I’m not sure I believed it either, but according to March 2013 FedScope data California does indeed have more Federal civilian employees than Washington, DC, Virginia, or Maryland. Washington, DC is a very close second (168,000 versus 162,000) and because there is about 40,000 location records suppressed that statement may not be exactly true…but perhaps it got you to read this post! Here are the top 10 state for Federal civilian employment:

1. California 168,041 (8.4% of total Federal civilian workforce)
2. Washington, DC 162,164 (8.1%)
3. Virginia 148,747 (7.4%)
4. Texas 144,299 (7.2%)
5. Maryland 135,052 (6.8%)
6. Florida 90,427 (4.5%)
7. Georgia 78,522 (3.9%)
8. New York 67,430 (3.4%)
9. Pennsylvania 66,747 (3.3%)
10. Washington 57,035 (2.9%)

The map below shows the distribution by state of the Federal civilian workforce. By default all agencies are included, but you can select one or more agencies to display using the checkboxes below the map. Hover over any state to see the civilian workforce population. You can select more than one state by clicking and holding the shift key or by drawing a box around the states you wish to include. Beware…DC is really small so you will have to zoom in to see it. Enjoy!

Click on the image to view the visualization.

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