I recently saw a video clip of Elon Musk describing how hard it was to get a list of government agencies. Here is the clip: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GXJvxPMY_H0
In the clip he says the Google and different AI’s say the number is around 400. Well I went to the government site https://www.opm.gov/about-us/open-government/Data/Apps/Agencies/index.aspx which lets you see the agencies. But of course the site makes it difficult to see them all. You have to use drop-down lists to filter. So for fun I used an AI to write a JavaScript program to scrape and list just the entries in the first category of “Cabinet Level Agencies”. The final result was a table with 63120 rows.
If you want to crash your browser you can load the generated table here: https://robertjwallace.com/agencies.html.
Keep in mind that this is a list of “agencies”, not departments. For example, the Department of Education lists over 20 agencies in this data set. But still, 63120!
Using AI I asked why the discrepancy in numbers. It appears that one source of the 400 number is the Federal Registry. (https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies). ChatGPT explained.
Why the Number Varies:
- Different Definitions of “Agency”
- The Federal Register typically lists top-level agencies and sub-agencies, but not individual offices, commands, or divisions within large agencies or military branches.
- The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) appears to count internal components within departments, including specialized offices within the military, leading to a much larger number.
- Military and Civilian Components
- The Department of Defense (DoD) alone includes numerous subcomponents such as:
- Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Marines (each with its own internal structures).
- Specialized agencies within each branch, like Air Force Medical Operations Agency or Naval Air Systems Command.
- These smaller divisions and commands may not be listed in the Federal Register but could be counted separately by OPM.
- The Department of Defense (DoD) alone includes numerous subcomponents such as:
- Bureaucratic Structures and Naming Conventions
- Some “agencies” may be offices, centers, or divisions rather than independent agencies.
- The OPM’s listing may include administrative units, regional offices, and support functions that are technically part of a larger department.
- Regulatory vs. Operational Agencies
- The Federal Register often focuses on regulatory agencies that have rulemaking authority, while OPM tracks operational agencies that employ federal workers.
Conclusion:
Yes, if we count every organizational entity (sub-agencies, offices, commands, centers, and operational units), the number could be in the tens of thousands, as OPM suggests. However, if we define “agencies” more strictly as independent or semi-independent federal entities, the number is much lower (around 400-500).
It’s a matter of classification—both numbers can be correct, depending on how you define an “agency.”
So it depends on how you slice the pie. But lets look at the ingredients of that pie. I asked how many people work for the Federal Government. ChatGPT’s response:
As of January 2025, the U.S. federal government employs approximately 3 million civilian workers, according to data from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED).
This figure includes employees across various federal departments and agencies but excludes active-duty military personnel, who number around 1.3 million, and U.S. Postal Service workers, who account for over 600,000 employees.
Therefore, when considering civilian federal employees, active-duty military personnel, and Postal Service workers, the total number of individuals employed by the federal government exceeds 4.9 million.
That is more people than the population of these states combined.
- Wyoming: 587,618
- Vermont: 647,064
- District of Columbia: 670,050
- Alaska: 740,133
- North Dakota: 780,588
- South Dakota: 909,824
Total: 4,335,277
I think it is a fair question to ask what the tax payers get for their money.
At the end of the day, the sheer scale of the federal government—both in terms of agencies and employees—raises important questions. If there are over 63,000 agencies and nearly 5 million people on the federal payroll, what exactly are all these entities doing? How much of this bureaucracy is essential, and how much is just the natural bloat of a system with little incentive to streamline itself? Maybe Elon Musk was onto something when he pointed out how hard it is to even define the size of the government. If understanding it is this difficult, what does that say about its efficiency? Perhaps it’s time for taxpayers to demand clearer answers—and maybe even a little accountability.