View source for Federal executive departments

{{Short description|Primary unit of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States}}
{{Redirect|Executive Department|text=For the idea of executive departments in general, see [[Cabinet (government)]].}}

The '''United States federal executive departments''' are the principal units of the [[Federal government of the United States#Executive branch|executive branch]] of the [[federal government of the United States]]. They are analogous to [[ministry (government department)|ministries]] common in [[parliamentary system|parliamentary]] or [[semi-presidential republic|semi-presidential]] systems but (the United States being a [[presidential system]]) they are led by a [[head of government]] who is also the [[head of state]]. The executive departments are the administrative arms of the [[president of the United States]]. There are currently 15 executive departments.