The report

Lawyers, 6,400 fewer in 10 years. Average income: 52,000 euro

The number of lawyers decreases, down to 228,641 in 2025 and more drop-outs among women

by Letizia Giostra

29 April 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Number of lawyers falling
Yearly income figure
The 'Pil of advocacy'
Why many choose this profession
Who works independently
Tracking

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

A photograph framing the current state of the Italian legal profession. After a decade of profound transformations, incomes are growing again, the economic contribution of the profession is strengthening and the perception of lawyers themselves is improving. But there are many challenges to face: generational turnover, internal balance and long-term sustainability. This is the picture returned by the Report on Lawyers 2026 published in collaboration between Cassa Forense and Censis, which on its tenth anniversary recounts a profession in transformation.

Number of lawyers falling

Free fall for the number of Italian lawyers: in the report by Cassa forense and Censis presented in Parliament, it emerges that in 2025 there are 228,641 lawyers, of whom 106,655 are women and 121,966 are men, while exactly ten years ago there were 235,055. The decline in the profession is driven mainly by the female component (-4,238 in ten years) compared to men (-2176), with a greater tendency, due to income and family load reasons, for the pink quotas to leave the profession.

The annual income figure

In 2024, the total Irpef income of lawyers reached €11.2 billion (+7.1% compared to 2023), while total turnover exceeded €16 billion (+5.7%). As for the income of individual professionals, the dossier highlights how the average income stands at 51,912 euros (+8.9%) but with a marked gender gap: 67,959 euros for men against 33,829 for women.

The 'Pil of advocacy'

The figure on the so-called 'GDP of the legal profession', which in 2024 reaches an index of 187 (base 2000), compared to the national GDP of 109.6, is very heavy. If in 2015 more than 61% of lawyers defined their status as 'critical' (with a peak of 22.5% extreme pessimism), today this share drops to 45.3%. In particular, the area of strong professional uncertainty is reduced, from 22.5% to 18.4%, marking a progressive and encouraging shift towards scenarios of greater stability.

Why many choose this profession

Despite the economic difficulties, the choice of the legal profession remains strongly linked to the values that represent this profession: 52.1% of lawyers undertake this path to follow justice and rights, against only 10.9% for economic reasons. However, according to the report, there is still a share of concern about future income, linked above all to delays in payments to clients (33.9%), heavy administrative and tax obligations (32.4%), high competition and an overabundance of lawyers (30.7%), regulatory instability and the excessive length of trials (22.2%) and the high cost of justice (16.1%).

Those who work independently

On the organisational front, the prevailing choice is to run one's own business by opening a firm (66.2%), but more flexible and collaborative forms emerge among the youngest: only 42.4% of the under-40s work independently. At the same time, there is a strong acceleration in the adoption of artificial intelligence: in just one year, its use rose from 27.5% to 55.3%, reaching 70.3% among the under-40s.

Monitoring

The Report also highlights a marked territorial polarisation: while Calabria and Sicily boast the highest density of lawyers per inhabitant, Lombardy holds the absolute numerical record. On the efficiency front, average civil justice times stand at 503 days, with marked discrepancies between the districts of the North and those of the South and the Islands. But it is young people who have held the spotlight, particularly in the second part of the proceedings, with a particular focus on university courses.