Useful Stats: Science and Engineering Doctorates Awarded by State, 2004-2009

The District of Columbia leads the country in science and engineering (S&E) doctorates awarded per capita, according to the latest data from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Though California awards more S&E doctorates overall, Washington, D.C., has consistently outpaced all states in per capita awards. While 11.47 S&E doctorates were awarded per 100,000 people in the U.S. last year, D.C. institutions awarded 62.54. Other top states include Massachusetts, Delaware, Rhode Island and Maryland.

A recent NSF survey found that 49,562 research doctorates were awarded in the U.S. during 2009, a 1.6 percent increase over the previous year. Of these doctorates, 33,470 were awarded in S&E fields. S&E doctorate awards rose 1.9 percent in 2009, which the NSF InfoBrief attributes to growth in the number of female S&E doctorate recipients. Biological sciences remained the scientific field with the greatest number of doctorate awards in 2009, with mathematics showing the greatest growth over the previous year. Computer science doctorates decreased by almost 10 percent from 2008, however, the field has doubled its awards overall since 1999.

Read the NSF InfoBrief at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf11305/.

SSTI has prepared a table featuring data on S&E doctorates awarded each year between 2004 and 2009 by state, including the number of doctorates awarded per 100,000 residents. Please note that SSTI's data on S&E doctorates corresponds with the results of NSF's survey and its summary reports, but not necessarily with the data presented in the NSF InfoBrief. As noted in Table 1 of the InfoBrief, NSF has used different groupings for fields of study in some of its materials in order to make more accurate comparisons with years prior to 2006. U.S. totals also include doctorate awards from Puerto Rico, which are not presented separately in the table.

D.C. has ranked number one in S&E doctorates per capita since 2004. More than a third of the District's S&E doctorates were awarded by George Washington University, with large numbers also awarded by American University, Georgetown University and Howard University. Nearly half of all D.C. S&E doctorates were awarded in the social sciences.

Massachusetts, which occupied the second-place spot from 2004 to 2009, awarded only 17 percent of its S&E doctorates in social sciences. Large numbers of recipients at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University and Boston University boosted the state's ranking throughout the five-year period.

North Dakota and Nevada made the greatest gains in per capita S&E doctorates during the five year period between 2004 and 2009. Both states nearly doubled their per capita awards. North Dakota grew from 42 S&E doctorates in 2004 to 80 in 2009. During this period, the state jumped 19 spots in the per capita rankings from 34th in 2004 to 15th in 2009. Much of this increase was due to growth in life science recipients at both North Dakota State University and at the University of North Dakota. Nevada remains at 47th in the per capita rankings, but increased its S&E doctorate awards from 76 to 144 during the five-year period, mostly on the strength of social science awards.

The table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/120810t.htm.