The United States had 12,870 employed court reporters and simultaneous captioners in May 2025, earning a median of $72,420 a year, while the stenographer workforce behind them shrank 21% in a decade (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; AAERT, 2025). The pipeline is the alarming part: court reporting program enrollment collapsed 74% between 2015 and 2024, from 3,083 students to about 790, and only 189 new professional certifications were earned across all NCRA credentials in 2024 (AAERT; NCRA). Meanwhile demand has not budged, with court filings up 11% since 2020 and 76% of legal end users reporting scheduling difficulties because no stenographer was available (AAERT, 2025). This analysis consolidates data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Court Reporters Association, AAERT, the National Center for State Courts, and 7 other primary sources to map where court reporting stands in 2026.
TL;DR
- 12,870 wage-and-salary court reporters and simultaneous captioners were employed in May 2025, at a median wage of $72,420 (BLS OES).
- Counting the self-employed, BLS Employment Projections put total jobs at 17,700 in 2024, with little or no change expected through 2034 and about 1,700 openings a year.
- The stenographer count fell about 21% in ten years, from 29,171 (2015) to roughly 22,905 (2024), and could hit 18,719 by 2029 (AAERT, 2025).
- Ducker Worldwide’s landmark study projected a shortfall of nearly 5,500 court reporting positions by 2018: supply of 27,700 versus demand of 33,200.
- Program enrollment dropped 74% (3,083 to 790 students) and school count dropped 42% (38 to 22) between 2015 and 2024 (AAERT, from NCRA school reports).
- Only 83 new RPR certifications were earned in 2024; the RPR testimony leg passed at 18%, the realtime CRR exam at 8% (NCRA).
- The average court reporter is 56 years old, 89% are women, and only 4% of surveyed stenographers are under 35 (NCRA; AAERT).
- California courts averaged 19% court reporter vacancy rates, and vacancies were projected to outnumber working reporters by 2028 (California Trial Court Consortium, via NCSC).
- More than 45 states accepted digital recording in at least some courtrooms as early as 2014 (Ducker Worldwide).
- Stenographers still carry an 82% usage rate, and 96% of users call accuracy the top KPI in court reporting (AAERT, 2025).
- The RPR speed standard is 225 words per minute on testimony, unchanged since 1973 (NCRA).
- Five major speech recognition engines averaged a 35% word error rate for Black speakers versus 19% for white speakers, a gap courts weigh before adopting automation (Koenecke et al., PNAS 2020).
1. Employment and Wages: The BLS Baseline
Start with the official count. The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program recorded 12,870 employed court reporters and simultaneous captioners in May 2025, but that figure covers wage-and-salary jobs only. The Employment Projections program counts 17,700 total jobs for 2024 because it includes the self-employed freelancers who dominate deposition work. Pay is strong for a two-year credential: the median hit $72,420 in May 2025, and the top 10% earned more than $130,560. The projected outlook is flat, but flat demand against a shrinking workforce still means openings: about 1,700 a year, mostly from retirements.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employed court reporters and simultaneous captioners (May 2025) | 12,870 | BLS OES 27-3092 |
| Total jobs including self-employed (2024) | 17,700 | BLS Employment Projections, via O*NET |
| Median annual wage (May 2025) | $72,420 | BLS OES 27-3092 |
| Mean annual wage (May 2025) | $78,760 ($37.86/hour) | BLS OES 27-3092 |
| 10th to 90th percentile annual wage | $42,130 to $130,560 | BLS OES 27-3092 |
| Projected employment change, 2024-2034 | Little or no change | BLS Employment Projections, via O*NET |
| Projected job openings per year, 2024-2034 | ~1,700 | BLS Employment Projections, via O*NET |
| Top-paying state means (May 2025) | CA $108,890; TX $104,730; NY $101,280; WA $101,110 | BLS OES 27-3092 |
Note: the gap between 12,870 and 17,700 is definitional, not a contradiction; most freelance deposition reporters are independent contractors invisible to the OES payroll survey. Industry bodies estimate the full working population at 23,000 to 27,000 (AAERT; NCRA).
2. The Stenographer Shortage
The shortage was predicted in writing, a decade in advance. The 2013-2014 Court Reporting Industry Outlook Report by Ducker Worldwide, commissioned by NCRA, counted roughly 32,000 working stenographic court reporters and forecast that retirements (5,100 over five years) would swamp new entrants (about 1,500), producing a shortfall of nearly 5,500 positions by 2018. AAERT’s 2025 Court Reporting Industry Trends Report confirms the prediction landed: the stenographer count fell about 21% in ten years, and on current trends drops to roughly 18,719 by 2029. The Speech-to-Text Institute went further, predicting a gap of more than 11,000 by 2023, per the National Center for State Courts.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Working stenographic court reporters (2013) | ~32,000 | Ducker Worldwide, 2013-2014 |
| Projected shortfall by 2018 (supply 27,700 vs demand 33,200) | ~5,500 positions | Ducker Worldwide, 2013-2014 |
| Reporters retiring vs entering, 2013-2018 | 5,100 vs ~1,500 | Ducker Worldwide, 2013-2014 |
| Stenographer count, 2015 to 2024 | 29,171 to ~22,905 (-21%) | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| Projected stenographer count by 2029 | ~18,719 | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| Predicted supply gap by 2023 | >11,000 | Speech-to-Text Institute, via NCSC (2023) |
| End users reporting scheduling difficulties | 76% | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| End users citing increased court reporting costs | 55% | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
Context: demand is not falling to meet supply. AAERT counts an 11% rise in court filings since 2020, plus a pandemic backlog that courts have not fully cleared. The same supply-demand squeeze is hitting adjacent listening professions, as our sign language interpreting statistics show.
3. The Training Pipeline Collapse
The shortage is a pipeline problem first. Ducker counted about 2,500 enrolled court reporting students nationwide back in 2013 and warned that certification pass rates averaging 20% to 30% would throttle replacements. It got worse: NCRA’s own statistics now list just 19 approved programs, and AAERT’s compilation of NCRA school reports shows enrollment falling from 3,083 (2015) to about 790 (2024). Across every NCRA credential combined, only 189 people earned a new certification in 2024, down from 364 in 2022. The demographics compound it: the average reporter is 56, and just 4% of surveyed stenographers are under 35.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Court reporting program enrollment, 2015 to 2024 | 3,083 to ~790 (-74%) | AAERT, from NCRA annual school reports |
| Court reporting schools, 2015 to 2024 | 38 to 22 (-42%) | AAERT, from NCRA annual school reports |
| NCRA-approved programs (2025) | 19 | NCRA Statistics |
| New certifications earned, all NCRA credentials | 364 (2022); 243 (2023); 189 (2024) | NCRA Statistics |
| New RPR certifications (2024) | 83 | NCRA Statistics |
| RPR testimony skills leg pass rate (2024) | 18% | NCRA Statistics |
| CRR (realtime) and CRC (captioner) pass rates (2024) | 8% and 13% | NCRA Statistics |
| Average age / share of women among reporters | 56 / 89% | NCRA Statistics |
Note: NCRA counts 11,009 total members, of whom 8,113 are court reporters, and estimates about 27,000 stenographic reporters in the marketplace; 59% work freelance and 36% as court officials. Only 4% of stenographers in AAERT’s Q4 2024 survey were under 35, and 0% were 18 to 24.
4. California and the State-Level Crisis
No state illustrates the math like California, home to 21% of all US court reporters in the Ducker count. A joint release from the Superior Courts of California in November 2022 declared a “court reporter shortage crisis”: 71% of the state’s 58 trial courts were actively recruiting, and over 50% could no longer routinely staff civil, family law, and probate matters. The state licensing funnel has nearly closed: 175 people took California’s CSR exam in 2021 and only 36 passed, with just nine certification programs left in the state. The legislature’s $30 million a year for hiring has not fixed it, because, in the courts’ own words, “there is no one to hire.”
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average court reporter vacancy rate in CA courts (Jan 2022) | 19% | California Trial Court Consortium, via NCSC |
| Projected CA crossover point (vacancies outnumber reporters) | 2028 | California Trial Court Consortium, via NCSC |
| CA court reporter gap forecast for 2023 (made in 2018) | ~2,750 | Judicial Council of California, via Superior Courts release |
| CA trial courts actively recruiting reporters (Nov 2022) | 71% of 58 | Superior Courts of California |
| CA courts unable to routinely cover civil/family/probate | >50% | Superior Courts of California |
| CA CSR exam takers and passers (2021 vs 2018) | 175/36 vs 339/28 | Superior Courts of California |
| Annual state funding to hire reporters | $30 million | Superior Courts of California |
| CA stenographer count, 2015 to 2024 | 6,960 to ~5,465 | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
Outlier: scarcity shows up in wages. California’s mean of $108,890 is roughly 91% above Florida’s $56,850 (BLS, May 2025), and the cheap state is the one where courts switched to digital recording while the expensive ones, California, Texas, and New York, restricted it.
5. Digital Reporting and the Speech-to-Text Shift
Courts are not waiting for the pipeline to refill. Ducker found more than 45 states already accepted digital recording in at least some courtrooms by 2014, with Alaska, Kentucky, and Utah running essentially without stenographers and Florida, Michigan, and Oregon close behind. Stenographers still carry an 82% usage rate, but digital court reporters can be certified in months rather than the two-plus years a stenography program takes, and AAERT membership is growing about 20% a year against a 5% average for professional associations. The economics push the same direction: the broader legal technology market is projected to reach $50 billion by 2027, per AAERT’s report, and automated transcription is the same technology wave documented in our AI meeting assistant statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| States accepting digital recording in some courtrooms (2014) | >45 | Ducker Worldwide, 2013-2014 |
| States with high digital recording use (2014) | AK, FL, KY, MI, OR, UT | Ducker Worldwide, 2013-2014 |
| Stenographer usage rate despite the shortage | 82% | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| Users agreeing stenographer numbers are declining | 63% | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| Users ranking accuracy the top court reporting KPI | 96% | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| Users citing faster delivery as the top reason to prefer digital | 30% | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| Digital reporter training vs stenography training | Months vs 2+ years | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
Context: the freelance side has its own dependency: the insurance industry generates about 75% of freelance court reporter demand (Ducker Worldwide). The parallel story of a dictation profession reshaped by speech recognition is in our medical transcription statistics.
6. Accuracy and Speed: The Human Standard
The bar the technology has to clear is precise. Since 1973, NCRA’s professional certification has required 225 words per minute on testimony, 200 on jury charge, and 180 on literary material (the 1937 original asked for 160 to 200), graded at 95% accuracy. Humans do not always clear the bar either: a 2019 study in the journal Language, “Testifying while black”, tested 27 Philadelphia court reporters, one third of the city’s official pool, and found they transcribed everyday African American English at 82.9% word accuracy, with 31% of transcriptions altering who, what, when, or where. Automated systems fare worse on the same dialect gap: five commercial speech engines averaged a 35% word error rate for Black speakers versus 19% for white speakers (Koenecke et al., PNAS 2020). Realtime skills also feed captioning and CART work, where demand keeps growing.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| RPR speed standard (since 1973) | 225 wpm testimony; 200 jury charge; 180 literary | NCRA certification history |
| Certification accuracy standard | 95% | NCRA, via Language (2019) |
| Court reporter accuracy on African American English | 82.9% average | Jones et al., Language (2019) |
| AAE transcriptions altering who/what/when/where | 31% | Jones et al., Language (2019) |
| ASR word error rate, Black vs white speakers | 35% vs 19% | Koenecke et al., PNAS (2020) |
| ASR systems tested (Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft) | 5, on 19.8 hours of audio | Koenecke et al., PNAS (2020) |
| Certified Realtime Captioners (CRC) | 723 | NCRA Statistics |
| Americans with hearing loss in at least one ear | >48 million | Ducker Worldwide, 2013-2014 |
Note: the two accuracy studies predate 2024 but remain the most-cited evidence in court modernization debates. Captioners are still a small slice of the profession, about 6% of NCRA reporter members, even as accessibility demand grows; see our captions and subtitles statistics for that side of the market.
Summary: Court Reporting by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employed court reporters and captioners (May 2025) | 12,870 | BLS OES 27-3092 |
| Total jobs including self-employed (2024) | 17,700 | BLS Employment Projections, via O*NET |
| Median annual wage (May 2025) | $72,420 | BLS OES 27-3092 |
| 90th percentile annual wage | $130,560 | BLS OES 27-3092 |
| Projected openings per year, 2024-2034 | ~1,700 | BLS Employment Projections, via O*NET |
| Stenographer workforce, 2015 to 2024 | 29,171 to ~22,905 (-21%) | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| Projected stenographer count by 2029 | ~18,719 | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| Ducker shortfall projection for 2018 | ~5,500 positions | Ducker Worldwide, 2013-2014 |
| Program enrollment, 2015 to 2024 | 3,083 to ~790 (-74%) | AAERT, from NCRA school reports |
| NCRA-approved programs (2025) | 19 | NCRA Statistics |
| New certifications, all credentials (2024) | 189 | NCRA Statistics |
| RPR testimony leg pass rate (2024) | 18% | NCRA Statistics |
| Average reporter age / share of women | 56 / 89% | NCRA Statistics |
| Stenographers under 35 (survey) | 4% | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| CA court vacancy rate (Jan 2022) | 19% | CA Trial Court Consortium, via NCSC |
| CA CSR exam passers (2021) | 36 of 175 | Superior Courts of California |
| States accepting digital recording (2014) | >45 | Ducker Worldwide, 2013-2014 |
| Stenographer usage rate (2025) | 82% | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| Users reporting scheduling difficulties | 76% | AAERT, 2025 Trends Report |
| ASR word error rate, Black vs white speakers | 35% vs 19% | Koenecke et al., PNAS (2020) |
| RPR speed standard | 225 wpm testimony | NCRA |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered by aggregating figures directly from government statistical programs, named industry association reports, state judiciary releases, and peer-reviewed studies, cross-referencing overlapping metrics across two or more sources and flagging any figure older than 2024.
- BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 27-3092 Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners (May 2025 estimates, retrieved via the BLS public data API)
- BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners (2024-2034 projections)
- O*NET OnLine, Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners (27-3092.00) (BLS wage and projection data)
- NCRA Statistics: membership, schools, certification, and testing data (membership updated quarterly; certification data updated February 2025)
- NCRA, certification program history and standards
- Ducker Worldwide, 2013-2014 Court Reporting Industry Outlook Report, commissioned by NCRA (executive summary)
- AAERT, 2025 Court Reporting Industry Trends Report (fieldwork Q4 2024: 550+ end users surveyed, 27 stakeholder interviews)
- National Center for State Courts, “Court reporters shortage: do courts need to be concerned?” (March 2023; includes California Trial Court Consortium, January 2022)
- Superior Courts of California, “There Is a Court Reporter Shortage Crisis in California” (November 2022)
- Jones, Kalbfeld, Hancock, and Clark, “Testifying while black”, Language 95(2) (2019, via the Linguistic Society of America)
- Koenecke et al., “Racial disparities in automated speech recognition”, PNAS (2020)
- U.S. Legal Support, Understanding the National Court Reporter Shortage
Data watch: BLS publishes new OES wage estimates each spring (May 2026 data expected April 2027) and refreshes Employment Projections each fall, with the 2025-2035 round due in late 2026; NCRA updates membership statistics quarterly and certification counts each February; AAERT’s industry trends research follows its 2025 baseline; and California’s Judicial Council reports on reporter staffing as the legislature revisits the statutes that govern electronic recording.
Last updated: July 20, 2026. We review and update this page quarterly as new data is published.