 52% work in legal services firms", "stat": "law-firm-marketing/lawyers-self-employed" } ], "tables": [ { "id": "by-state", "title": "The 10 states with the most resident active lawyers, 2025", "columns": [ "State", "Resident active lawyers" ], "rows": [ [ "New York", "190,015" ], [ "California", "181,048" ], [ "Texas", "99,867" ], [ "Florida", "80,976" ], [ "District of Columbia", "65,824" ], [ "Illinois", "61,945" ], [ "Pennsylvania", "47,764" ], [ "Massachusetts", "42,653" ], [ "New Jersey", "39,670" ], [ "Ohio", "37,086" ] ], "row_ids": [ "state-new-york", "state-california", "state-texas", "state-florida", "state-dc", "state-illinois", "state-pennsylvania", "state-massachusetts", "state-new-jersey", "state-ohio" ], "note": "From the ABA's release of 8 Dec 2025 on the 2025 Profile of the Legal Profession. 'Resident' can mean home or business address, depending on the state. The District of Columbia count covers members with an address in the DC metro area.", "source": "aba" }, { "id": "by-gender", "title": "Women and men among US lawyers, 2015 to 2025", "columns": [ "Year", "Women", "Men" ], "rows": [ [ "2015", "34.7%", "65.3%" ], [ "2016", "35.6%", "64.4%" ], [ "2017", "35.3%", "64.7%" ], [ "2018", "34.0%", "65.8%" ], [ "2019", "36.5%", "63.5%" ], [ "2020", "37.1%", "63.0%" ], [ "2021", "37.4%", "62.6%" ], [ "2022", "38.5%", "61.4%" ], [ "2023", "39.3%", "60.6%" ], [ "2024", "40.5%", "59.2%" ], [ "2025", "41.3%", "58.4%" ] ], "row_ids": [ "gender-2015", "gender-2016", "gender-2017", "gender-2018", "gender-2019", "gender-2020", "gender-2021", "gender-2022", "gender-2023", "gender-2024", "gender-2025" ], "note": "Shares of resident active lawyers whose gender the state reported; not every state reports it (over 70% of lawyers in recent years). The ABA calls its demographic data a convenience sample. Rounded from the survey file's two-decimal figures; 'Other' is too small to report.", "source": "aba" }, { "id": "by-race", "title": "US lawyers by race and ethnicity, 2025", "columns": [ "Race or ethnicity", "Share of lawyers with reported data" ], "rows": [ [ "White", "78.5%" ], [ "Asian", "6.4%" ], [ "Hispanic", "5.9%" ], [ "Black", "4.9%" ], [ "Multiracial", "3.8%" ], [ "Native American", "0.4%" ], [ "Hawaiian or Pacific Islander", "0.1%" ] ], "row_ids": [ "race-white", "race-asian", "race-hispanic", "race-black", "race-multiracial", "race-native-american", "race-pacific-islander" ], "note": "Only 28 states reported race or ethnicity, covering 43.6% of lawyers, so treat these as rough shares. The ABA notes that licensing bodies do not share one set of race and ethnicity categories; 'Multiracial' has been offered since 2016.", "source": "aba" }, { "id": "bls-jobs", "title": "Lawyer jobs and who employs lawyers, BLS", "columns": [ "Measure", "Value", "Period" ], "rows": [ [ "Jobs held by lawyers", "863,700", "2025" ], [ "Projected jobs held by lawyers", "904,300", "2035" ], [ "Openings for lawyers each year, on average", "28,700", "2025-35" ], [ "Share of lawyer jobs in legal services firms", "52%", "2025" ], [ "Share of lawyer jobs that are self-employed", "11%", "2025" ], [ "Share in local government", "8%", "2025" ], [ "Share in state government", "7%", "2025" ], [ "Share in the federal government", "5%", "2025" ] ], "row_ids": [ "bls-lawyer-jobs", "bls-lawyer-jobs-2035", "bls-openings", "emp-legal-services", "emp-self-employed", "emp-local-gov", "emp-state-gov", "emp-federal-gov" ], "note": "BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Lawyers (2025-35 projections; page modified 27 Aug 2026). The local and state government shares exclude education and hospitals, as BLS words them.", "source": "bls" }, { "id": "legal-services-jobs", "title": "People employed by US legal services firms, every September", "columns": [ "Month", "Employees" ], "rows": [ [ "Sep 2016", "1,125,900" ], [ "Sep 2017", "1,138,700" ], [ "Sep 2018", "1,143,600" ], [ "Sep 2019", "1,154,200" ], [ "Sep 2020", "1,123,100" ], [ "Sep 2021", "1,159,800" ], [ "Sep 2022", "1,176,700" ], [ "Sep 2023", "1,190,100" ], [ "Sep 2024", "1,199,700" ], [ "Sep 2025", "1,226,200" ], [ "Sep 2026 (preliminary)", "1,249,000" ] ], "row_ids": [ "ls-sep-2016", "ls-sep-2017", "ls-sep-2018", "ls-sep-2019", "ls-sep-2020", "ls-sep-2021", "ls-sep-2022", "ls-sep-2023", "ls-sep-2024", "ls-sep-2025", "ls-sep-2026" ], "note": "BLS Current Employment Statistics series CES6054110001, all employees, legal services, seasonally adjusted. Counts everyone on the payroll of law firms and other legal services businesses (lawyers, paralegals, assistants and other staff); self-employed lawyers are not included.", "source": "bls" }, { "id": "history", "title": "Resident active lawyers in the US, ABA count since 1880", "columns": [ "Year", "Resident active lawyers" ], "rows": [ [ "1880", "64,137" ], [ "1900", "114,460" ], [ "1950", "221,605" ], [ "1960", "285,933" ], [ "1970", "326,842" ], [ "1980", "574,810" ], [ "1990", "755,694" ], [ "2000", "1,022,462" ], [ "2005", "1,104,766" ], [ "2010", "1,203,097" ], [ "2015", "1,301,357" ], [ "2016", "1,312,630" ], [ "2017", "1,335,976" ], [ "2018", "1,341,630" ], [ "2019", "1,350,864" ], [ "2020", "1,363,043" ], [ "2021", "1,363,080" ], [ "2022", "1,365,260" ], [ "2023", "1,366,076" ], [ "2024", "1,358,824" ], [ "2025", "1,377,600" ] ], "row_ids": [ "aba-1880", "aba-1900", "aba-1950", "aba-1960", "aba-1970", "aba-1980", "aba-1990", "aba-2000", "aba-2005", "aba-2010", "aba-2015", "aba-2016", "aba-2017", "aba-2018", "aba-2019", "aba-2020", "aba-2021", "aba-2022", "aba-2023", "aba-2024", "aba-2025" ], "note": "From the ABA 2025 National Lawyer Population Survey PDF (historical trend table). From 1998 each year's figure is the count states report as of 31 December of the year before (the 2025 figure is as of 31 Dec 2024); before 1998 the ABA says the source is its archives. States corrected past years in 2025, so these totals differ from older editions. Both documents are the ABA's own: its 8 Dec 2025 news release gave 1,374,720 for 2025 and 1,355,963 for 2024 (and 73,363, or 5.6%, of growth over ten years), while the survey PDF linked from that release shows 1,377,600 and 1,358,824 (76,243, or 5.86%). The ABA does not explain the gap; this page uses the survey PDF.", "source": "aba" } ], "sources": [ { "name": "Legal Technology Survey (TechReport) and Profile of the Legal Profession", "publisher": "American Bar Association", "type": "industry", "url": "https://www.americanbar.org/" }, { "name": "Occupational Outlook Handbook", "publisher": "US Bureau of Labor Statistics", "type": "official", "url": "https://www.bls.gov/" } ], "content_changed_on": "2026-10-30", "page_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/law-firm-marketing/number-of-lawyers", "csv_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/law-firm-marketing/number-of-lawyers.csv" }