The Number

California has more lawyers than any other state in the nation except New York, according to the American Bar Association. But that doesn’t mean a case can’t be made that the Golden State has room for more attorneys. Lawyers per 1,000 people in California Based on the bar’s 2015 National Lawyer Population Survey, California has 163,952 attorneys, while New York has the most – 172,630. But given its large population, California is not overlawyered compared with many other states. LawSchoolTuitionBubble.com paired the bar association’s numbers on lawyers with census data. The results showed California ranked only eighth in the nation, with 4.2 lawyers for every 1,000 people. That’s less than half the 8.6 lawyers per 1,000 people in New York. The highest rate in the nation by far is the District of Columbia, with 78.8 lawyers for every 1,000 residents. The website also compared population to the number of attorneys working in the legal profession, as opposed to bar-approved lawyers in other professions. By that measure, California ranked 17th, with about 2.3 working attorneys for every 1,000 residents. The website concludes: “The United States does not have too many lawyers; rather, it licenses more lawyers than there are lawyer jobs available.” Based on the high wages available in the field, the overproduction of law school graduates is likely to continue. According to the 2014 Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual income for an attorney is $114,970. “Employment of lawyers is projected to grow 6 percent from 2014 to 2024, about as fast as the average for all occupations,” the handbook states. “Competition for jobs should continue to be strong because more students graduate from law school each year than there are jobs available.” In total, the United States had 1.3 million lawyers, according to bar association data. – Joel Russell