The Galerkin formulation of the finite element method is applied to the integral law of the first-order form of the one-group neutron transport equation in one-dimensional spherical geometry. Piecewise linear or quadratic Lagrange polynomials are utilized in the integral law for the angular flux to establish a set of linear algebraic equations. Numerical analyses are performed for the scalar flux distribution in a heterogeneous sphere as well as for the criticality problem in a uniform sphere. For the criticality problems in the uniform sphere, the results of the finite element method, with the use of continuous finite elements in space and angle, are compared with the exact solutions. In the heterogeneous problem, the scalar flux distribution obtained by using discontinuous angular and spatical finite elements is in good agreement with that from the ANISN code calculation.