History of the Federal Judiciary

  Criminal Cases
   U.S. Circuit, District, and Territorial Courts (1870–1911)
   U.S. District Courts (1912–2010)¹

Year (ending)	Commenced	Terminated	Pending
1870 ²	–	3,369	4,613
1871 ³	–	8,187	5,586
1872	–	8,092^{a b}	7,510
1873 ⁴	–	6,713^a	6,274
1874 ⁵	–	6,018^a	6,627
1875 ⁶	–	6,045^a	7,667
1876	–	7,095^a	7,441
1877 ⁷	–	8,103^a	6,538
1878 ⁸	–	10,873^{b c}	7,281
1879 ⁹	–	13,717^c	7,165
1880¹⁰	–	9,269^c	7,146
1881 ¹¹	–	11,448^c	6,211
1882	–	7,494^b	3,891
1883	–	7,792	5,722
1884	–	12,542	5,437
1885 ¹²	–	11,977	3,808
1886	–	14,479	5,593
1887	–	12,905	7,346
1888	–	14,599	7,223
1889	–	14,588	7,212
1890	–	16,016	8,683
1891	–	18,327	10,325
1892	–	18,724	9,709
1893	–	21,935^b	9,410^b
1894	–	21,744	10,370
1895	–	25,949	12,499^b
1896	–	26,271	11,746
1897	–	18,134	10,958
1898	–	16,814	10,147
1899	–	17,341	10,228
1900	–	17,033	10,047
1901	–	16,837	9,944
1902	–	16,350	9,602
1903	–	16,034	11,039^d
1904	18,488	17,443	12,243^d
1905	18,900	18,163	13,040^d
1906	17,435	16,357	14,113^d
1907	18,332	16,006	8,852^d¹³
1908	13,345	12,942	9,112^d
1909	14,505	13,959	9,729^d
1910	14,864	15,371	9,322^d
1911	15,047^b	14,702	9,708^d
1912	15,953	16,158	9,689^d
1913	16,753	16,757	9,242^d
1914	18,399	18,128	9,958^d
1915	19,868	19,120	10,559^d
1916	20,243	20,432	10,668^d
1917	19,628	17,671	12,649^d
1918	35,096	30,949	16,787^d
1919	47,443	35,734	28,617^d
1920	55,587	34,230	49,924^d
1921	54,487	47,299	56,782^d
1922	60,722	53,155	64,609^d
1923	71,077	68,152	67,263^d
1924	70,168	73,488	63,300^d
1925	76,136	92,711	46,812^d
1926	68,582	76,536	38,051^d
1927	64,614	67,279	35,341^d
1928	83,372	88,336	30,480^d
1929	86,348	85,328	31,153^d
1930	87,305	82,609	35,849
1931	83,747	91,701	27,895
1932	92,174	96,949	23,120
1933	82,675	84,780	20,903^d
1934	34,152	45,577	9,478
Jul 1-Dec 31, 1934	15,972	13,862	11,588
Jan 1-Jun 30, 1935 ¹⁴	19,393	19,349	11,469
1936	35,920	36,396	11,007^d
1937	35,475	35,461	11,021
1938	34,202	34,324	10,899
1939	34,808	35,095	10,012
1940	33,401	33,861	9,553
1941	31,823	32,207	9,169
1942	33,294	31,114	11,385
1943	36,588	36,245	11,728
1944	39,621	40,406	10,943
1945	39,429	39,355	11,017
1946	33,203	35,215	9,005
1947	34,563	35,444	8,124
1948	33,300	33,573	7,851
1949	35,686	35,662	7,875
1950	37,720	37,414	8,181
1951	39,830	40,310	7,701
1952	39,022	37,929	8,794
1953	38,504	37,780	9,518
1954	43,196	42,614	10,100
1955	37,123	38,580	8,643
1956	30,653	32,053	7,243
1957	30,078	29,826	7,495
1958	30,737	30,781	7,451
1959	30,653	30,377	7,727
1960	29,828	29,864	7,691
1961	30,268	29,881	8,078
1962	31,017^d	30,013^d	9,082^d
1963	31,746^d	31,546^d	9,282^d
1964	31,733	31,437	9,578
1965	33,334	32,078	10,834
1966	31,494	30,644	11,684
1967	32,207	30,350	13,541
1968	32,571	31,349	14,763
1969	35,413	32,406	17,770
1970	39,959	36,819	20,910
1971	43,157	39,582	24,485
1972	49,054	48,101	25,438
1973	42,434	43,456	24,416
1974	39,754	41,526	22,644
1975	43,282	43,515	22,411
1976¹⁵	41,020	43,675	19,756
1977	41,464	44,111	17,150^d
1978	35,983	37,286	15,878^d
1979	32,688	31,874	15,135^d
1980	28,921	28,089	14,784^d
1981	31,287	30,221	15,866^d
1982	32,682	31,889	16,659
1983	35,872	33,985	18,587^d
1984	36,845	35,494	19,938
1985	39,500	37,139	22,299
1986	40,427	38,380	24,453^d
1987	42,156	41,087	25,263^d
1988	43,503	40,986	27,311^d
1989	44,891	41,707	30,413
1990	47,411^d	42,765^d	35,021^d
1991	45,735	42,788	37,968
1991 ¹⁶	47,123	43,073	39,562
1992 ¹⁷	48,366	44,147	34,078^d
1993	46,786	44,800	28,701^d
1994	45,473	45,129	26,328^d
1995	45,788	41,527	28,738^d
1996	47,889	45,499	32,156^d
1997	50,363	46,887	37,237^d
1998	57,691	51,428	40,277^d
1999	59,923	56,511	42,966^d
2000	62,745	58,102	47,677^d
2001	62,708	58,718	49,696^d
2002	66,128	60,991	55,518^d
2003	70,642	65,628	59,218^d
2004	71,022	64,621	65,900^d
2005	69,575	66,561	69,932^d
2006	66,860	67,499	71,916^d
2007	68,413	67,851	73,418^d
2008	70,896	70,629	75,340^d
2009	76,655	75,077	79,068^d
2010	78,428	78,069	79,427

a: calculated from totals of customs prosecutions, internal revenue prosecutions, prosecutions under enforcement act, prosecutions under naturalization act, and miscellaneous prosecutions.
b: discrepancy between exhibit and text of the report.
c: calculated from totals reported for prosecutions under customs, internal revenue, Post-office, election laws, the civil rights acts, naturalization laws, intercourse laws, pension laws, embezzlement, and miscellaneous.
d: revised total presented in the subsequent year’s report.
e: total is for individual defendants, not cases.

Notes:
1. Data includes cases in the courts of the District of Columbia and district courts in U.S. territories and possessions.
2. Statistical year is January 1–December 31. No data submitted from the following districts: Delaware, Northern Florida, Southern Florida, Maine, Minnesota, Northern Mississippi, Western Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Eastern Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Eastern Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Eastern Wisconsin, District of Columbia, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah.
3. No data submitted by the following districts: Southern Florida, Northern Florida, Nevada, Eastern Texas, Western District of Virginia, Arizona Territory, Colorado Territory, and New Mexico Territory.
4. Statistical year shifts to July 1–June 30. No data submitted by the following districts: Minnesota, Nevada, Western Texas, Idaho, New Mexico, Washington.
5. No data submitted by the districts of Arizona and Nevada.
6. No data submitted by the District of Washington.
7. No data submitted by the territories of Dakota and Montana.
8. No data submitted by the Northern District of Mississippi.
9. No data submitted by the districts of Idaho and Wyoming.
10 . No data submitted by the District of Idaho.
11. No reports submitted by the territories of Montana and New Mexico.
12. No report submitted by Territory of New Mexico.
13 . This revised total represents a major change from the total reported the previous year. Total criminal cases reported as pending at the end of 1907 was 16,441.
14. Department of Justice adopted new procedures for compiling statistics during the year and published its data for the first part of the statistical year, based on the old system, as separate tables.
15 . Data beginning in this year follows different criteria based on requirements of the Speedy Trial Act of 1974. Under the new system, the courts reported more minor offenses than had previously been reported. Courts also ceased reporting so-called superseding indictments or informations, in which government attorneys filed informations subsequent to the original indictment. These superceding informations had previously been counted as new filings. According to the AO report, the statistics for criminal cases “should be regarded as non-comparable” to the criminal statistics from prior years.
16. Beginning in 1992, the statistical year was shifted to coincide with the fiscal year, which ended on September 30. The 1992 report included statistics for the 12-month period ending September 30, 1991, which are included here.
17 . Statistical year changed to ending September 30.

Source:
1871: Annual Report of the Attorney General (1872), Exhibit B.
1872: Annual Report of the Attorney General, Exhibit D.
1873–1902: Annual Report of the Attorney General, Exhibit B.
1903–1904: Annual Report of the Attorney General, Exhibit 12.
1905–1908: Annual Report of the Attorney General, Exhibit 7.
1909: Annual Report of the Attorney General, Exhibit 9.
1910–1912: Annual Report of the Attorney General, Appendix 1.
1913: Annual Report of the Attorney General, Appendix 2.
1914–1934: Annual Report of the Attorney General, Exhibit 2.
1935–1939: Annual Report of the Attorney General, Exhibit 2, Table 2A.
1940: Annual Report of the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Table 11.
1941–1944: Annual Report of the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Table 10.
1945–1985: Annual Report of the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Table D-1.
1986–2010: Annual Report of the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Table D.