Expected Justice Problems by State

How many justice problems are there each month in different states? And how many people are seeking legal help each month?

This table presents some basic numbers of expected numbers of people who have justiciable civil legal issues, based on past social science research that detailed the frequency of people experiencing these issues — as well as the frequency of people seeking out help for these problems.

Your team can use this table as a ballpark approximate of how many people you might reach with your legal help services. It can be a denominator, which you can use to see how many of the eligible people you’re reaching with your website, app, or other services.

Justice Problem Estimates Per Month

This table shows rough estimates of how many justice problems each US state may expect its adult population to experience. It also shows how many problems are expected to be 'acted-upon' (in which the adult is taking action to seek information or services).

It is based on Sandefur’s 2013 study "Accessing Justice in the Contemporary USA" that found, on average, US adults experienced 2.1 justice problems per 18 months. This frequency is then combined with the adult population count in each state to make ballpark estimates of the amount of Justice Problems that might be served with a legal help service.

How it calculates Justice Problem amounts: It takes the adult population (18 and over) in US states, according to the US census’ most recent projections for 2019 (Column B).

It multiplies that by 2.1, to get the 18-month total of justice problems. It divides that by 18, to get the monthly average of problems. (Column C)

How it calculates Acted-Upon Justice Problems: People do not always seek out help for the justice problem they are experiencing. In her study, Sandefur found that people did nothing in 16% of the time they experiencing a justiciable problem.

Based on that finding, the table calculates the number of totally monthly justice problems that we could expect people might be acting upon (Column D). This can give us an estimate of how many people are choosing to seek help for their problems, and who might be in the 'potential audience' for a legal help service.
LocationAdult Population (18 and over) in 2019Estimated Justice Problems Per MonthEstimated Acted-Upon Justice Problems per month
United States255,200,3732977337725009637
Alaska551,5626434954053
Alabama3,814,879445069373858
Arkansas2,317,649270392227129
Arizona5,638,481657823552571
California30,617,58235720513000523
Colorado4,499,217524909440924
Connecticut2,837,847331082278109
District of Columbia577,5816738456603
Delaware770,1928985675479
Florida17,247,80820122441690285
Georgia8,113,542946580795127
Hawaii1,116,004130200109368
Iowa2,428,229283293237966
Idaho1,338,864156201131209
Illinois9,853,9461149627965687
Indiana5,164,245602495506096
Kansas2,213,064258191216880
Kentucky3,464,802404227339551
Louisiana3,561,164415469348994
Massachusetts5,539,703646299542891
Maryland4,710,993549616461677
Maine1,095,370127793107346
Michigan7,842,924915008768607
Minnesota4,336,475505922424974
Missouri4,766,843556132467151
Mississippi2,277,566265716223201
Montana840,1909802282338
North Carolina8,187,369955193802362
North Dakota581,8916788757025
Nebraska1,458,334170139142917
New Hampshire1,104,458128853108237
New Jersey6,943,612810088680474
New Mexico1,620,991189116158857
Nevada2,387,517278544233977
New York15,425,26217996141511676
Ohio9,111,0811062959892886
Oklahoma3,004,733350552294464
Oregon3,351,175390970328415
Pennsylvania10,167,3761186194996403
Puerto Rico2,620,963305779256854
Rhode Island854,8669973483777
South Carolina4,037,531471045395678
South Dakota667,5587788265421
Tennessee5,319,123620564521274
Texas21,596,07125195422116415
Utah2,274,774265390222928
Virginia6,674,671778712654118
Vermont509,9845949849978
Washington5,951,832694380583279
Wisconsin4,555,837531514446472
West Virginia1,432,580167134140393
Wyoming445,0255192043613