ABA Report: ABA Profile of the Legal Profession

The Profile of the Legal Profession is a compilation of statistics and trends about lawyers, judges and law students, gathered from the ABA’s National Lawyer Population Survey, the federal government and nonprofit organizations.

What’s New: Lawyer Population Grows

The ABA’s 2025 Profile of the Legal Profession reveals that the number of lawyers in the U.S. has increased significantly for the first time since 2020, rising to 1.37 million in 2025 from 1.35 million the previous year. The growth was fueled by an increase in the number of law graduates and a high employment rate for jobs that require bar admission.

National Lawyer Population Survey

The ABA has been counting the number of resident active lawyers in the U.S. since 1878. The data is collected from state licensing bodies (mandatory bars and non-bar licensing entities) who are asked to respond to a series of questions on lawyer count, demographics and licensing fees.

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