In 2006, Jack Abramoff was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for one of the biggest lobbying scandals in U.S. history.
He had defrauded Native American tribes out of at least $66 million dollars, funneled gifts and bribes to lawmakers, and traded on his access to reshape policy in the shadows.
His downfall led to more than 20 high-profile convictions, exposed deep cracks in lobbying oversight, and triggered a wave of reform talk in Washington.
But nearly two decades later, lobbying hasn’t slowed down. It’s become more structured, more disclosed, and in many places—more expensive. The Abramoff scandal put lobbying under the spotlight. What happened next is what this piece is about.
This article explores how lobbying (government relations) has evolved up to 2025 in the United States and across Europe—two regions where lobbying is highly active but governed by different rules and assumptions.
We’ll look at:
- How much money is spent on lobbying each year
- How many lobbyists are active
- Which industries spend the most on lobbying; and
- How the rules and transparency around lobbying differ between the U.S. and European countries
Along the way, I’ll walk you through year-by-year changes and key developments—what’s increased, what’s plateaued, and what still isn’t captured by the data.
U.S. Lobbying Statistics: How Much Does K Street Spend on Government Relations Each Year?
The U.S. lobbying industry is often referred to as “K Street” after the D.C. street known for lobbying firms. The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has grown over the years. Around 11,500–11,900 federally registered lobbyists were active in 2019–2020, per OpenSecrets data. This number ticked up as spending rose.
By 2021 there were roughly 12,100 lobbyists, and in 2022 about 12,665 lobbyists were registered at the federal level. In 2024, the last full year for which we have complete data, OpenSecrets recorded just over 13,000 lobbyists in the U.S., a new record.
| Year | Lobbying Spending (US) | Registered Lobbyists (US federal) |
| 2019 | $3.51 billion | 11,882 |
| 2020 | $3.53 billion | 11,530 |
| 2021 | $3.78 billion | 12,186 |
| 2022 | $4.11 billion | 12,665 |
| 2023 | $4.27 billion | 12,921 |
| 2024 | $4.44 billion | 13,037 |
Table 1: Federal lobbying expenditures and number of lobbyists in the U.S., 2019–2024. Source: OpenSecrets.
Spending on lobbying in the U.S. has hit record highs in recent years. In 2019 and 2020, companies, unions, and other groups spent roughly $3.5 billion each year lobbying the federal government. This jumped to $3.78 billion in 2021, which was a record and about 6% higher than 2020.
The growth continued despite the COVID-19 pandemic – many interests lobbied on pandemic relief bills and regulations, keeping 2020’s spending on par with 2019. By 2022, federal lobbying spending topped $4.1 billion, the highest ever nominal total at the time.
2023 set another record at over $4.2 billion in federal lobbying expenditure. In each quarter of 2023, spending exceeded $1 billion, showing how sustained the lobbying activity was. In 2024, that figure reached a new high of $4.44 billion.
Figure 1: Number of lobbyists and lobbying spending in the U.S., 1998–2025. Source: OpenSecrets.
EU Lobbying Statistics and Trends: Tracking the Money in Brussels
Lobbying isn’t just an American phenomenon. It’s very much present in Europe, though the scale and transparency vary greatly by country. Unlike the U.S., most European countries only started regulating or tracking lobbying in the last decade or so, and not all have strong disclosure systems.
Let’s first break down the European lobbying landscape in terms of spending and registered lobbyists.
At the European Union (EU) level, there is a Transparency Register where organizations that lobby EU institutions (the European Commission, Parliament, etc.) can — and now generally must — sign up. As of 2025, 14,815 organizations are listed on the EU’s Transparency Register (up from 13,366 in 2021). These include companies, industry trade groups, consultancies, NGOs, and others that seek to influence the EU policy cycle.
Figure 2: Number of lobbyists in the EU, 2012–2022. Source: European Court of Auditors (ECA).
In terms of spending, those registrants declare an annual lobbying budget in ranges; summed together, they account for an estimated €1.6 to €2.2 billion in lobbying spending each year. This range exists because the EU register allows reporting spending in broad brackets. By comparison, roughly 1.5 times that amount is spent on lobbying in the US ($4.4 billion in 2024, or €3.6 billion).
However, the EU figure is a bit fuzzy due to different reporting standards – not all entities report exact numbers, and some (like nonprofits) don’t have to report budgets at all after rule changes in 2021.
Still, it’s clear that Brussels is the second-biggest lobbying hub in the world after Washington. In fact, it’s estimated that around 25,000 individual lobbyists are active in Brussels if you count everyone — one source puts estimates at least 48,000 people. About 7,500 lobbyists even hold permanent access badges to the European Parliament.
Lobbying statistics for individual European countries
Europe is a patchwork when it comes to lobbying data. Some countries have mandatory lobbying registers, some have only voluntary systems, and others have virtually no public tracking.
According to a 2024 Transparency International survey, 15 out of 27 EU countries have at least partially mandatory lobbying transparency rules, while 12 countries still rely on voluntary measures or have none at all. This means the availability of data (and the rigor of enforcement) differs widely.
To give you a sense of the numbers, here are a few examples of national lobbying registers as of 2025.
Germany Lobbying Statistics
Germany introduced its first mandatory lobby register in 2022 and amended it again in 2024. As of mid-2025, it has 6,166 entries in the register. This is a big jump from zero just a couple years before – a clear sign that Germany’s new law brought a lot of lobbying into the open.
Many of these registrants are companies, industry associations, and individual lobbyists. About 86% are legal entities, while 4.4% are natural persons — the register counts 28,557 people who directly represent interests as of writing. Business, environment, and EU policy are the top 3 interest areas for German lobbying.
Figure 3: Top interest areas for lobbyists in Germany, 2025. Source: German Lobbying Register
France Lobbying Statistics
France’s lobbying register (managed by the Haute Autorité, created in 2017) has grown steadily. As of July 2024, about 3,215 interest representatives (organizations or individuals) were registered in France. This was a 12% increase from the year before, continuing an upward trend as more entities register.
It’s worth noting that France’s law requires registration only for those above certain lobbying activity thresholds. A principal lobbying activity is defined as one being pursued for more than 50% of the time, while a regular one means more than 10 contacts per year. Even so, the number of registered lobbyists has climbed into the thousands.
Ireland Lobbying Statistics
Ireland is often cited as a transparency success story. It implemented a broad lobbying registry in 2015 via the Regulation of Lobbying Act. By the end of 2022, Ireland had 2,430 registered lobbyists (organizations and individuals) actively reporting their lobbying. That was up almost 6% from 2021, and more than double the sub-1,000 registrants in 2015.
By 2023, the number was roughly 2,538, per Ireland’s Regulation of Lobbying Annual Report. Ireland’s system captures any organization or person lobbying designated public officials, so it casts a wide net – which is why a country of 5 million people has more registered lobbyists than some larger countries with narrower laws (like Poland, which we’ll get to in a bit).
United Kingdom Lobbying Statistics
The UK presents a contrast. The UK’s statutory lobbying register covers only consultant lobbyists (for-hire lobbying firms or individuals who lobby on behalf of clients). In-house lobbyists (say, a company’s government affairs staff) do not have to register at all. As a result, the UK’s official register listed only 258 registered consultant lobbyists in 2024.
This number has been pretty static (still just 274 registered consultants as of June 2025) and is far smaller than the thousands of lobbyists we see in other places, simply because of the narrow definition in the UK law. Critics note that most lobbying in London goes unregistered since an overwhelming share is done by in-house corporate lobbyists, who aren’t covered by the law.
Lobbying trends and statistics in other EU countries
Some European countries still have minimal lobbying disclosure. For example, Poland’s law only counts outside lobbying firms, similar to the UK. Thus, Poland’s official register had a mere 19 individual lobbyists on it, per recent data – obviously an undercount of actual lobbying activity in a country of 37 million.
The Netherlands has a voluntary register for Parliament access that listed just 72 lobbyists (mostly umbrella organizations) at one point. On the other hand, some countries have recently instituted new rules. For instance, Italy and Spain have been considering or enacting lobbying registers in the past couple of years, which may increase transparency going forward.
Spain’s register for lobbyists is the Registro de Grupos de Interés, which numbered 3,823 interest groups as of 1 February 2021, with 79 more registration requests pending. As of 2025, Italy still has significant fragmentation in lobbying regulation at the national and subnational levels, with lobbying regulated in seven of its twenty regions, the Lower House (not in the Upper House), and across three ministries. A 2017 study counted nearly 2,000 lobby groups in the country.
The key takeaway is that the U.S. still outspends Europe by a large margin in lobbying, but Europe has a comparable number of lobbyists in the capital. As of 2024, the U.S. had 13,037 registered federal lobbyists versus roughly 14,949 lobbying organizations (as of 2025) identified in EU institutions.
Yet, the money reported in EU lobbying is only about a third of U.S. levels. OpenSecrets puts U.S. federal lobbying at about $4.4 billion in 2024. In the same year, LobbyControl reported that EU lobbyists collectively spent €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) on EU lobbying, with at least 162 registrants declaring €1 million or more — an 11% increase since 2020.
Even if that European figure is likely undercounting (due to many organizations not reporting exact budgets), there’s a clear gap. European lobbying campaigns generally involve less money changing hands than U.S. lobbying – which could be due to different political systems, stricter limits on political donations, or simply less reliance on expensive professional lobbying firms in some countries. We’ll discuss more about why these differences exist when we compare laws and practices.
Who’s Spending on Lobbying? Top Industries and Sectors
Let’s now talk about which industries and sectors are spending big on federal lobbying—and how that’s shifted over the past five years. We’ll focus on the US for now, since we have more comprehensive year-on-year data for that geography. Here’s a quick comparison table:
| Industry | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Pharmaceuticals/Health Products | $365,089,269 | $380,445,634 | $385,353,389 | $387,474,822 | $120,487,674 |
| Electronics Mfg & Equip | $197,435,500 | $228,226,780 | $247,175,086 | $253,424,308 | $68,147,954 |
| Insurance | $154,380,508 | $159,108,915 | $158,234,164 | $155,183,543 | $49,980,389 |
| Securities & Investment | $122,470,246 | $144,048,663 | $149,072,294 | $152,840,783 | $42,718,589 |
| Oil & Gas | $120,697,396 | $126,032,614 | $133,527,094 | $153,161,835 | $38,302,910 |
| Hospitals/Nursing Homes | $121,292,282 | $125,574,977 | $134,188,475 | $133,292,078 | $38,423,117 |
| Health Services/HMOs | $123,721,039 | $128,240,718 | $129,657,968 | $118,257,295 | $36,992,025 |
| Electric Utilities | $113,321,713 | $125,003,191 | $128,847,151 | $130,812,636 | $41,614,413 |
| Business Associations | $122,654,243 | $131,772,961 | $119,541,303 | $130,159,681 | $35,861,289 |
| Misc Manufacturing & Distributing | $109,371,677 | $120,120,927 | $124,694,679 | $117,911,194 | $32,206,413 |
| Air Transport | $112,071,562 | $121,671,773 | $139,226,012 | $135,258,156 | $36,672,564 |
| Civil Servants/Public Officials | $103,401,594 | $112,787,834 | $123,427,581 | $134,541,491 | $33,856,595 |
| Real Estate | $100,099,714 | $139,057,839 | $109,643,189 | $150,934,075 | $27,918,622 |
| Telecom Services | $114,839,425 | $117,902,650 | $117,613,186 | $108,120,330 | $29,506,035 |
| Internet | $85,282,800 | $95,295,591 | $100,829,761 | $109,899,153 | $30,258,690 |
| Education | $81,871,738 | $89,648,334 | $96,422,726 | $104,842,681 | $29,018,301 |
| Health Professionals | $90,371,333 | $98,144,942 | $96,881,743 | $99,997,274 | $99,997,274 |
| Automotive | $88,986,950 | $98,886,950 | $88,686,950 | $85,522,864 | $29,720,156 |
Table 2: Top U.S. Federal Lobbying Spending Sectors, 2021-2025. Source: OpenSecrets
TL;DR: pharma still leads, but tech has surged, and energy is back in the mix. Most major industries held their ground through 2024, but we’re now seeing pullbacks across the board in 2025.
Between 2021 and 2024, pharmaceuticals and health products consistently ranked first in lobbying spend. They peaked at just under $387.5 million in 2024—driven by fights over drug pricing, Medicare negotiations, and FDA oversight. In 2025, they’ve already logged over $120 million—and the year’s only halfway through.
Electronics manufacturing and equipment (think: chipmakers, Big Tech hardware, and AI infrastructure firms) climbed from under $200 million in 2021 to over $253 million in 2024. A 26% rise in three years. That reflects how much pressure the sector is under: AI regulation, semiconductor subsidies, and export bans, among others. But in 2025, spending has slowed—only $68 million so far—likely a post-CHIPS Act cooldown.
Insurance and investment firms hovered between $150 million and $160 million through 2024, with slight dips in 2023 and 2024. They’ve spent less in early 2025—under $50 million each so far—but may ramp up lobbying as financial regulation debates continue throughout the year.
Then there’s oil and gas. They hit their highest point yet in 2024: $153 million, up from $126 million in 2022. That spike tracks with battles over drilling permits, ESG investing, and the climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. So far in 2025, their total is much lower ($38 million), but this industry might backload its spend depending on regulatory calendars.
Other consistent spenders include hospitals, health services, and electric utilities—all floating around the $125M–$135M mark each year. These groups rarely leave the top ten and are lobbying on everything from Medicare reimbursement to grid modernization.
A few notables:
- Air transport peaked at $139 million in 2023, riding FAA reauthorization and labor rule changes, then eased slightly in 2024.
- Real estate had a strange spike in 2024, jumping to $150 million, more than any previous year by far—possibly tied to housing policy, interest rate pressures, and tax reform chatter. It’s dropped sharply in 2025 so far.
- Telecom and internet remain steady players, rarely flashy but always present—pushing on data privacy, net neutrality, and content moderation.
Finally, take note of 2025 across the board. It looks lower, but that’s only because we’re mid-year as of writing. Every number will likely rise as Q3 and Q4 data rolls in. For now, though, the early data gives us a sense of where attention is shifting—and where it’s pulling back.
Healthcare leads U.S. lobbying spend, other industries follow closely
The dominance of health/pharma in U.S. lobbying can be explained by two things. The first is big legislative stakes (e.g. drug pricing reforms, COVID-19 vaccine policies). The second is simple math: hospitals and healthcare are the two biggest industries in the U.S., each enjoying $1.5 trillion in annual revenue.
Similarly, the finance industry fights over banking regulations (while driving 7.3% of U.S. GDP), and tech companies lobby intensely on antitrust and internet laws (with U.S. tech spending expected to hit $2.7 trillion in 2025). These sectors have more money to maintain high lobbying investments year after year.
In Europe, the industry breakdown also features tech, finance, energy, and pharma – but with some differences. At the EU level, analyses show that Big Tech and finance are among the top lobbying spenders in Brussels, closely followed by sectors like energy/climate and pharmaceuticals.
With the EU debating major digital regulations (like the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, and an AI Act), tech firms poured resources into lobbying Brussels – collectively, tech firms spent about €113 million in 2023 on EU lobbying, which was a significant increase from just a few years prior.
This figure, however, is still modest next to what the tech sector spends in Washington. In the U.S., single companies like Amazon or Alphabet each spend $10–20 million a year on federal lobbying.
The financial sector (banks, investment firms) is another powerhouse in EU lobbying, given ongoing reforms in EU finance regulations. Energy companies (including fossil fuel and utility companies) also spend heavily to influence EU climate and energy policies – for instance, oil & gas and automotive industries lobby on emissions standards and renewable targets, among others.
The European pharmaceutical and health sector is active as well, although EU health policy primarily serves to support national health policies. Pharma lobbying in Europe thus often targets specific EU regulations like drug approvals and intellectual property rules.
One notable observation: the top spenders in Brussels often include trade associations and cross-industry lobby groups — like BusinessEurope, a major business lobby, or sector associations — alongside individual corporations. The EU’s lobby register shows hundreds of industry associations which sometimes have very large lobbying budgets funded by their corporate members. This means in Europe, influence is often funneled through collective organizations in addition to direct company lobbying.
Comparing Lobbying Laws and Transparency: US vs. Europe
Much of the difference in EU-US lobbying spending and headcount comes down to the laws, transparency requirements, and enforcement in each place. Let’s take a closer look at them.
United States lobbying laws
Who must register and what must they disclose? The U.S. has long-standing lobbying disclosure laws. Anyone who is paid to lobby federal officials and spends above a certain minimal threshold must register and file quarterly reports under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA).
These reports disclose how much was spent, who was lobbied, and on what issues. The definitions are broad – covering not just lobbying firms but also in-house lobbyists at corporations or nonprofits, as long as lobbying is a significant part of their job.
Is there enforcement? Compliance is monitored, and while not perfect, there is enforcement. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits a sample of 100-200 filings each year, and the Department of Justice can pursue violators.
Penalties for willfully not registering or filing false reports can include fines and even jail in serious cases. High-profile crackdowns (like the Abramoff scandal at the start of this article) have shown that unregistered lobbying or bribery masked as lobbying can lead to criminal charges.
European Union lobbying laws
The EU’s Transparency Register is quasi-mandatory. Since 2021, an Interinstitutional Agreement made registration effectively required if an interest representative wants to meet with top EU officials or gain access to Parliament (part of a so-called ‘conditionality principle’).
Who must register? Any organization or self-employed individual who aims to influence EU policy is supposed to sign up. This covers a broad range, similar to the U.S., with no specific spending threshold — even one meeting with EU officials can trigger it.
What must they disclose? Registrants list their lobbying topics, the EU legislation of interest, and an approximate budget (except some non-profits which no longer report budgets). They also must follow a Code of Conduct.
Is there enforcement? This where the EU differs – there are no fines or criminal penalties for not registering. Instead, the “punishment” for not registering is losing access: unregistered lobbyists can be denied meetings. The EU’s register secretariat can suspend or remove violators from the list, but it’s administrative.
Essentially, the EU relies on a “no registration, no access” incentive rather than legal prosecution. This means enforcement is lighter-touch than in the U.S. The focus is on transparency for those who opt in (and most major players do opt in, because without being on the list they cannot effectively lobby high-level officials).
Still, critics note that without fines, some lobbying around the margins might go unreported, and the register’s accuracy isn’t perfect — data can be incomplete or outdated for some entries.
Germany lobbying laws
Who must register? Germany’s Lobby Register Act requires registration by any entity that engages in regular and ongoing lobbying of federal officials, whether they are companies lobbying on their own behalf or professional lobby firms. The definition is broad – even a few contacts can trigger it if done systematically.
What must they disclose? Germany’s register demands disclosure of the interests represented, the number of lobbyists, and financial information such as lobbying expenditures and funding sources. Initially, there was an opt-out for financial info, but as of the 2024 reform, lobbyists must disclose all financial data – closing a loophole that had allowed some to hide their budgets.
Is there enforcement? Yes — Germany actually imposes fines for non-compliance. Not registering or failing to update information can lead to fines up to €50,000 (for intentional violations). By early 2024, authorities had identified around 100 cases where registrants failed to update their entries on time (and presumably sanctions were being applied).
This shows Germany is serious about enforcement: the law even introduced the concept of a “legislative footprint,” requiring lobbyists to disclose which specific proposals they tried to influence. Germany’s approach is moving closer to the U.S. style in terms of rigor, but is still fairly new – the culture of compliance is still developing there.
United Kingdom lobbying laws
Who must register? As we’ve seen, the UK’s lobbying rules are narrow in scope and lighter in touch. The Transparency of Lobbying Act 2014 set up a register only for consultant lobbyists (those who lobby for clients and earn above a certain income).
This means if, say, a law firm or PR agency lobbies a minister on behalf of a corporate client, that firm must register. But if a corporation’s own public affairs director lobbies the minister, that does not require registration. Also, only lobbying of very senior officials (like Ministers or Permanent Secretaries) counts – lobbying rank-and-file officials doesn’t trigger it.
What must they disclose? Registered consultant lobbyists in the UK need to file quarterly reports of whom they lobbied and on whose behalf. The burden is on the lobbyist, not the client, to report.
Is there enforcement? Yes — there are offenses for not registering or not filing accurate info. These can result in fines of up to £7,500, and technically criminal charges, though in practice enforcement has been relatively minimal given the small number of registrants.
In short, the UK values targeted transparency (just for hired guns) whereas the U.S. and some EU countries aim for comprehensive transparency (covering all who lobby).
Other European countries’ laws
There’s variety. France has a broad register (managed by HATVP) covering both in-house and consultant lobbyists who meet certain activity thresholds. France requires annual disclosure of lobbying activities and expenses, and has extended these rules to local government lobbying as well. They enforce compliance by naming and shaming non-compliant entities and can impose sanctions for missing declarations.
Ireland’s law is one of the most comprehensive – it covers practically anyone who lobbies designated officials and requires three reports per year. Ireland actively enforces fines for late filings: for example, in 2022 the Irish regulator issued 468 fixed-penalty notices for late lobbying returns, and even pursued at least one prosecution for unreported lobbying. That shows a slightly stronger enforcement culture.
Poland, as noted earlier, only covers consultant lobbyists by law (hence the tiny official number of lobbyists). Finland introduced a Transparency Register in 2024, requiring organizations to disclose lobbying activities directed at Parliament and ministries.
Norway’s Transparency Act was adopted in July 2022, though its own lobby register is not as easily searchable as other countries’. Sweden has no mandatory lobby register — they rely on transparency through other means like the ‘principle of public access’ that gives everyone the right to take part (sic) in public documents.
Spain and Italy historically had voluntary registers, but have been moving toward mandatory ones recently. Spain approved a lobbying transparency law in 2022, which is still in implementation as of 2025. In Italy, there are still no lobbying laws at the national level, though several proposals have been put forth.
Lobbying activities are not yet regulated in Portugal, though the government is contemplating implementing a few measures, including as of 2024 a lobbying Transparency Register. Austria’s Lobbying and Interest Representation Transparency Act entered into force on 1 January 2013, but its lobby register does not provide an overall overview and lacks informational value.
Bulgaria’s situation is even more stark. As one 2019 report put it:
“The current legislation in place in Bulgaria does not refer to or use the term “lobbying”. There is no public register of lobbying activities, and the public does not have knowledge of who is lobbying whom, on what issues, when and how they are being lobbied. The score for Bulgaria on the criterion of “transparency of lobbying” is thus dramatically low, coming in at just 13%.”
The landscape is evolving, but the general trend from 2019 to 2025 is that while some European countries still run government relations informally, more of them are adopting stricter lobbying transparency rules, learning from each other and from the EU’s example.
Summary of enforcement differences
In the U.S., failing to follow lobbying disclosure rules can lead to legal penalties (though major crackdowns are infrequent). In Europe, enforcement is hit-or-miss: Germany and Ireland can fine rule-breakers, the EU and UK mainly just cut access or have limited scope, and some countries still have no one to even enforce anything due to lack of laws.
Final thoughts on these lobbying statistics and trends
As we head into 2026, we see a world where lobbying is a normal part of policymaking in both the U.S. and Europe, but carried out at different scales and under different disclosure regimes. We have more data than ever about lobbying activities – from the billions spent in Washington to the growing registries in European capitals. This data allows us to ask informed questions about who is influencing our laws.
Moving forward, the challenge will be to maintain and improve these transparency efforts, ensure rules are enforced, and strike a balance so that policy decisions are made in the public interest, not just in the interest of the most well-funded lobbyists.
Ultimately, lobbying itself isn’t inherently bad – it’s a way for different voices (business, labor, citizen groups, and other interest groups) to be heard by decision-makers. The statistics we’ve reviewed show that this activity is vast and evolving, and that openness about lobbying – knowing the “who, how much, and on what” – is crucial for a healthy democracy on both sides of the Atlantic.
If you’re looking to make sense of complex data or tell clearer stories around policy and influence, we’d love to help. Our team blends research and writing to bring clarity to big questions in the form of white papers, policy briefs, and public-facing content. Reach out today.
Mo is the founder and CEO of Column Content, a thought leadership content agency that helps leaders shape public opinion. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
