The State of U.S. Science and Engineering summarizes key indicators that assess the status of the science and engineering (S&E) enterprise within the United States and illustrate the U.S. global position in multiple aspects of the S&E enterprise. This report provides high-level findings from the nine thematic reports that make up Science and Engineering Indicators 2024. Selected data from the nine thematic reports are grouped here into three major sections that relate to the S&E enterprise: talent, discovery, and translation. These three components collectively support U.S. global competitiveness in science, technology, and innovation (STI), in that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent contributes to scientific discovery, which in turn is translated to society and the economy through innovation.

The first section of the report describes the status of the U.S. STEM education system from elementary through the doctoral level and the STEM workforce, including the contributions of international students and workers. It also details the American public’s perceptions about scientists. The second section, on research and development (R&D), discusses the position of the United States among the top R&D-performing countries and analyzes patterns of U.S. R&D funding and performance among economic sectors and by type of R&D. The third and final section focuses on outputs of the S&E enterprise to provide insight into how the United States and other major countries and regions contribute to global knowledge and innovation. Finally, the report contains a sidebar with select indicators of national investments and capabilities in critical and emerging technologies (see sidebar Critical and Emerging Technologies).