An article by Steven Aftergood, who posted an article on his Secrecy News blogsite, examines the latest annual report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on the number of people “who are cleared for access to classified information.” The figure has “continued to rise in 2012 to more than 4.9 million,” according to the report. As Aftergood notes, “This is only the third official tally of government-wide security clearance activity ever prepared, and it is the largest reported to date.

“The total number of cleared personnel as of October 1, 2012 was 4,917,751.  Although the number of contractors who held a clearance declined in 2012, the number of eligible government employees grew at a faster rate, yielding a net increase of 54,199 clearances, or 1.1 percent, from the year before.

“It is possible that there were more security-cleared Americans at some points during the Cold War, when there was a larger standing military with more cleared military personnel than there are today.  But until 2010, no comprehensive account of the size of the security clearance system had ever been produced.  So the new 4.9 million figure is the largest official figure ever published.”