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Lawyers in France: official counts by bar (barreau)
France counted 75,681 avocats as of January 1, 2024, spread across 164 barreaux, the local bars attached to the courts. It is a small bar for the country's size: 111.0 lawyers per 100k residents, the second lowest density in our collection, ahead only of Japan. It is also the most geographically concentrated, as the table of the 11 largest barreaux shows.
The 11 largest regional registers (January 1, 2024)
| # | Bar (barreau) | Lawyers | % of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris | 32,729 | 43.2% |
| 2 | Lyon | 3,820 | 5.0% |
| 3 | Hauts-de-Seine | 2,537 | 3.4% |
| 4 | Marseille | 2,503 | 3.3% |
| 5 | Bordeaux | 2,022 | 2.7% |
| 6 | Toulouse | 1,811 | 2.4% |
| 7 | Lille | 1,300 | 1.7% |
| 8 | Montpellier | 1,249 | 1.7% |
| 9 | Nantes | 1,245 | 1.6% |
| 10 | Nice | 1,181 | 1.6% |
| 11 | Strasbourg | 1,117 | 1.5% |
The table lists the 11 largest of the 164 barreaux; together they hold 68.1% of all French avocats.
Paris swallows nearly half of the French bar
The Paris barreau gathers 32,729 avocats, 43.2% of the national headcount, 8.6 times the size of Lyon, the runner up at 3,820. The 11 largest barreaux add up to 51,514 professionals (68.1% of the total), while 85 of the 164 barreaux have fewer than 100 lawyers each; the smallest, Saint-Gaudens, registered 15. The official statistics also chart the profession's feminization: 58.3% of avocats were women on the same date.
In 2023 the country logged 5,020 new registrations against 3,641 departures, a net growth that keeps the ten year trajectory of a 25.7% increase. Even so, the gap to its neighbors is wide: Germany has more than double the lawyers for a population 24% larger.
Source and method
Data: French Ministry of Justice, Statistique sur la profession d'avocat, as of January 1, 2024. Coverage: avocats registered with the 164 bars (barreaux). Terms of use: French public administrative document, reusable under CRPA terms (Licence Ouverte). Population ratios use the 2023 estimates cited in the comparative collection page.
An active registration does not mean the professional currently practices: part of the roll does not work as a lawyer day to day. This page publishes aggregate counts per bar (barreau) only, never individual professional records.
Last updated: · Methodology and sources