The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 754,500 employed lawyers in May 2025 (employees only), and the Legal Services Corporation finds that low-income Americans got no or not enough legal help for 92% of their civil legal problems. Every figure here was read at the issuing agency’s own source, with the sentence or data series that carries it.
The question this answers: how large is the profession you compete in, what do its people earn, and how large is the part of legal need that still goes without help?
Lawyers (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
| Figure | Value | Unit | Source page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employed lawyers (employees only), May 2025 | 754,500 | employees | api.bls.gov |
| Median annual wage of lawyers, May 2025 | $159,670 | per year | api.bls.gov |
Paralegals and legal assistants (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
| Figure | Value | Unit | Source page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employed paralegals and legal assistants (employees only), May 2025 | 392,880 | employees | api.bls.gov |
| Median annual wage of paralegals and legal assistants, May 2025 | $62,890 | per year | api.bls.gov |
The civil legal-help gap (Legal Services Corporation, 2022)
| Figure | Value | Unit | Source page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Civil legal problems of low-income Americans with no or not enough legal help, 2022 | 92% | of problems | justicegap.lsc.gov |
| Low-income Americans who did not seek help and cite cost, 2022 | 46% | of those who did not seek help | justicegap.lsc.gov |
| Low-income Americans who doubt they could find an affordable lawyer, 2022 | 53% | of low-income Americans | justicegap.lsc.gov |
What does this mean for your firm?
- Hiring and pricing. Lawyer and paralegal pay are the national medians for May 2025; use them as a reference for staffing costs, not as your local rate.
- The need is cost-driven. The Legal Services Corporation finds cost is the reason 46% of low-income Americans who did not seek help give, and 53% doubt they could find an affordable lawyer; clear fee information on a firm’s pages answers that doubt directly.
- Check the source for newer releases. The agencies revise these figures; the table shows the date each was read.
How was this made?
Each figure was read at the issuing agency’s own source (5 sources: four Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics series from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Public Data API, for lawyers and for paralegals and legal assistants, and the Legal Services Corporation Justice Gap report). The series code or the words at the source that carry the figure are stored verbatim in the data file. The jobs figures count employees only (the Bureau’s wage survey), so they are lower than counts that include the self-employed. A second script reads every source again, the Bureau’s through its documented API and the Legal Services Corporation’s page with robots.txt respected, and checks that every figure still matches. Download the data page, the CSV or the JSON below.
Download and cite
- CSV and JSON, free under CC BY 4.0 with credit to Probative Growth and to the issuing agency.
- The same rows as a dataset: Legal profession figures.