Bar exam pass rates increased in 2025, including for first-time exam takers

March 11, 2026

Bar exam pass rates increased in 2025, including for first-time exam takers

CHICAGO, March 11, 2026 - The pass rate for first-time takers who sat for the bar exam rose by more than a percentage point in 2025 over 2024, according to new data from the managing director's office of the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar

The new data shows that in the aggregate, 92.15% of 2023 law graduates who sat for a bar exam passed it within two years of graduation (92.25% with alternative pathways). The two-year "ultimate" aggregate success rate is over a percentage point better than the 90.52% comparable figure for 2022 graduates. The 2023 ultimate bar pass data also reveals that 96.64% of all graduates sat for a bar exam or were admitted by alternative pathways within two years of graduation, and that schools were able to obtain bar passage information for 99.11% of 2023 graduates.

First-time takers in 2025 achieved an aggregate 84.10% pass rate (84.19% with alternative pathways), which is more than a 1-percentage point increase over the comparable 83.02% pass rate (with alternative pathways) for 2024.

"Data collection and reporting is an important part of the accreditation project because it ensures the public - especially aspiring law school students - have access to comprehensive, transparent and streamlined data about legal education," said Jenn Rosato Perea, managing director of ABA accreditation and legal education. "Through this report and others, law school applicants can access essential, comprehensive and reliable data to help them make informed decisions, including details about law school costs, admissions criteria, licensure and career outcomes."

The Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has been accrediting law schools since 1921 and operates separately and independently from the ABA, including the collection of consumer information on a variety of law school metrics. The annual comprehensive report on bar admission outcomes relies on information reported to the Council by law schools.

Data for Council-approved law schools is available at Legal Education Statistics. Individual school reports for consumers are available at ABA Required Disclosures.

This year's reports on individual schools include a second page that provides definitions and additional information on the different fields in the data report to help users of the report, including prospective law students, understand the information better.

"The Council is focused on bar passage outcomes as an important indicator of a quality legal education, one that helps to protect the public," Rosato Perea said. "The reported information includes other pathways to licensure, to reflect the recognition of these pathways by state supreme courts."

For comparative purposes, the new data includes aggregate information on the demographics of bar exam passers from 2026 bar admission reports and reprints last year's demographic information from the 2025 reports. In addition, because alternative pathways are being recognized more frequently by the state courts, the Council has updated the name of the bar admission questionnaire, as well as the Standard 509 Required Disclosure page (starting with 2025 statistics), to refer to "admission" rather than "passage."