Diversity of 2023
California Licensed Attorneys and Five-Year Trends
In 2023, there were approximately 196,000 active, licensed attorneys in California. The analyses below compare the diversity of the state’s active attorney population with California’s adult population.[2] Additionally, the analyses explore change since 2019, the first year the State Bar began administering the annual Attorney Census. In some cases, the comparison year is 2020. These trend data points are displayed with one decimal point to provide finer detail. Statements that summarize five-year trends are based on statistical significance testing. Please refer to the methodology for a detailed discussion about the tests used for these analyses.
White people comprise nearly two-thirds of California attorneys, while only 38 percent of the state’s adult population.
The share of attorneys who are white has decreased since 2019, while the share of attorneys who are Asian or multiracial has increased.
White attorneys account for 38 percent of the state’s population yet comprise 65 percent of California’s active, licensed attorney population. In contrast, Latinos comprise 37 percent of the state’s population but only 6 percent of all California’s licensed attorneys. Asian attorneys comprise 16 percent of the state’s population and 14 percent of all attorneys. Attorneys who identify as multiracial comprise 8 percent of all attorneys; this is four times more than the share of adults statewide who identify as multiracial. Black attorneys are 6 percent of the adult population in California and 3 percent of all attorneys. Middle Eastern/North African attorneys comprise 3 percent of all attorneys, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islanders comprise 0.3 percent, comparable to their representation among the state’s adult population.
People of color constitute 62 percent of the state’s adult population, yet just 35 percent of California’s attorneys.
However, the representation of attorneys of color in California has grown from 32 percent to 35 percent since 2019. As noted in figure 1 above, the growth in attorneys of color since 2019 has largely been driven by the growth in Asian and multiracial attorneys.
Nearly two-thirds of Latino attorneys identify as Mexican, and half of Asian attorneys identify as Chinese or Korean.
The three largest subgroups of Latino attorneys are Mexican, South American, and Central American. Half of all Asian attorneys identify as either Chinese or Korean.
California population data with comparable categories is unavailable.
Women are half of California’s adult population but just 44 percent of California attorneys. One percent of the attorney population identifies as nonbinary.
The share of men among California attorneys has declined since 2019. In contrast, the representation of women and attorneys who identify as nonbinary has remained the same.
Data on California's adult population in this figure represents the year 2022 and was drawn from the American Community Survey, United States Census. Data on California's adult population that identifies as nonbinary is unavailable.
Less than 1 percent of the attorney population identifies as transgender, much like recent estimates of the transgender adult population in California.
The share of attorneys who identify as transgender has remained the same since 2020, the first year the State Bar began collecting data on cisgender and transgender identity.
Data on California's adult population drawn from How Many Adults and Youth Identify as Transgender in the United States. Williams Institute, University of California, Los Angeles Law School. This report uses multiple years of data (2017-2020) to generate the estimate of California adults who identify as transgender.
White men comprise the largest group of attorneys—nearly 40 percent—despite being just 19 percent of California’s adult population.
White men comprise the largest group of California attorneys at 39 percent. The next largest group is white women (26 percent), followed by women of color (18 percent) and men of color (16 percent). Like white men, white women comprise just 19 percent of California’s adult population yet comprise 26 percent of California’s attorneys. In contrast, men of color comprise 31 percent of the state’s population but only 16 percent of all California’s licensed attorneys. Women of color comprise 18 percent of all attorneys and 32 percent of the state’s population.
The representation of men and women of color attorneys in California has grown since 2019, while the proportions of white men and women attorneys have declined.
Values may not add up correctly due to rounding.
Data on California’s adult population in this figure represents the year 2022 and was drawn from the American Community Survey, United States Census. Data on California’s adult population that identifies as nonbinary is unavailable. The values for California’s adult men and women of color do not add to total people of color due to rounding.
The degree of underrepresentation among California’s attorneys compared with their representation among California’s adult population by the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender identity varied by group.
Latino men and women each comprise 3 percent of all attorneys, while they each constitute nearly 20 percent of the state’s population. Black men and women each make up 3 percent of the state’s population, but Black men comprise just 1 percent of California’s attorneys, while Black women constitute 2 percent. Asian men comprise 6 percent of all attorneys and 8 percent of the state’s population, while Asian women make up 8 percent of all attorneys and 9 percent of the state’s population.
The representation of all racial/ethnic groups that comprise men of color has remained unchanged since 2019. However, when these groups are combined, their collective representation has increased since 2019, as illustrated in figure 6 above. Similarly, all racial and ethnic groups that constitute women of color have remained stable, except for Asian women, whose representation among active attorneys has risen from 6.3 percent to 7.7 percent.
Data on California’s adult population in this figure represents the year 2022 and was drawn from the American Community Survey, United States Census. Data on California’s adult population that identifies as Middle/Eastern/North African is unavailable.
The share of attorneys identifying as LGBTQIA+ is the same as California’s statewide LGBTQIA+ adult population.
The share of attorneys identifying as LGBTQIA+ has grown from 7.3 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2023.
Data on California’s adult population was drawn from California’s LGBT Population in the United States, Public Policy Institute of California, and reflects estimates averaged across surveys administered in 2021 and 2022.
Attorneys with disabilities comprise just 6 percent of the profession.
One in four Californians report having at least one form of a disability that limits activities and self-care. These include mobility issues, cognitive impairments, and vision and hearing impairments. In contrast, only 6 percent of California attorneys reported living with a disability in 2023. The share of attorneys with disabilities has grown from 4.8 percent in 2019 to 5.7 percent in 2023.
Data on California’s adult population reflects 2021 and was drawn from Disability & Health U.S. State Profile Data for California, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Veterans’ presence in the attorney population is comparable to the state population.
Five percent of the attorney population reports being a veteran; this is comparable to recent estimates of the veteran population in California. Veterans’ representation among California attorneys has grown from 3.2 percent to 5.1 percent since 2020, when the State Bar began collecting data on attorneys’ veteran status.
Data on California’s adult population reflects 2022 and is drawn from the American Community Survey, United States Census.