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NCSES GSS 2012 DST 16 SAS Output Newer information icon. Newer information is available.
Table 16. Graduate students in science, engineering, and health in doctorate-granting institutions, by detailed field: 2006–12

Field 2006 2007olda 2007newa 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
All surveyed fields 542,073 551,832 561,352 574,241 573,883 575,785 570,534 571,578
   Science and engineering 445,037 457,931 469,517 482,711 497,223 508,114 511,759 513,206
      Science 328,413 334,662 345,094 351,988 360,501 366,312 371,833 370,873
         Agricultural sciences 12,133 12,285 12,548 13,099 14,110 14,561 15,078 15,226
         Biological sciences 65,861 67,267 67,507 68,199 68,580 69,522 69,686 70,996
            Anatomy 961 979 867 764 833 849 762 700
            Biochemistry 5,713 5,867 5,761 5,365 5,158 5,190 5,030 5,107
            Biology 13,789 13,548 13,220 13,888 14,005 14,103 13,840 13,476
            Biometry and epidemiology 4,789 5,483 5,694 5,956 5,682 6,346 6,736 7,703
            Biophysics 1,203 1,214 1,193 1,084 1,042 1,072 1,016 976
            Botany 1,848 1,888 1,818 1,801 1,830 1,863 1,915 1,852
            Cell biology 6,388 6,547 6,690 6,948 6,970 6,835 6,746 6,633
            Ecology 2,019 2,015 1,896 1,896 1,634 1,713 1,589 1,575
            Entomology and parasitology 1,114 1,078 1,078 1,079 1,079 1,116 1,119 1,187
            Genetics 2,096 2,096 2,064 2,072 2,242 2,333 2,403 2,342
            Microbiology, immunology, and virology 5,307 5,279 5,177 5,035 4,931 4,859 4,980 4,897
            Nutrition 4,659 4,665 4,305 4,638 4,754 4,867 4,605 4,644
            Pathology 1,612 1,633 1,580 1,618 1,450 1,314 1,209 1,139
            Pharmacology 2,985 3,030 3,013 3,005 3,163 3,101 3,053 3,088
            Physiology 2,238 2,242 2,574 2,687 2,776 2,847 2,932 2,983
            Zoology 1,143 1,081 1,105 923 873 894 1,058 1,079
            Biological sciences nec 7,997 8,622 9,472 9,440 10,158 10,220 10,693 11,615
         Communicationa ne ne 6,026 7,030 7,951 8,219 9,002 8,931
         Computer sciences 43,032 44,066 43,555 44,171 45,593 45,860 46,120 46,547
         Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences 14,032 13,812 13,359 13,663 13,942 14,756 14,887 15,169
            Atmospheric sciences 1,071 1,110 1,171 1,394 1,348 1,443 1,496 1,530
            Geosciences 6,856 6,781 6,719 6,766 7,141 7,800 7,909 8,198
            Oceanography 2,674 2,559 2,511 2,532 2,527 2,455 2,579 2,520
            Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences nec 3,431 3,362 2,958 2,971 2,926 3,058 2,903 2,921
         Family and consumer sciences and human sciencesa ne ne 2,491 3,007 3,084 3,491 3,790 3,588
         Mathematical sciences 19,037 19,540 19,180 19,722 20,527 21,330 21,967 22,579
            Mathematics and applied mathematics 15,004 15,207 14,841 14,894 15,679 16,029 16,541 16,813
            Statistics 4,033 4,333 4,339 4,828 4,848 5,301 5,426 5,766
         Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studiesa ne ne 3,693 4,686 5,511 6,742 5,785 5,550
         Neurosciencea na na 1,561 1,980 2,316 2,798 4,088 4,547
         Physical sciences 35,928 36,036 35,768 36,320 37,098 37,871 38,656 38,837
            Astronomy 1,211 1,233 1,232 1,275 1,409 1,331 1,345 1,278
            Chemistry 20,716 20,695 20,569 20,884 21,374 21,673 22,048 22,340
            Physics 13,509 13,589 13,575 13,636 13,834 14,294 14,607 14,691
            Physical sciences nec 492 519 392 525 481 573 656 528
         Psychologyb 47,217 48,773 48,106 48,427 46,564 45,246 45,608 44,452
            Clinical psychology 12,501 12,962 13,036 12,205 12,239 11,250 9,662 8,432
            Psychology, general 12,133 13,281 13,013 13,133 11,841 11,248 14,748 14,378
            Psychology nec 22,583 22,530 22,057 23,089 22,484 22,748 21,198 21,642
         Social sciences 91,173 92,883 91,300 91,684 95,225 95,916 97,166 94,451
            Agricultural economics 2,151 2,120 1,983 2,126 2,215 2,171 2,090 2,030
            Anthropology (cultural and social) 7,726 7,652 7,682 7,845 7,872 8,013 7,891 7,745
            Economics (except agricultural) 11,438 11,659 11,928 12,275 13,200 13,450 13,940 13,990
            Geography 4,228 4,089 4,089 4,148 4,196 4,401 4,542 4,379
            History and philosophy of science 742 910 845 998 851 552 469 461
            Linguistics 2,821 2,801 2,604 2,824 2,882 2,863 2,997 3,020
            Political science 36,118 36,296 35,806 35,342 37,744 38,578 41,429 40,842
            Sociology 8,214 8,239 8,148 8,531 8,528 8,695 8,578 8,240
            Sociology and anthropology 818 808 659 626 553 305 268 255
            Social sciences nec 16,917 18,309 17,556 16,969 17,184 16,888 14,962 13,489
      Engineering 116,624 123,269 124,423 130,723 136,722 141,802 139,926 142,333
         Aerospace engineering 4,357 4,480 4,480 4,761 5,096 5,474 5,605 4,986
         Agricultural engineering 1,073 1,126 1,126 1,233 1,303 1,457 1,655 1,544
         Architecturea na na 4,483 5,760 6,661 6,647 3,085 2,340
         Biomedical engineering 6,430 6,848 6,871 7,334 7,879 8,439 9,074 9,085
         Chemical engineering 7,151 7,291 7,492 7,794 8,077 8,573 8,741 9,142
         Civil engineeringa 17,158 19,189 15,461 16,169 17,708 18,499 18,528 18,810
         Electrical engineering 35,948 37,708 37,887 38,248 38,070 38,609 39,400 40,390
         Engineering science 1,967 1,824 1,772 1,932 2,004 2,020 2,054 2,173
         Industrial engineering 12,959 13,333 13,504 14,758 14,626 13,936 13,420 13,575
         Mechanical engineering 17,156 17,834 17,815 18,723 20,201 21,519 20,988 22,228
         Metallurgical and materials engineering 5,223 5,310 5,259 5,486 5,822 6,216 6,579 6,917
         Mining engineering 238 296 211 283 302 408 498 355
         Nuclear engineering 1,099 1,208 1,180 1,201 1,243 1,459 1,499 1,513
         Petroleum engineering 808 1,006 1,006 1,000 1,184 1,289 1,292 1,520
         Engineering nec 5,057 5,816 5,876 6,041 6,546 7,257 7,508 7,755
   Healthb 97,036 93,901 91,835 91,530 76,660 67,671 58,775 58,372
      Clinical medicine 22,425 23,573 21,686 22,803 22,670 24,068 25,358 25,335
         Anesthesiology 1,042 589 589 294 163 66 8 3
         Cardiology 32 26 26 45 45 48 57 43
         Endocrinology 42 40 40 64 50 53 56 52
         Gastroenterology 18 28 28 15 15 7 7 2
         Hematology 14 9 9 8 11 6 1 5
         Neurologya 2,959 3,358 1,751 1,462 1,323 1,056 219 171
         Obstetrics and gynecology 54 81 81 83 89 79 100 91
         Oncology and cancer research 341 355 264 260 272 232 255 248
         Ophthalmology 414 407 379 1 1 5 2 2
         Otorhinolaryngology 14 15 15 14 4 4 2 2
         Pediatrics 284 302 302 207 186 211 132 125
         Preventive medicine and community health 13,821 14,945 15,517 17,105 17,586 19,076 21,729 22,238
         Psychiatry 274 278 218 188 233 260 88 100
         Pulmonary disease 10 24 24 13 13 12 14 12
         Radiology 225 270 281 320 385 396 339 335
         Surgery 105 47 31 31 40 59 30 35
         Clinical medicine nec 2,776 2,799 2,131 2,693 2,254 2,498 2,319 1,871
      Other healthb 74,611 70,328 70,149 68,727 53,990 43,603 33,417 33,037
         Dental sciences 1,614 1,537 1,688 1,643 1,770 1,661 1,764 1,707
         Nursing 29,760 27,901 27,901 26,779 18,706 10,415 6,578 6,950
         Pharmaceutical sciences 6,311 4,959 5,061 4,245 4,435 4,280 4,048 4,211
         Speech pathology and audiology 11,892 12,820 12,812 12,769 11,377 11,305 10,588 10,182
         Veterinary sciences 2,067 2,020 2,371 2,478 2,170 2,211 1,894 1,794
         Other health nec 22,967 21,091 20,316 20,813 15,532 13,731 8,545 8,193

na = not applicable; data were not collected at this level of detail. ne = not eligible; data were not collected for this field prior to 2007.
nec = not elsewhere classified.
a In 2007, eligible fields were reclassified, newly eligible fields were added, and the survey was redesigned to improve coverage and coding of eligible units. “2007new” presents data as collected in 2007; “2007old” shows data as they would have been collected in prior years. The science fields Communication and Family and consumer sciences and human sciences were newly eligible in 2007; data for these two fields begin in 2007new. The science field Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies was also added to the code list in 2007; some data reported in this field were reported under other fields before 2007 and are included in those fields in 2007old. Neuroscience is reported as a separate field of science in 2007new; data were reported under health field Neurology in 2007old and previous years. Architecture is reported as a separate field of engineering in 2007new; data were reported under Civil engineering in 2007old and previous years. See appendix A in http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf10307/ for more detail.
b Beginning with 2008, more rigorous follow-up was done with institutions regarding the exclusion of practitioner-oriented graduate degree programs in Psychology and in Other health (a subfield of health). This change may affect interpretation of trends in these fields.
SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, NSF-NIH Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering.
Data from survey cycle Fall 2012, as of December 2013.