How many people work in the secret agencies?
Nobody really knows, but I have a close approximate
This summer, the Director of National Intelligence announced that for the 13th consecutive year, the “intelligence community” was named as one of the “best places to work in the federal government.” This press release came to my attention because I asked Google how many people worked in the intelligence community, and the first answer I got, the one that showed up without my even having to click a link, was 15,000.
But reading the actual press release, one releases that it says that the intelligence community was named one of the best of agencies with more than 15,000 employees, not with 15,000. The number is ridiculous, hilarious and embarassing (for Google) — just think of what other “answers” artificial intelligence is providing today — because the true number is about 475,000. This includes military personnel, government employees and private contractors working in the secret agencies. It’s a number that isn’t easy to find, or more precisely, to estimate.
I’ve been working on understanding this number — and the people who work in the secret world — since I began work on Top Secret America in 2008. It’s not only virtually impossible to know how many people work for the secret agencies of the U.S. government because of crushing secrecy and issues of definition, but also because the federal government doesn’t know itself. Just what constitutes intelligence is complex, and what are the secret agencies is equally a muddle. And these questions are not being clarified as time goes by. Most peope who work in the offensive cyber field, for example, aren’t included in the federal government’s accounting, but they certainly do secret work of an intelligence nature, at least as defined in the present day.
There’s also the questions regarding whether everyone with a Top Secret clearance or everyone working in a secret agency inherently does “intelligence” work, say, for instance, if they are mere administrators or work on IT or security.
One way to start to answer this question is to start with the number of people who have Top Secret clearances, which according to the DNI’s latest (2019) report on the subject concludes that some 1.38 million people: 711,404 government employees, 497,271 contractors, and 175,385 “other” (cleared government and contractor personnel for which the employment status is unknown.)
Fewer than half of the people with a Top Secret clearance work in the intelligence field (many more work in technology and and operations, and many work in policy and various levels of administration). Thus we know that the actual number is no larger than 1.38 million but how do I come up with my conclusion of 475,000? And we know, at least broadly that 40 percent of those workeres are contractors, which is to say that 42 percent is about the ratio of contractors to government employees.
According to the DNI’s latest (2019) report on security clearances, 1.38 million people have Top Secret security clearances: 711,404 government employees, 497,271 contractors, and 175,385 “other” (cleared government and contractor personnel for which the employment status is unknown.)
One way to get closer to the real number is to know how many people work in the secret agencies. I assume that “everyone” in the 18 agencies that are formally a part of the “intelligence community” holds a Top Secret clearance. That includes:
Air Force Intelligence
Army Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency
Coast Guard Intelligence
Defense Intelligence Agency
Department of Energy
Department of Homeland Security (including Border Patrol, CBP, CISA, Federal Protective Service, FEMA, ICE, Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A), Secret Service, TSA, and others)
Department of State
Department of the Treasury
Drug Enforcement Administration
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Marine Corps Intelligence
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
National Reconnaissance Office
National Security Agency
Navy Intelligence
Space Force Intelligence
None of these agencies say publicly how many people work in the “community,” and such a number is itself suspect, because it officially is derived from budget categories, in other words, who pays the salary. There are two intelligence budgets, the “national intelligence program” and the “military intelligence program,” that are submitted to Congress. Everyone paid out of these budgets is account as working for “intelligence,” but not everyone working in those agencies (e.g., Air Force intelligence) is paid out of the budget. So in the case of the Air Force, for instance, there are some 50,000 military and civilian personnel in intelligence but only about half are paid for out of the intelligence budgets. The remainder are paid out of the Air Force budget because the work that they do supports the Air Force and its mission rather than the “national” or defense-wide programs.
So how many people work in the these agencies? The Pentagon’s “Defense Manpower Profile Report” (July 2022) gives some valuable insight. It accounts for Defense Department people employed in classified programs (predominantly DIA, NGA and NSA) for FY 2023, not including contractors:
Military: 15,684
Civilian: 50,365
Total: 66,049
If some 42 percent are contractors, the today is 94,000.
And the rest? The Pentagon’s classified work total doesn’t include the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and its subordinate agencies, the CIA, the NRO or any of the other civilian intelligence components under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice, and beyond. And it doesn’t include people in military units, such as military intelligence or reconnaissance, people who are accounted for as part of the regular military, not the secret agencies.
The largest of the “other” components is the CIA, with an estimated 22,000 employees. But some of the smaller components, like the Department of Energy’s or Treasury’s intelligence components number a total of about 4,000 employees. With broad estimates of the 160,000 or so intelligence personnel (uniformed and civilian) in the armed forces, I conclude that some 156,000 military personnel, 141,000 civilians, and 125,000 contractors work in intelligence. The 475,00 number is still rough, and I welcome comments.
By the way, the Defense Manpower Profile Report (July 2022) gives a pretty good number for special operations personnel — Green Berets, Delta, SEALs, Air Force special tactics, Marine raiders, and the divisions of administrators who back them up. It says that there are a total of 74,438 special operations personnel (government civilian and military) as of FY 2022.
67,521 military
6,917 civilian
74,438 total
It further breaks down the number of special operations personnel by active and reserve components. The active component end strengths are Army (31,348), Air Force (14,985), Navy (9,435), and Marines (3,406), for a total of 59,214 in Fiscal Year (FY) 22. The reserve component end strengths are Army National Guard (4,301), Army Reserve (812); Air Force Reserve (1,390), Air National Guard (616), Navy Reserve (1,187); Marine Corps Reserves (1). How many contractors are there? If we apply the 40 percent rule, it’s probably about 30,000. But who really knows.
SO. Some 475,000 people work in “intelligence” and some 105,000 work in special operations for a total of about 580,000 people. It’s just a start. I’d love any input.