Department of Homeland Security
Headcount, average pay, length of service, sub-agencies, and hiring trends for Department of Homeland Security, drawn directly from the OPM Federal Workforce Data (June 2026).
OPM FedScope stock folio
Employment stock June 2026 Department of Homeland Security
Department of Homeland Security is one of the largest federal employers: 225,568 employees (11.5% of the federal civilian workforce) across 51 states (including DC). At an average salary of $123,007 it pays near the federal average of $117,339, and headcount declined 0.0% from the prior period.
Monthly FedScope employment stock for Department of Homeland Security - headcount, pay, tenure, and nearest peer names from the same OPM extract (225,568 employees · $123,007 avg).
- HEAD 225,568
- RANK #2/126
- PAY $123,007
- LOS 12.9 yrs
- SHARE 11.5%
- STATES 51
- NET -12
- SUBS 13
- PHOTO Department of the Navy
- BOOK OPM FWD
Headcount peers
Photo peer: Department of the Navy (201,061 employees)
According to OPM FedScope June 2026, Department of Homeland Security ranks #2 of 126 federal agencies by headcount (the same employee_count ordering as our agencies directory and /rankings/largest-agencies). Peer bars use similar workforce size, not duty-station geography. Corpus placement →
Department of Homeland Security pay book (lean avg)
Lean-pay strip (225,568 employees · $123,007 avg) vs federal average $117,339.
Sub-agencies by average pay band
Employees counted under the sub-agency whose average salary falls in each band, not an individual pay distribution. Covers 225,568 of Department of Homeland Security's staff assigned to mapped sub-agencies.
- $80k–$100k: 1 (0%)
- $100k–$120k: 30,397 (13%)
- $120k–$150k: 89,344 (40%)
- $150k+: 105,826 (47%)
Agency Average
$123,007
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+4.8%
Where Department of Homeland Security ranks on pay
Ranked by agency (not weighted by headcount), its average salary of $123,007 is higher than 20% of the 121 federal agencies (24 pay less on average). Smaller specialized agencies often post higher per-employee averages than large ones like Department of Homeland Security, so this agency-count rank can differ from a comparison to the government-wide, employee-weighted average shown above. The highlighted bar marks where Department of Homeland Security sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 121 federal agencies; Department of Homeland Security ranks higher than 20%.
Sub-agency pay span (dense agency)
Under $80K
0
$80K–$100K
1
$100K–$120K
30,397
$120K–$150K
89,344
Over $150K
105,826
Sub-agencies & Organizational Units
Department of Homeland Security has 13 sub-agencies. The highest-paying unit averages $168,991.
| Sub-agency | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customs and Border Protection | 69,958 | $150,558 | 14.4 yrs |
| Transportation Security Administration | 59,977 | $125,969 | 11.5 yrs |
| Immigration and Customs Enforcement | 29,065 | $157,787 | 13.7 yrs |
| Federal Emergency Management Agency | 20,262 | $105,981 | 9.5 yrs |
| Citizenship and Immigration Services | 20,241 | $127,652 | 13.2 yrs |
| U.S. Coast Guard | 8,723 | $111,873 | 14.1 yrs |
| U.S. Secret Service | 8,465 | $134,652 | 12.2 yrs |
| DHS Headquarters | 4,180 | $151,433 | 14.8 yrs |
| Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency | 2,216 | $154,671 | 14.1 yrs |
| Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers | 1,412 | $109,641 | 17.7 yrs |
| Office of the Inspector General | 661 | $149,951 | 18.3 yrs |
| Science and Technology Directorate | 407 | $168,991 | 16.8 yrs |
| Domestic Nuclear Detection Office | 1 | $90,838 | 1.8 yrs |
Geographic Presence
Department of Homeland Security has employees in 51 states (including DC). District of Columbia has the most with 13,099 employees.
| State | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 13,099 | $148,740 | 14.7 yrs |
| Virginia | 7,850 | $135,085 | 14.2 yrs |
| Maryland | 4,093 | $129,358 | 14.5 yrs |
| Texas | 3,984 | $105,636 | 11.5 yrs |
| California | 2,555 | $119,835 | 13 yrs |
| Florida | 2,477 | $100,035 | 11.8 yrs |
| Georgia | 2,149 | $103,317 | 11.7 yrs |
| New York | 1,401 | $116,436 | 12.4 yrs |
| North Carolina | 1,206 | $96,643 | 12.3 yrs |
| Missouri | 937 | $102,559 | 13.5 yrs |
| Washington | 771 | $118,627 | 12.8 yrs |
| Massachusetts | 759 | $116,264 | 12.9 yrs |
| New Jersey | 746 | $117,349 | 13.5 yrs |
| Louisiana | 742 | $93,566 | 11.6 yrs |
| Illinois | 732 | $115,106 | 12.3 yrs |
| Pennsylvania | 725 | $118,479 | 12 yrs |
| Colorado | 719 | $123,783 | 12 yrs |
| Vermont | 623 | $117,908 | 14.5 yrs |
| Alabama | 506 | $97,259 | 11.2 yrs |
| West Virginia | 467 | $110,432 | 11.8 yrs |
Showing top 20 of 51 states
Workforce Dynamics
Dynamics feed (RSS)Monthly hiring and separation trends. Net change over 12 months: -12.
| Month | Accessions | Separations | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2026 | +1,495 | -1,386 | +109 |
| May 2026 | +14 | -122 | -108 |
| Apr 2026 | +8 | -36 | -28 |
| Mar 2026 | +14 | -26 | -12 |
| Feb 2026 | +12 | -26 | -14 |
| Jan 2026 | +11 | -23 | -12 |
| Dec 2025 | +30 | -9 | +21 |
| Nov 2025 | +15 | -4 | +11 |
| Oct 2025 | +8 | -10 | -2 |
| Sep 2025 | +31 | -9 | +22 |
| Aug 2025 | +2 | -1 | +1 |
| Jul 2025 | +1 | -1 | +0 |
vs Federal Hiring Climate
OPM FedScope dynamics for Jun 2026 — Department of Homeland Security against the same-month federal civilian totals (not a forecast).
Agency net (Jun 2026)
+109
+1,495 / −1,386
Federal net (Jun 2026)
+2,416
+15,984 / −13,568
Share of federal accessions
9.35%
Moved with the federal climate this month
Hiring & Separation Reasons
Why employees join and leave Department of Homeland Security
Accession Reasons
NEW HIRE - COMPETITIVE SERVICE APPOINTMENT
1,072
NEW HIRE - EXCEPTED SERVICE APPOINTMENT
523
TRANSFER IN - INDIVIDUAL TRANSFER
53
NEW HIRE - SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE (SES) APPT
3
Separation Reasons
QUIT
767
RETIREMENT - VOLUNTARY
436
OTHER SEPARATION
186
TRANSFER OUT - INDIVIDUAL TRANSFER
129
TERMINATION (EXPIRED APPT/OTHER)
81
Sub-agencies by average tenure
Agency-wide average length of service is 12.9 years. Counts below are employees in sub-agencies whose average tenure falls in each band, not how many individuals have that length of service.
Sub-agency avg under 5 yrs
1
Sub-agency avg 5–10 yrs
20,262
Sub-agency avg 10–15 yrs
202,825
Sub-agency avg 15–20 yrs
2,480
Sub-agency avg over 20 yrs
0
Similar-Sized Agencies
Federal agencies with a similar workforce size to Department of Homeland Security
Showing 6 of 125 other federal agencies.
Department of the Navy
Department of the Army
Department of the Air Force
Department of Justice
Department of Treasury
Department of Agriculture
Nationwide agencies with similar pay or tenure
Two peer sets for Department of Homeland Security on OPM FedScope averages that vary across the full agency corpus, not duty-station geography or sub-agency hierarchy.
Peers near this lean pay band
Nearest agency-wide average salaries ($123,007 here).
Peers near this dense headcount tenure
Nearest agency-wide average length of service (12.9 years here).
How these figures are calculated
The pay percentile above is computed live from PlainGovJobs' own OPM FedScope database, not hand-typed: Department of Homeland Security's average salary is ranked against every other federal agency's average salary, agency-by-agency (not weighted by headcount), and the percentile is the share of agencies whose average is strictly lower.
The sub-agency pay-span bars sum each sub-agency's own employee_count into one of five salary bands based on that sub-agency's average salary; the bands add up exactly to Department of Homeland Security's total employee count, since every sub-agency is counted in exactly one band.
See the methodology page for the full source-to-page pipeline and refresh cadence.
Data Source: U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope Employment Cubes, June 2026. Federal civilian non-seasonal full-time and part-time employees. Data does not include military personnel, postal workers, or intelligence agency staff. Last updated: 2026-08-11.
Data currency: Employment stock from OPM Federal Workforce Data June 2026 (prior-period deltas vs May 2026); monthly hiring/separations from FWD Dynamics June 2024–June 2026 (filled civilian headcount and flows, not live USAJOBS vacancy listings). State pages sum only duty stations with a disclosed US state/DC code; 898,675 employees have redacted geography in the release and appear in the national total only. Database compiled 2026-08-11. See our methodology § populations for the three windows. Spot a figure that looks wrong? Report a correction.