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Table 25

Full-time Law Enforcement Employees

by Population Group

Percent Male and Female, 2016

Population group Total law
enforcement
employees		 Percent law
enforcement employees		 Total
officers		 Percent
officers		 Total
civilians		 Percent
civilians		 Number
of
agencies		 2016
estimated
population
Male Female Male Female Male Female
TOTAL AGENCIES: 933,142 73.5 26.5 652,936 87.9 12.1 280,206 40.0 60.0 13,217 277,638,758
TOTAL CITIES 543,105 75.3 24.7 421,459 87.7 12.3 121,646 32.4 67.6 10,126 192,569,624
GROUP I (250,000 and over) 199,810 71.7 28.3 152,607 83.4 16.6 47,203 34.0 66.0 79 59,221,977
1,000,000 and over (Group I subset) 110,936 70.3 29.7 83,800 82.2 17.8 27,136 33.6 66.4 11 27,658,777
500,000 to 999,999 (Group I subset) 46,843 75.1 24.9 36,642 85.0 15.0 10,201 39.5 60.5 21 15,316,228
250,000 to 499,999 (Group I subset) 42,031 71.8 28.2 32,165 84.7 15.3 9,866 29.6 70.4 47 16,246,972
GROUP II (100,000 to 249,999) 63,555 73.7 26.3 48,534 88.3 11.7 15,021 26.4 73.6 200 29,632,582
GROUP III (50,000 to 99,999) 62,534 75.8 24.2 48,450 89.4 10.6 14,084 28.8 71.2 433 30,220,472
GROUP IV (25,000 to 49,999) 57,020 78.2 21.8 45,582 90.8 9.2 11,438 28.0 72.0 773 26,885,069
GROUP V (10,000 to 24,999) 57,987 79.7 20.3 47,148 91.7 8.3 10,839 27.5 72.5 1,597 25,434,997
GROUP VI (under 10,000) 102,199 78.9 21.1 79,138 90.3 9.7 23,061 39.8 60.2 7,044 21,174,527
METROPOLITAN COUNTIES 282,756 70.1 29.9 166,532 86.7 13.3 116,224 46.2 53.8 1,257 63,585,694
NONMETROPOLITAN COUNTIES 107,281 73.4 26.6 64,945 92.0 8.0 42,336 44.7 55.3 1,834 21,483,440
SUBURBAN AREAS1 434,964 73.2 26.8 286,120 88.3 11.7 148,844 44.1 55.9 7,050 116,271,221
  • 1 Suburban areas include law enforcement agencies in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants and county law enforcement agencies that are within a Metropolitan Statistical Area. Suburban areas exclude all metropolitan agencies associated with a principal city. The agencies associated with suburban areas also appear in other groups within this table.

Data Declaration

Provides the methodology used in constructing this table and other pertinent information about this table.

Overview

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Full-time Law Enforcement Employees, by Population Group, Percent Male and Female, 2016

  • Nationwide in 2016, 87.9 percent of full-time law enforcement officers were males.
  • Sixty percent of full-time civilian law enforcement employees were females.
  • Of the city population groups, cities with populations of 10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants employed the highest percentage (91.7) of male officers.
  • Cities with populations of 1 million and over (a subset of the total Group I cities) employed the highest percentage (17.8) of female officers.
  • Regarding the nation’s full-time civilian law enforcement employees, cities with populations of 100,000 to 249,999 inhabitants had the highest percentage (73.6) of females.
  • Metropolitan county agencies had the highest percentage (46.2) of male full-time civilian law enforcement employees.