Infographic: 1.25 Million Have 'Top Secret' Access in the U.S. (2024)

FAQs

How many people have access to top secret documents? ›

As our chart shows, the federal government grants top secret security clearance to large numbers of government employees and contractors: 1.25 million according to the latest publicly available figures.

Rigid clearance procedures: Obtaining and maintaining a Q clearance is tedious and time-consuming. Candidates must go through extensive background checks, interviews, and investigations, which may discourage some people from obtaining or retaining such clearances, further narrowing down the candidate pool.

The average cost to process a TOP SECRET clearance is between $3,000 and about $15,000, depending upon individual factors.

Because of the classified nature of our work, all CIA applicants must go through a comprehensive security clearance process.

For Confidential clearances, which are the least stringent, approximately 1% of applications face denial. Secret clearances see a higher denial rate at around 3%, due to more rigorous examination. Top Secret clearances, involving extensive background checks and polygraph tests, have the highest denial rate at about 5%.

A Top Secret clearance may be granted to those persons who have a "need-to-know" national security information, classified up to the Top Secret level, and who need unescorted access to FBI facilities, when necessary.

Form must be completed going back 10 years.

If not back 10 years, it will slow down the processing time of your background investigation. The SF-86 form requests information back 7 years for employment and residence; however, to comply with the investigative standards, 10 years is required.

Can You Have Too Much Debt? As with credit scores, there is no set amount of debt that can disqualify you from being granted a security clearance. None of the major branches of the military looks only at how much you owe in making a decision on your candidacy.

People must undergo reinvestigation every five years to maintain top secret security clearance. In a reinvestigation, the worker submits an updated security package, and the agency conducts a new background check. The reinvestigation reviews the candidate's life since the last background check.

How many U.S. citizens have Top Secret clearance? ›

In it, more than 2.8 million people are described as having security clearance as of October 2017 – more than 1.6 million have access to either Confidential or Secret information and nearly 1.2 million are described as having access to Top Secret information.

If your Top Secret clearance is denied, your Secret clearance eligibility will also be revoked – particularly if the clearance upgrade is from the same agency or security clearance system of record.

The vast majority of both Secret and Top Secret security cleared positions do not require a polygraph. A variety of Sensitive Compartment Information (SCI) and Special Access Program (SAP) positions require a successful polygraph, in addition to the completion of a Single Scope Background Investigation (SSBI).

As of Aug 30, 2024, the average annual pay for a Top Secret Security Clearance in the United States is $126,833 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $60.98 an hour. This is the equivalent of $2,439/week or $10,569/month.

How often is a security clearance renewed? An individual is normally subject to periodic reinvestigation at a minimum of every 5 years for a Top Secret level clearance and every 10 years for a Secret level clearance.

For instance, in FY2020, approximately 10% of Top Secret clearances were denied, compared to 5% for Secret clearances. An important note, Secret and Top Secret have the same criteria. However, Top Secret and SCI clearances have require a longer time to do the background check since it is more in-depth.