How Many People Work at Apple? Headcount and Employee Trends

Apple employs roughly 120,000 people worldwide, reflecting its scale as a diversified consumer-electronics and services company. Over the past hiring cycle the organization added close to 3,800 new employees while about 3,400 departed, resulting in a modest net increase in staff. This balanced growth suggests that Apple continues to expand selectively while maintaining overall workforce stability.

Engineering is Apple’s largest department with just under 50,000 employees, highlighting the company’s emphasis on hardware, software, and silicon development. Business Management, which includes program and project leadership roles, follows at around 18,000 employees, while Sales and Support accounts for a little more than 11,000. Marketing and Product, Operations, and Finance & Administration each contribute between 7,000 and 8,500 employees, underscoring the need for cross-functional expertise to bring products from concept to market. Smaller but still significant groups such as Information Technology, Consulting, and Human Resources round out the remaining headcount, illustrating the breadth of skills required across Apple’s 19 tracked departments.

Apple’s workforce is heavily concentrated in California, with the largest clusters in San Francisco (about 15,000 employees) and Cupertino (the company’s historic headquarters) at roughly 6,600 staff members. Additional California hubs include Austin, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara, each hosting between 2,000 and 6,500 employees. New York represents Apple’s most significant U.S. location outside the West Coast at around 3,600 employees, while a sizable share of staff—almost 74,000—are distributed across numerous other global sites. This geographic spread supports Apple’s mix of design, manufacturing coordination, retail operations, and corporate functions worldwide.