New York’s bar, by the numbers
From the register file of Sep 29, 2026
- Currently registered
- 286,911
- Of them, office in NY
- 132,534
- File of
- Sep 29, 2026
The New York attorney register file of Sep 29, 2026 lists 286,911 currently registered attorneys (334,897 counting those due to re‑register); 132,534 of the currently registered have an office in New York State. In all it holds 384,538 living registrations. New York County (Manhattan) has 46.6 currently registered attorneys per 1,000 residents, more than any other county.
Computed from the register file of Sep 29, 2026; the pipeline checks the figures against the file’s own totals. PlainAttorney’s data editor answers for them.
Where New York’s registered lawyers are, per resident
Source: NY Office of Court Administration, attorney registration file (data.ny.gov, dataset eqw2-r5nb), downloaded Sep 29, 2026; U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, B01003.
Where registrants practice
| Office | Living registrants | Currently registered |
|---|---|---|
| New York State | 163,330 | 132,534 |
| Another state | 98,118 | 75,047 |
| No address listed | 93,664 | 57,939 |
| Outside the U.S. | 29,426 | 21,391 |
The most common states outside New York: NJ (17,127), CA (13,010), DC (12,650), FL (7,916), CT (5,628), MA (5,603).
“Outside the U.S.” is a registration whose address has a city but no U.S. state: an office abroad. “No address listed” is a registration the register gives without any address; the register does not say why.
These are registrations with the New York bar, wherever the lawyer works. Counts of lawyers practising in the state, such as the American Bar Association’s, measure something else and give other totals.
Source: NY Office of Court Administration, attorney registration file (data.ny.gov, dataset eqw2-r5nb), downloaded Sep 29, 2026; U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, B01003.
When they were admitted
The largest group was admitted in the 2010s (93,067 living registrants). Those admitted since 2000 number 235,342, 61% of the living register.
Source: NY Office of Court Administration, attorney registration file (data.ny.gov, dataset eqw2-r5nb), downloaded Sep 29, 2026; U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, B01003.
Method, limits and the data
Counts are of registrations on the file, one per person admitted; “living” excludes the registrations the file records as deceased. The county of an office is the county the register gives with the address.
To cite this analysis: New York’s bar, by the numbers, PlainAttorney, Sep 29, 2026, plainattorney.com/research/new-york-bar-by-the-numbers.
The table is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a credit to PlainAttorney: download it as CSV. The full method is on the methodology page.