Number of US lawyers increases for first time since 2020, is up 5.6% over 10-year period, ABA report says
The number of active lawyers in the United States has hit a 10-year high and has increased this year for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the ABA’s latest Profile of the Legal Profession, which was released Monday, there are 1.37 million U.S. lawyers in 2025, up from 1.35 million in 2024. The report, which is based on findings from the 2025 National Lawyer Population Survey, shows that 2025 marks the first increase in overall lawyer head count in this country since 2020.
Meanwhile, the report notes that over the last decade, the lawyer population in this country has increased by 5.6%, starting with 1.3 million in 2015.
“This year’s [National Lawyer Population Survey] data suggest that the labor market was able to absorb 2024’s large graduating class,” Rachel Ellett, the associate director of research and evaluation for the ABA Center for Bar Leadership, said in a news release Monday.
The Center for Bar Leadership, which publishes the annual survey, also cited data from the National Association for Law Placement showing that the 2024 graduating class was nearly 12% larger than any other class since 2012.
Other findings from this year’s National Lawyer Population Survey include:
• The percentage of female lawyers increased from 40.5% last year to more than 41% in 2025. In 2015, the percentage of female lawyers in this country was about 35%.
• The percentage of Asian lawyers significantly increased over the past decade, from about 2.5% in 2015 to more than 6% in 2025. The percentage of African American and Hispanic lawyers also increased slightly during this period, while the percentage of Native American and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander lawyers decreased.
• The three states with the largest number of active lawyers in 2025 were New York (190,015), California (181,048) and Texas (99,867).
• States that experienced more than 5% growth in their active lawyer population in the past year include Arkansas, Delaware and Oklahoma. Montana, Vermont and Wyoming were among those with the largest declines in lawyer populations.
• In the past 10 years, Arkansas; Washington, D.C.; and North Carolina joined a few other states and territories in seeing a more than 15% growth in their active lawyer populations.
The ABA has collected data on the number of lawyers in the United States since 1878. The complete findings of the 2025 National Lawyer Population Survey can be found here.
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