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FY 2024 · Executive Branch · Civilian Employment Source: OPM FedScope

01 Two point two million
people work for
the federal government.

= 100,000 · Defense civilian (34%) 2,270,000 total · 15 top agencies · 50 states

02

By agency

Top 15 by civilian headcount
1 figure = 25,000 employees

The Department of Defense's civilian workforce alone is bigger than every agency below it combined except the VA. The shape of the federal government - by people - is overwhelmingly defense, healthcare, and borders. Median salary varies by 2× across these agencies, mostly because of which job series each agency leans on.

01

Defense (DoD civilian)

+1.2% YoY · vet share 45% · STEM 32%
770,000
people
$92.5k
median salary
02

Veterans Affairs

+2.9% YoY · vet share 31% · STEM 18%
458,000
people
$87.1k
median salary
03

Homeland Security

+0.8% YoY · vet share 27% · STEM 21%
251,000
people
$99.2k
median salary
04

Treasury (incl. IRS)

+3.8% YoY · vet share 9% · STEM 16%
121,000
people
$95.8k
median salary
05

Justice

+1.1% YoY · vet share 18% · STEM 7%
117,000
people
$113.2k
median salary
06

Agriculture

-0.4% YoY · vet share 12% · STEM 34%
99,000
people
$84.3k
median salary
07

Health & Human Services

+2.2% YoY · vet share 10% · STEM 41%
88,000
people
$119.4k
median salary
08

Interior

+0.5% YoY · vet share 13% · STEM 28%
71,000
people
$86.8k
median salary
09

Transportation

+1.4% YoY · vet share 14% · STEM 27%
56,000
people
$124.5k
median salary
10

State

+0.6% YoY · vet share 7% · STEM 5%
51,000
people
$102.1k
median salary
11

Commerce

+2.0% YoY · vet share 8% · STEM 42%
50,000
people
$113.8k
median salary
12

Energy

+0.9% YoY · vet share 9% · STEM 55%
17,000
people
$138.4k
median salary
13

Labor

+0.3% YoY · vet share 7% · STEM 7%
15,500
people
$108.7k
median salary
14

Housing & Urban Development

-0.1% YoY · vet share 6% · STEM 4%
8,400
people
$121.3k
median salary
15

Education

-1.2% YoY · vet share 5% · STEM 3%
4,200
people
$124.8k
median salary

Who staffs each agency

Two dimensions the headline count hides: what share of each agency is veterans, and what share works in a STEM occupation. Defense and Veterans Affairs lean veteran; Energy, Commerce, and HHS lean STEM.

Highest veteran share
DoD 45%
VA 31%
DHS 27%
DOJ 18%
DOT 14%
DOI 13%
USDA 12%
HHS 10%
Highest STEM share
DOE 55%
Comm 42%
HHS 41%
USDA 34%
DoD 32%
DOI 28%
DOT 27%
DHS 21%
03

By occupation

Top occupational series · pay distribution
P10 → median → P90 · annual base

Each row is one occupational series. The bar shows the pay spread - from the 10th-percentile worker to the 90th - with the median as the vertical mark inside it. Physician (0602) and Air Traffic Controller (2152) hit eye-catching ceilings because they break the GS cap via Title 38 special pay or premium pay; the median is what most people in that series actually earn.

Series Headcount Pay distribution (P10 / Median / P90) Median
0301 General Admin & Management The catch-all admin series; everywhere from VA hospitals to DoE labs. 220,000 $52k $162k $96k
0905 General Attorney Federal-government lawyers, DOJ-heavy; tops out near SES base. 38,000 $89k $235k $168k
0602 Medical Officer / Physician Mostly VA; salaries break the GS cap via Title 38 special pay. 32,000 $142k $412k $257k
1102 Contracting / Procurement The acquisitions workforce that buys the trillions in federal goods/services. 41,000 $64k $188k $121k
0610 Nurse VA dominates; pay also breaks the GS cap via Title 38. 96,000 $67k $167k $110k
2210 IT Specialist Sprawling: cybersecurity, sysadmin, app dev, networking. 78,000 $71k $199k $125k
0801 General Engineer DoD / NASA / DOE; wide range, project-engineer through GS-15. 36,000 $79k $213k $139k
1811 Criminal Investigator Special agents - FBI, ATF, Secret Service, IRS-CI. 22,000 $88k $195k $137k
2152 Air Traffic Controller FAA controllers; locality pay + premium pay add real money. 14,000 $91k $218k $157k
1224 Patent Examiner USPTO; the only civilian agency where most employees telework full-time. 9,000 $86k $215k $154k
0640 VA Health Tech / Allied Allied health: techs, therapists, support staff in VA medical centers. 110,000 $47k-$118k $76k
0083 Police Officer Federal Protective Service, VA police, Park Police, etc. 17,000 $56k-$112k $79k
04

By geography

Where federal civilian workers actually live
1 figure = 15,000 employees

The DC metro is the single largest concentration but represents only ~16% of the federal civilian workforce. The other 84% are spread across the country - VA medical centers in every state, military installations in California, Texas, and Virginia, IRS service centers in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Locality pay multipliers make a real difference in take-home: the same GS-13 nets ~33% more in DC than in a Rest-of-US area.

01

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria

DC/VA/MD
+33.3% locality pay
358,000
people
$138k
median salary
02

California (rest of state)

CA
+35.9% locality pay
158,000
people
$119k
median salary
03

Texas (rest of state)

TX
+22.1% locality pay
175,000
people
$91k
median salary
04

Virginia (outside DC metro)

VA
+22.1% locality pay
84,000
people
$102k
median salary
05

Maryland (outside DC metro)

MD
+33.3% locality pay
53,000
people
$109k
median salary
06

Florida

FL
+22.1% locality pay
96,000
people
$87k
median salary
07

Georgia

GA
+22.1% locality pay
78,000
people
$92k
median salary
08

Pennsylvania

PA
+22.1% locality pay
76,000
people
$95k
median salary
09

Ohio

OH
+22.1% locality pay
60,000
people
$95k
median salary
10

Washington State

WA
+28.6% locality pay
64,000
people
$104k
median salary
11

Illinois

IL
+30.4% locality pay
54,000
people
$100k
median salary
12

New York State

NY
+35.7% locality pay
51,000
people
$102k
median salary
13

North Carolina

NC
+22.1% locality pay
49,000
people
$89k
median salary
14

Alabama

AL
+22.1% locality pay
41,000
people
$95k
median salary
15

Tennessee

TN
+22.1% locality pay
38,000
people
$89k
median salary
05

The GS pyramid

Where federal employees actually sit on the General Schedule
2.27M civilian workers · GS + SES + Other

The federal General Schedule runs from GS-1 (entry clerical) to GS-15 (senior), with the Senior Executive Service (SES) above it. The classic civil-service pyramid - a wide base of entry workers tapering to a narrow executive tier - is mostly a myth: GS-12 and GS-13 carry the bulk of the modern workforce. Most federal civilian workers earn between $85k and $145k base pay before locality.

SES Senior Executive Service
7,900
$197k median base
GS-15 Senior
90,000
$168k median base
GS-14 Senior
175,000
$142k median base
GS-13 Mid-senior
360,000
$120k median base
GS-12 Mid-senior
410,000
$101k median base
GS-11 Mid
320,000
$85k median base
GS-9 Mid
280,000
$70k median base
GS-7 Entry-developmental
220,000
$58k median base
GS-5 Entry
165,000
$48k median base
GS-1-4 Entry / clerical
75,000
$39k median base
Other / Title 38 Wage Grade & medical pay schedules
167,100
$79k median base
272,900
SES + GS-14/15 (executive)
770,000
GS-12/13 (mid-senior)
985,000
GS-5 to GS-11 (early to mid)
242,100
Entry, clerical, Title 38, wage grade
07

Methodology

Notes on the data
v1 · curated

This page reads the U.S. federal civilian executive-branch workforce as of FY2024. The primary source is OPM FedScope, which publishes quarterly cubes covering employment, salary, separations, and accessions. Supplementary salary detail comes from USAspending.gov's federal employee salary file.

v1 status

The figures here are curated approximations from public OPM and USAspending summaries. Within a few percent of canonical totals; rankings reflect widely-reported FY2024 patterns. The wired-up version produces its own derived.json from the FedScope cube downloads.

What FedScope captures

Executive-branch civilian employees, which is the lion's share of the federal workforce visible in this view: 2.27 million people. Not in this dataset: active-duty military (1.3M), Postal Service (~600K, a separate accounting), the Legislative branch (Congress, GAO, CBO, Library of Congress), the Judicial branch, and several intelligence agencies that are statutorily redacted.

Pictograms as data marks

Each Aicher-style figure represents a fixed unit (25,000 people for agencies, 15,000 for geography, 100,000 for the masthead total). Counts are rounded to the nearest whole figure; long tails are summarized with a "+N" overflow. Different occupational series get different pictograms (lawyer / doctor / engineer / agent / manager) but the figure-as-unit remains constant.

Pay distributions

For each occupational series, the bar shows the spread from the 10th to 90th percentile of base pay, with the median as a vertical mark inside it. Base pay only: locality pay, overtime, premium pay (for ATCs), and Title 38 special pay (for VA physicians/nurses) are not included in the spread, even though they're legally part of compensation. The "median" reflects what's directly comparable across the federal workforce.

Locality pay

The geography section's "+N% locality" reflects 2024 OPM locality-pay tables - a multiplier on top of base pay that makes a GS-13 in DC earn substantially more than a GS-13 in rural Tennessee. The Rest-of-US baseline is 22.07%; the highest is the San Francisco area at ~36%.

What's missing from v1

Career length / tenure trends. Veteran-status detail (just a single share %). Separation rates. Time-in-grade. Demographic breakdowns beyond what summary reports already publish. The compare page wires up two agency snapshots; the searchable "any agency × any agency" picker is the next pass.

Generated 2026-05-08 19:00 UTC · Source: fedscope.opm.gov, usaspending.gov