Whakawhiwhinga
Law licence (law degree and bar exam)
The most expensive credential on this site by a wide margin, leading to the best-paid occupation on it. Three years, six figures of debt, and a national exam that 37% of sittings fail.
Ko te utu hei whiwhi — te haurua o te awhe.
Mō ngā marama o te whakaakoranga, i te wā katoa. Ka roa ake te wā wātea.
Ko ngā marama o te utu utu e hiahiatia ana hei whakawhāiti i taua utu. Kāore i te marama tae noa ki te wā e haere ana koe i mua i te katoa - ka tae mai te wā whakaakoranga i runga ake nei i te tuatahi.
Ka taea te whakataki te pūtake: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 · kitenga
He aha taua taupū utu, he aha kāore i te mea.
Six figures, and this is only the borrowed part. That range is median cumulative FEDERAL LOAN DEBT at completion, not a tuition sticker price and not total cost. It is what completers actually borrowed, so it excludes grants, savings, family money, employer funding and living costs — which makes it a FLOOR on what the credential costs, never a ceiling. The low and high figures are the 25th and 75th percentiles across the institutions that report a figure for this programme, so a quarter of institutions sit below the low end. College Scorecard pools two award years into each figure; the release used here is dated 10 June 2026.
Three years full time for the degree, after a bachelor's, then a bar examination and a character-and-fitness review before admission. Part-time programmes run four years.
Admission is per state and each maintains its own continuing legal education requirement and annual fees.
He tokomaha nga tāngata e pupuri ana i tēnei, he tokomaha hoki e mahi ana i roto i te āpure.
He maha nga tāngata e whiwhi ana i tēneia tau
42,496 bar examination sittings that resulted in a pass — 2025, February and July 2025 examinations combined.
Kāore e tahuri ana tātau i taua ōrautanga. Ko tēnei he rerenga tau - ko ngā tāngata i whiwhi i te tohu i roto i tētahi tau. Ko ngā tau mahi he pūtea tūturu, he tangata katoa e mahi ana i te mahi i tētahi wā. Ko te wehenga o tētahi rerenga ki tētahi pūtea e whakaputa ana i tētahi tau e ako ana pērā ki te mokatere whakawhiwhinga, ā, kāore i te kotahi. I te wāhi e pupuri ana tātau i tētahi tatauranga tūturu o ngā kaipupuri tohu, ka whakaputaina e tātau te wāhanga i whakamahia; i tēnei wāhi kāore tātau i te kotahi, nō reira ka whakaputaina e tātau te rerenga, ka tū.
Ko te mea kei roto i taua tatau: 67,442 people sat a US bar examination in 2025 and 42,496 passed, a 63% pass rate. It counts SITTINGS rather than people: someone who failed in February and passed in July appears in both columns, and someone admitted in two states can appear twice. It is a one-year flow and not a count of anyone holding a licence to practise today.
The American Bar Association publishes a standing count of US lawyers — about 1.37 million in 2025 — but only rounded to two decimal places of a million, and its underlying survey PDF is not publicly retrievable. We use the exact bar-exam flow rather than a rounded stock, which means this page shows how many qualify each year and no percentage.
National Conference of Bar Examiners, 2025 Statistics — Persons Taking and Passing the Bar Examination (People newly credentialed during one year) · kitenga
He aha te take o nga tāngata i oti te whakaakoranga?
E whā tau i muri i te whakamututanga, mai i ngā pūkete ā-iwi
Ko te mea 40,840 ngā tāngata i oti Law (JD), first professional degree Kāore anō rātau kia ako i te whā tau i muri mai, 1,860 Kāore i whiwhi i te moni i runga i te pūkete — 4.6%. Ko ērā i mahi i whiwhi i tētahi tauwaenga o te 100. $107,773, me te haurua o waenganui i waenganui $75,568 me $176,111.
Kāore he "whakahaere i te pūkete" e kore ana e "kore mahi". Ko te inenga ko te korenga o tētahi pūkete utu me tētahi moni whiwhinga tōrunga mō te tau katoa. Kāore i pātaihia e tētahi mēnā e hiahiatia ana e rātou te mahi, nō reira ka pupuri te tatau i ngā tāngata i mahue te kaha mahi i te kōwhiringa - te whakawhanake i ngā tamariki, te tiaki, te haere, te noho i runga i te moni whiwhinga o tētahi atu tangata, te neke atu ki waho - i te taha o ia e hiahia ana ki tētahi mahi ā, kāore i te whai. Kāore e whakaputaina e tētahi te wehenga, ā, kāore e whakaaro ana tātau. Ko te mea e whakatau ana he maha ngā tāngata i oti tēnei whakaakoranga, ā, kāore i whiwhi i tētahi atu mea mai i a ia, mai i ētahi atu mea rānei i te whā tau, ko te mea e kore e taea e te tau o te utu ki runga te kī ki a koe.
Ko te mea e tautuhi ana te waehere papatono: CIP 22.01 at first-professional level is the Juris Doctor. The figure is about law graduates, not admitted lawyers: it counts everyone who finished the degree, including those who never sat or never passed a bar examination. That is the right population for the question "was law school worth it" and the wrong one for "how many lawyers are out of work".
This measures law graduates, not admitted lawyers: everyone who finished the degree is in it, including those who never sat or never passed a bar examination.
Ko wai i roto i te kohoro: Ko te nuinga o nga kaiako i whiwhi i te āwhina ā-iwi o te ākonga - tata ki te haurua o nga ākonga US, ā, kāore i te ine i tēnei wāhi. Ko ngā tāngata i haere ki te akoranga ā-whāiti, kāore i roto i te tīwae kotahi. Ko te Tari e whakakore ana i ngā whare wānanga me ngā rōpū iti rawa hei whakaputa, ā, ka tāpiri i te pōhēhētanga tatauranga ki te toenga, nō reira ko tēnei he taumaha i runga i ngā whare wānanga nui rawa ki te pūrongo: 163 o rātau, e whakaora ana 97.0% Ko te tatau ā-motu o te Tari mō tēnei papatono. Ka neke te mokatere o te whakawāteatanga o ngā papatono pūrongo iti rawa 0.0 Ko ngā pūwāhi ōrautanga.
Ka taea te whakataki te pūtake: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 — release of 10 June 2026; measured four years after completion · kitenga · te taurite ōrite mō ia papatono ka taea e tātau te whakaputa
Ko te mea e whakaae ana ia kia mahia e koe
Ko te utu e pā ana ki te mahi, ehara i te tohu. Ko ēnei ngā mahi e whakaaetia ana e ia.
| He mahi | E hiahiatia ana? | Median | Ka mahi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawyers | Legally required to hold the job | $159,670 | 754,500 |
Ko te utu me te mahi pāpāho: BLS Kaimahi me ngā Tatauranga Uara, Mei 2025.
E utu ana rātau mō rātau anō?
Ko te mahi e whakawātea ana tēnei e utu ana i tētahi tauwaenga o $159,670. Ko te pūtahi o te mahi-tō- $50,020, Nō reira ko te utu mo te pupuri i tēnei e tata ana ki $109,650 kotahi tau i mua i te tāke.
Ka pānui tēnei hei whakataurite ki tētahi mahi noa iho, ehara i te āhua o tōmu mahi. He aha taua raina taketake, me te mea e waiho ana i waho
Ka whakaaro hoki ka whiwhi i te mahi. Ko ia whika utu i tēnei pae e whakawhāiti ana ki te whakawhiwhinga ki te mahi. Ko te whakaaro tonu ko te tatau o te kaipupuri tohu i runga ake nei kia whakamātautia, ā, ko te whakaaro tonu e mahi ai ia atu pae utu.
Ko te mea e hiahiatia ana e koe i mua i te tīmatanga
- A bachelor's degree
- A place at an ABA-accredited law school
- A pass in the state bar examination
- A character and fitness review
Kāore i te mahi tēnei mēnā
- you are borrowing the full amount without a clear route to the higher-paying half of the profession — the pay distribution here is famously bimodal and the median hides it
- you assume passing is routine — 37% of bar examination sittings in 2025 did not pass
Ko ngā tohu katoa, e te wā whakawhiwhinga · He pēhea te tatau i tēnei · Ka rapu i tētahi atu mea