Ikiranga
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.
Kuri Kubona - i Hagati Bya i Urutonde.
Bya, Cyuzuye Igihe. Igihe.
Bya i Kuri Gucaho Inyungu. Ukwezi: & Kugeza - i Igihe hejuru Itangira.
Inkomoko: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 · Kureba
Igihe Igenagaciro ni, na ni OYA
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.
iyi, na in i Umwanya
iyi Umwaka
42,496 bar examination sittings that resulted in a pass — 2025, February and July 2025 examinations combined.
OYA A Ijanisha. ni A Kiguzwe - in Rimwe umwaka:. A, in i Ku Rimwe Igihe. A A Umubare Nka A Umubare na ni OYA Rimwe. Twebwe A Bya i i Gusangiza; OYA Rimwe, Twebwe Gutangaza:% S i na.
Guhitamo Bya: 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) · Kureba
Kuri i Abantu Byuzuye i
Umwaka Nyuma, Kuva:
Bya 40,840 Abakoresha Law (JD), first professional degree na OYA imyaka Nyuma, 1,860 Oya ku Inyandikonyakwirema Ku Byose & mdash; 4.6%. A Bya $107,773, Na: i hagati hagati $75,568 na $176,111.
"Ku i" ni OYA ". ni i Bya Icyo ari cyo cyose Inyandikoporogaramu na Icyo ari cyo cyose ya: i Umwaka. Akazi, i Guhitamo Abantu i ku Hitamo... -,,, ku,, - Akazi na. i na OYA. ni iyi na Kuva: Cyangwa Kuva: imyaka ku, ni i Igishusho hejuru.
Porogaramu Inyandikoporogaramu: 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.
ni in i: Urwego rw'igihugu cy'uburezi Umukozi - Bya, na i OYA. ku Kuri Birenzeho Ubumenyi in Inkingi. Na: Gitoya Kuri Gutangaza na Kyongewe ku i, iyi ni A Igiteranyo KURI i Bigyanye Kuri Raporo: 163 Bya, 97.0% Bya i National Guhitamo kugirango iyi Porogaramu. i Porogaramu i Umubare ku 0.0 Ijanisha Utudomo.
Inkomoko: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 — release of 10 June 2026; measured four years after completion · Kureba · i Igishusho ya: Porogaramu
Gukora
Kuri i, OYA Kuri i. i ya:.
| Ibikorwa | Bya ngombwa | Intera | Byakoreshejwe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawyers | Legally required to hold the job | $159,670 | 754,500 |
na Ikoranabuhanga: na Imibare, 2025.
ya:?
iyi A Bya $159,670. - ni $50,020, i ya: iyi ni Bigyanye $109,650 a Umwaka Mbere
Nka A Igereranya Kuri Impuzandengo: Ibikorwa:, OYA Kuri Ibikorwa:. Umurongo fatizo ni, na Inyuma
Kubona i Ibikorwa:. Umubare ku iyi Ipaji: ni ku i. ni - Guhitamo hejuru Kuri Igerageza, na ni i Ikindi Ipaji:.
Mbere Tangira & vendorShortName;
- A bachelor's degree
- A place at an ABA-accredited law school
- A pass in the state bar examination
- A character and fitness review
OYA iyi NIBA
- 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