The State Bar of Michigan has released its annual demographic report for 2022. The report includes hundreds of charts detailing gender, race and ethnicity, and occupational areas for all Michigan attorneys. It also provides demographic information broken down by county and for State Bar of Michigan sections. In many cases, the report also includes a comparable 10-year snapshot of new attorneys to help indicate how the profession changes over time.
There are more than 46,000 Michigan attorneys—42,403 of whom are active attorneys and 35,001 of whom are active attorneys living in Michigan.
The data shows that as of July 2022, most Michigan lawyers are male (63.4%) but that in the last 10 years, about half of all new attorneys have been women (46.9%). The top attorney occupational area is a private practice, accounting for nearly half of all Michigan attorneys (47.5%).
Michigan race and ethnicity data, in some instances, is in line with national data, according to the new State Bar report and the 2022 American Bar Association National Lawyer Population Survey. Of those attorneys who disclosed race information, 81.4% of Michigan lawyers are European. The national average is 81%, according to ABA. The next largest group in Michigan is attorneys of African Origin at 5.8%, which outpaced the national average of 4.5%. Michigan trailed the national average in all other racial and ethnic categories except Native American, which came in at 0.5% for the state and nation.
To view the complete SBM 2022 demographic report, visit the website at www.michbar.org/demographics#section_demo graphics_info.
