gov "Number of Elected Officials Exceeds Half Million" (01/30/95)


                 EMBARGOED UNTIL:  JANUARY 30, 1995 (MONDAY)

Public Information Office                                CB95-18
301-457-2794
301-457-4067 (TDD)

Marshall Moore
301-457-1586

             NUMBER OF ELECTED OFFICIALS EXCEEDS HALF MILLION--
                    ALMOST ALL ARE WITH LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
      
      EMBARGOED UNTIL:  JANUARY 30, 1995 (MONDAY)  The total
number of the nation's popularly elected officials was 511,039 in
1992, according to a report released by the Commerce Department's
Census Bureau.  Less than 4 percent were in federal (Congress and
the White House) and state governments, while the remaining 96
percent were in local governments.

      The report, Popularly Elected Officials, Preliminary Report
No. 2 GC92-2(P), from the 1992 Census of Governments shows that
the current number of elected officials is a 2.8 percent gain
from the 497,155 reported in 1987.  Marshall Moore, author of the
report, says, "The growth is from electing more members to the
judiciary, and electing officials to the increasing number of
special district governments."

      "The growth of the number of representative town meetings
in the New England states, a trend since the end of World War II,
continues," Moore added.  "In many localities, representative
town meetings are replacing citizen town meetings, which are
becoming unwieldy because of growing populations."

      Over two-thirds (nearly 69 percent) of elected officials
were members of legislative bodies--Congress, state legislatures,
county and municipal councils, independent school district
boards, and special district boards.  

      Another 24 percent consisted of other elected officials
authorized by state or local charter, including elected
executives, administrative officials, and members of the 
judiciary.  The remaining 8 percent were members of other elected
boards, including those administering dependent school systems.

       Data collected in the 1992 Census of Governments show
that, for those local governments reporting gender, race, and
ethnicity of elected officials, 24 percent of local government
officials were female, 2.8 percent were African American, 
0.4 percent were American Indian or Alaskan Native, 0.1 percent
were Asian or Pacific Islander, and 1.4 percent were Hispanic. 
At the local level, school districts had the highest percentage
of female elected officials at 31.2 percent, and African American
officials at 3.8 percent.  Comparable data on gender, race, and
ethnicity are not available from the 1987 Census of Governments.

      The report shows that Illinois had the largest number of
state and local elected officials at 42,338.  Next were
Pennsylvania with 30,481 and Texas with 27,628.  Hawaii had the
fewest with 183.  This report contains two tables for each state,
one showing the number of state and local officials and the
number of local governments, and the second showing the total
number of elected officials for each type of government.

      The table below shows the number of governments and elected
officials by level and type of government. 
_________________________________________________________________
                   Number of        Elected           
                   Governments,     Officials,        Average per
Type of Govt.      1992             1992              Government

Total              85,006           511,039             6.0

U.S. Government         1               542           542.0
State Government       50            18,828           376.6
Local Government   84,955           491,669             5.8
General-purpose:
 County             3,043            56,390            18.5
   Sub-county      35,935           262,589             7.3
   Municipal       19,279           135,580             7.0
   Township        16,656           127,009             7.6
Special-purpose:
 School district   14,422            88,610             6.1
 Special district  31,555            84,080             2.7
_________________________________________________________________

                                     -X-

NOTE:  EMBARGOED UNTIL:  JANUARY 30, 1995 (MONDAY)
media representatives may obtain copies of the preliminary report
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