Learn about the types of people who become sheriffs. This page goes into detail about the employment, gender, and ethnic ratios of the workplace.


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Gender Mix By Career Interest, 2024

This graph shows the distribution of females and males that are interested in becoming a sheriff. Four or five star ratings on CareerExplorer indicate interest.

More men than women are interested in becoming sheriffs at a ratio of 2.90 to 1.

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Actual Gender Mix, 2024

21% of sheriffs are female and 79% are male.

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Gender Bias, 2024

This is one of the most compelling statistics we collect. Gender bias shows the difference between gender interest in being a sheriff and the actual gender mix of people in the career.

If there is a significant difference, then it means there is a gender imbalance between those interested in becoming a sheriff and those who end up becoming one.

In this case there are more women interested in becoming a sheriff than those actually working as one. It is hard to pinpoint the exact reasons why, but there are likely various forces at play, from changing interests over time to societal norms and biases.

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Ethnic Mix, 2019

The largest ethnic group of sheriffs are White, making up 71% of the population. The next highest segments are Other and Black or African American, making up 8% and 8% respectively.