The number of lawyers in the United States increased by 15 percent during the past 10 years — from 1.16 million to 1.34 million, the ABA Journal reported on Friday.
The American Bar Association's census of lawyers found that the number of "active, resident lawyers" in Georgia grew 21 percent to a total this year of 32,802. In just the past year alone, Georgia added 1,130 attorneys. That's a lot of a lawyers, but it doesn't even place Georgia in the top 10 in terms of raw numbers of attorneys in practice.
The ABA Journal says the No. 1 state for lawyers is New York, with 177,035, followed closely by California with 170,044. No surprises there, perhaps, but Georgia also trails Texas, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland.
Other highights from the report:
- North Dakota has the fewest lawyers in practice of any state, with 1,674.
- Sixty-four percent of lawyers are men; 36 percent are women.
- Among the 20 states that report race/ethnicity for the survey, the ABA said 85 percent of lawyers identify as white; 5 percent as African-American; 5 percent as Hispanic; and 3 percent as Asian.
