Smithsonian Institution
Headcount, average pay, length of service, sub-agencies, and hiring trends for Smithsonian Institution, drawn directly from the OPM Federal Workforce Data (June 2026).
OPM FedScope stock folio
Employment stock June 2026 Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution is a smaller federal agency: 4,109 employees (0.2% of the federal civilian workforce) across 32 states (including DC). At an average salary of $105,109 it pays below the federal average of $117,339, and headcount grew 0.2% from the prior period.
Monthly FedScope employment stock for Smithsonian Institution - headcount, pay, tenure, and nearest peer names from the same OPM extract (4,109 employees · $105,109 avg).
- HEAD 4,109
- RANK #24/126
- PAY $105,109
- LOS 16.3 yrs
- SHARE 0.2%
- STATES 32
- NET +17
- SUBS 3
- PHOTO Securities and Exchange Comm
- BOOK OPM FWD
Headcount peers
Photo peer: Securities and Exchange Commission (3,927 employees)
According to OPM FedScope June 2026, Smithsonian Institution ranks #24 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 →
Smithsonian Institution pay book (lean avg)
Lean-pay strip (4,109 employees · $105,109 avg) vs federal average $117,339.
Agency Average
$105,109
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
-10.4%
Where Smithsonian Institution ranks on pay
Ranked by agency (not weighted by headcount), its average salary of $105,109 is higher than 11% of the 121 federal agencies (13 pay less on average). Smaller specialized agencies often post higher per-employee averages than large ones like Smithsonian Institution, so this agency-count rank can differ from a comparison to the government-wide, employee-weighted average shown above. The highlighted bar marks where Smithsonian Institution sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 121 federal agencies; Smithsonian Institution ranks higher than 11%.
Sub-agency pay span (dense agency)
Under $80K
0
$80K–$100K
0
$100K–$120K
4,109
$120K–$150K
0
Over $150K
0
Sub-agencies & Organizational Units
Smithsonian Institution has 3 sub-agencies. The highest-paying unit averages $108,751.
| Sub-agency | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smithsonian Institution (except Units Administered Under Separate Boards of Trustees) | 3,447 | $104,421 | 16.5 yrs |
| National Gallery of Art | 613 | $108,751 | 15.4 yrs |
| The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts | 49 | $107,710 | 12.9 yrs |
Geographic Presence
Smithsonian Institution has employees in 32 states (including DC). District of Columbia has the most with 3,237 employees.
| State | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 3,237 | $104,653 | 16.1 yrs |
| Maryland | 374 | $96,157 | 17 yrs |
| Virginia | 199 | $114,027 | 16.5 yrs |
| New York | 130 | $89,886 | 16.9 yrs |
| Massachusetts | 49 | $188,921 | 22.3 yrs |
| Hawaii | 13 | $86,698 | 15.2 yrs |
| California | 7 | $122,611 | 13.7 yrs |
| Arizona | 6 | $86,205 | 16.2 yrs |
| Texas | 5 | $128,918 | 16.5 yrs |
| Florida | 5 | $119,694 | 13.5 yrs |
| Colorado | 4 | $132,916 | 14.4 yrs |
| North Carolina | 3 | $111,365 | 33.6 yrs |
| Vermont | 3 | $130,530 | 14.7 yrs |
| Pennsylvania | 3 | $120,273 | 14.4 yrs |
| South Carolina | 3 | $114,004 | 21.4 yrs |
| Michigan | 2 | $157,839 | 21.1 yrs |
| Washington | 2 | $112,347 | 9.8 yrs |
| Minnesota | 2 | $114,715 | 6.8 yrs |
| West Virginia | 2 | $129,838 | 18.7 yrs |
| Maine | 1 | $128,410 | 28.4 yrs |
Showing top 20 of 32 states
Workforce Dynamics
Dynamics feed (RSS)Monthly hiring and separation trends. Net change over 5 months: +17.
| Month | Accessions | Separations | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2026 | +47 | -31 | +16 |
| May 2026 | +1 | -1 | +0 |
| Jan 2026 | +0 | -1 | -1 |
| Nov 2025 | +1 | -0 | +1 |
| Nov 2024 | +1 | -0 | +1 |
vs Federal Hiring Climate
OPM FedScope dynamics for Jun 2026 — Smithsonian Institution against the same-month federal civilian totals (not a forecast).
Agency net (Jun 2026)
+16
+47 / −31
Federal net (Jun 2026)
+2,416
+15,984 / −13,568
Share of federal accessions
0.29%
Moved with the federal climate this month
Hiring & Separation Reasons
Why employees join and leave Smithsonian Institution
Accession Reasons
NEW HIRE - COMPETITIVE SERVICE APPOINTMENT
40
TRANSFER IN - INDIVIDUAL TRANSFER
8
NEW HIRE - EXCEPTED SERVICE APPOINTMENT
2
Separation Reasons
RETIREMENT - VOLUNTARY
12
QUIT
10
TRANSFER OUT - INDIVIDUAL TRANSFER
5
OTHER SEPARATION
4
RETIREMENT - OTHER
2
Sub-agencies by average tenure
Agency-wide average length of service is 16.3 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
0
Sub-agency avg 5–10 yrs
0
Sub-agency avg 10–15 yrs
49
Sub-agency avg 15–20 yrs
4,060
Sub-agency avg over 20 yrs
0
Similar-Sized Agencies
Federal agencies with a similar workforce size to Smithsonian Institution
Showing 6 of 125 other federal agencies.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Small Business Administration
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Department of Housing and Urban Development
National Archives and Records Administration
Nationwide agencies with similar pay or tenure
Two peer sets for Smithsonian Institution 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 ($105,109 here).
Peers near this dense headcount tenure
Nearest agency-wide average length of service (16.3 years here).
How these figures are calculated
The pay percentile above is computed live from PlainGovJobs' own OPM FedScope database, not hand-typed: Smithsonian Institution'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 Smithsonian Institution'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.