General Attorneys

The number of general attorneys in the executive branch has doubled over the last quarter century (graph). While the U.S. population has also grown, government attorneys experienced a much sharper rise. In 1975 there were 62 attorneys for every million people, in 2000 there were 93 attorneys per million, an increase of 54%.

This sharp growth in government attorneys contrasted with the general decline in the number of federal workers – in raw numbers down by 14%, and on a per capita basis down by 35% during this same period.