Report

The number of research doctoral degrees awarded by U.S. institutions increased from 52,194 in 2021 to 57,596 in 2022, according to the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) (figure 1). Since the survey’s inception in 1957, there has been an upward trend in the number of doctorates awarded—with an average annual growth of 3.1% punctuated by periods of slow growth and some declines. However, the increase in 2022 was the steepest 1-year increase in the history of the SED (10.3%), surpassing the sharp decline seen in the previous year.

Since the SED began collecting data, the number of research doctorates awarded in science and engineering (S&E) fields has exceeded the number of non-S&E doctorates, and this gap has widened over time. From 2002 to 2022, the number of S&E doctorate recipients has increased by 74%, while the number of non-S&E doctorate recipients in 2022 was 13% lower than in 2002. As a result, the proportion of S&E doctorates to all doctorates climbed from 65% in 2002 to 79% in 2022.

In the past 20 years, most of the growth in the number of doctorates earned by both men and women has been in S&E fields (figure 5). During this period, the number of female doctorate recipients in S&E fields increased by 94%, compared with a 62% increase in the number of male S&E doctorate recipients. The proportion of female doctorate recipients in S&E increased from 39% in 2002 to 42% in 2009, remained fairly stable through 2019, and increased to 44% by 2022. In non-S&E fields, women earned 59% of doctorates in 2022, a proportion that has hovered around 57%–59% since the early 2000s. Between 2002 and 2022, the number of female doctorate recipients in non-S&E fields declined by 9%, while the number of male doctorate recipients in those fields declined by 18%. Between 2021 and 2022, the increase in the number of women (2,313) among S&E doctorate recipients was close to that of men (2,339). In contrast, the increase in the number of women in non-S&E fields (628) was nearly five times that of men (127).

Racial and ethnic minority representation in doctorate awards has increased over time. From 2002 to 2022, the proportion of doctorates earned by White doctorate recipients among U.S. citizens and permanent residents declined from 76% to 66%, and the proportion earned by Asian U.S. citizens and permanent residents increased from 8% to 10%.^{​For additional data on the race and ethnicity of doctorate recipients, see SED 2022 related detailed table 1-11. Race categories exclude Hispanic origin; Hispanic may be any race.} The proportion of Hispanic or Latino and Black or African American U.S. citizens and permanent residents also increased, although starting from a small base (figure 6). In the past 20 years, the number of Hispanic or Latino doctorate recipients in S&E increased from 752 (5%) to 2,488 (9%). The number of Black or African American doctorate recipients in S&E increased from 728 (4%) in 2002 to 1,540 (6%) in 2022.^{​In 2002, there were 16,608 S&E U.S. citizen and permanent resident doctorate recipients; in 2022, there were 26,408 S&E U.S. citizen and permanent resident doctorate recipients.} In the same time period, the number of American Indian or Alaska Native doctorate recipients in S&E fluctuated between 49 and 86. Between 2021 and 2022, S&E doctorates awarded to American Indians or Alaska Natives declined from 64 to 58, remaining under 0.5% of S&E doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. In the same time period, the number of Black or African American doctorate recipients in S&E increased by 133 to 1,540 and the number of Hispanic or Latino doctorate recipients in S&E increased by 340 to 2,488—the highest numbers of doctorates awarded to each of these groups in the past 20 years.