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NCSES GSS 2012 DST 9 SAS Output Newer information icon. Newer information is available.
Table 9. Graduate students in science, engineering, and health in all institutions, by detailed field: 2006–12

Field 2006 2007olda 2007newa 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
All surveyed fields 597,643 607,823 619,499 631,489 631,645 632,652 626,820 627,243
   Science and engineering 486,287 502,375 516,199 529,275 545,685 556,532 560,941 561,418
      Science 363,246 372,120 384,523 391,419 401,008 407,291 414,440 413,033
         Agricultural sciences 13,016 13,222 13,528 14,153 15,200 15,656 16,129 16,234
         Biological sciences 69,941 71,663 71,932 72,666 73,304 74,928 75,423 76,447
            Anatomy 961 979 867 764 833 849 762 700
            Biochemistry 5,824 5,959 5,853 5,473 5,271 5,308 5,183 5,245
            Biology 16,463 16,212 15,898 16,514 16,840 17,210 16,911 16,321
            Biometry and epidemiology 4,789 5,483 5,694 5,971 5,739 6,398 6,786 7,800
            Biophysics 1,203 1,214 1,193 1,084 1,042 1,072 1,016 976
            Botany 1,850 1,891 1,821 1,803 1,831 1,863 1,915 1,852
            Cell biology 6,553 6,696 6,839 7,096 7,153 7,047 6,905 6,799
            Ecology 2,162 2,191 2,026 2,026 1,746 1,828 1,713 1,667
            Entomology and parasitology 1,114 1,078 1,078 1,079 1,079 1,116 1,119 1,187
            Genetics 2,154 2,152 2,120 2,120 2,242 2,333 2,403 2,342
            Microbiology, immunology, and virology 5,324 5,314 5,212 5,054 4,968 4,896 5,031 4,950
            Nutrition 5,042 5,250 4,890 5,177 5,330 5,548 5,345 5,336
            Pathology 1,612 1,633 1,580 1,618 1,450 1,376 1,313 1,196
            Pharmacology 2,985 3,030 3,013 3,005 3,163 3,101 3,053 3,088
            Physiology 2,416 2,406 2,738 2,863 2,866 2,879 3,000 3,046
            Zoology 1,145 1,084 1,108 925 875 896 1,060 1,083
            Biological sciences nec 8,344 9,091 10,002 10,094 10,876 11,208 11,908 12,859
         Communicationa ne ne 7,303 8,444 9,418 9,825 11,029 11,010
         Computer sciences 47,653 48,959 48,246 49,553 51,161 51,546 51,234 51,789
         Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences 14,920 14,675 14,100 14,389 14,839 15,655 15,820 16,069
            Atmospheric sciences 1,079 1,117 1,178 1,400 1,355 1,455 1,513 1,546
            Geosciences 7,177 7,061 7,020 7,089 7,539 8,251 8,361 8,659
            Oceanography 2,770 2,663 2,615 2,634 2,633 2,556 2,680 2,642
            Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences nec 3,894 3,834 3,287 3,266 3,312 3,393 3,266 3,222
         Family and consumer sciences and human sciencesa ne ne 2,780 3,549 3,794 4,191 4,509 4,110
         Mathematical sciences 20,815 21,335 20,975 21,400 22,226 23,136 23,801 24,575
            Mathematics and applied mathematics 16,649 16,894 16,528 16,449 17,204 17,589 18,157 18,577
            Statistics 4,166 4,441 4,447 4,951 5,022 5,547 5,644 5,998
         Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studiesa ne ne 4,484 5,559 6,557 7,944 6,537 6,038
         Neurosciencea na na 1,584 2,012 2,356 2,798 4,117 4,547
         Physical sciences 36,901 37,111 36,824 37,319 38,149 38,973 39,694 39,928
            Astronomy 1,211 1,233 1,232 1,275 1,409 1,331 1,345 1,278
            Chemistry 21,351 21,424 21,298 21,574 22,094 22,436 22,802 23,117
            Physics 13,722 13,845 13,816 13,862 14,060 14,507 14,829 14,940
            Physical sciences nec 617 609 478 608 586 699 718 593
         Psychologyb 57,653 60,284 59,617 58,991 56,184 53,419 54,486 54,117
            Clinical psychology 13,947 14,517 14,495 13,691 13,113 12,155 10,468 9,971
            Psychology, general 16,622 18,366 17,923 17,322 15,148 14,022 17,326 17,073
            Psychology nec 27,084 27,401 27,199 27,978 27,923 27,242 26,692 27,073
         Social sciences 102,347 104,871 103,150 103,384 107,820 109,220 111,661 108,169
            Agricultural economics 2,158 2,126 1,989 2,132 2,222 2,180 2,095 2,045
            Anthropology (cultural and social) 8,150 8,099 8,129 8,333 8,359 8,528 8,406 8,247
            Economics (except agricultural) 12,132 12,328 12,597 12,971 13,993 14,317 14,920 14,959
            Geography 4,750 4,660 4,660 4,745 4,810 5,059 5,188 5,016
            History and philosophy of science 968 1,119 1,054 1,177 1,006 705 597 508
            Linguistics 3,074 3,076 2,879 3,095 3,170 3,132 3,219 3,256
            Political science 41,784 41,854 41,349 40,871 43,919 45,045 49,660 48,855
            Sociology 9,035 9,734 9,642 10,002 9,731 9,883 9,671 8,887
            Sociology and anthropology 837 831 682 653 576 329 288 270
            Social sciences nec 19,459 21,044 20,169 19,405 20,034 20,042 17,617 16,126
      Engineering 123,041 130,255 131,676 137,856 144,677 149,241 146,501 148,385
         Aerospace engineering 4,482 4,616 4,616 4,902 5,266 5,540 5,691 5,069
         Agricultural engineering 1,073 1,126 1,126 1,233 1,303 1,457 1,656 1,552
         Architecturea na na 4,601 5,905 6,804 6,795 3,111 2,363
         Biomedical engineering 6,482 6,881 6,904 7,339 7,904 8,497 9,175 9,157
         Chemical engineering 7,261 7,383 7,584 7,892 8,188 8,668 8,828 9,222
         Civil engineeringa 17,802 19,867 16,071 16,931 18,638 19,559 19,596 19,922
         Electrical engineering 38,265 40,207 40,588 41,164 41,218 41,336 41,580 42,347
         Engineering science 2,046 1,843 1,806 2,099 2,168 2,071 2,101 2,227
         Industrial engineering 13,829 14,290 14,474 15,692 15,825 15,205 14,494 14,469
         Mechanical engineering 17,919 18,366 18,347 19,585 21,243 22,509 21,883 23,088
         Metallurgical and materials engineering 5,268 5,365 5,314 5,539 5,863 6,274 6,649 6,985
         Mining engineering 244 307 222 290 312 419 500 356
         Nuclear engineering 1,099 1,208 1,180 1,201 1,243 1,459 1,499 1,513
         Petroleum engineering 813 1,014 1,014 1,009 1,190 1,295 1,301 1,525
         Engineering nec 6,458 7,782 7,829 7,075 7,512 8,157 8,437 8,590
   Healthb 111,356 105,448 103,300 102,214 85,960 76,120 65,879 65,825
      Clinical medicine 23,441 24,616 22,751 23,939 24,125 25,699 26,634 26,798
         Anesthesiology 1,370 883 883 589 402 325 8 3
         Cardiology 32 51 51 47 50 51 61 44
         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 2,981 3,381 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 14,320 15,561 16,209 17,901 18,797 20,445 23,001 23,700
         Psychiatry 274 278 218 188 233 260 88 100
         Pulmonary disease 10 24 24 13 13 12 14 12
         Radiology 288 270 281 320 385 396 339 335
         Surgery 105 47 31 31 40 59 30 35
         Clinical medicine nec 2,880 2,884 2,185 2,736 2,254 2,498 2,319 1,871
      Other healthb 87,915 80,832 80,549 78,275 61,835 50,421 39,245 39,027
         Dental sciences 1,614 1,537 1,688 1,643 1,770 1,661 1,764 1,707
         Nursing 35,846 31,747 31,803 30,471 21,355 12,107 7,269 7,449
         Pharmaceutical sciences 6,315 4,964 5,066 4,251 4,443 4,291 4,056 4,256
         Speech pathology and audiology 14,847 16,237 16,229 15,968 14,641 14,645 14,203 13,918
         Veterinary sciences 2,067 2,020 2,371 2,478 2,170 2,211 1,894 1,794
         Other health nec 27,226 24,327 23,392 23,464 17,456 15,506 10,059 9,903

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.