The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released some data about people who received PhDs in philosophy in the United States in 2021.

Some of the data is specific to Philosophy PhDs, other data lumps together Philosophy and Religious Studies, and some is for the broad category of Humanities. Some of it is posted below (using the labels and categories the NSF uses).

Here’s the philosophy-specific data. In 2021 in the United States:

399 people were awarded PhDs in Philosophy
264 are identified as male, 135 as female (33.8% female)
73 were temporary visa holders
Ethnicity/Race:

26 Hispanic or Latino
0 American Indian or Native Alaskan
12 Asian
8 Black or African
235 White
9 more than one race,
7 other race or not reported
8 ethnicity not reported

Here’s the data regarding the composite group of Philosophy PhD recipients and Religious Studies recipients in 2021:

70.1% have an undergraduate major in the same field as their PhD
The breakdown by field of employment of those with definite employment plans upon receiving their PhD:

64.7% academia
2.7% government
10.4% business or industry
4.5% non profit
7.7 unknown

Of those with academic jobs lined up:

35% have tenure-track jobs
60.8% have non-tenure-track jobs
Categorized by sex:

Males: 31.5% tenure-track, 64% non-tenure track
Females: 40.7% tenure-track, 55.6% non-tenure track

26.4% have at least one dependent under the age of 18 upon degree (31% of males do, 18.3% of females do)
44.8% are married and another 12.5% are in “marriage-like” relationships
16.1% have reported “functional limitations”

And regarding Humanities PhDs in general:

Median number of years to complete PhD in humanities field:  6.9 years
Median age of humanities PhD recipient: 34.6 years old
Median total educational debt of humanities PhD recipient (including debt from undergraduate education): $45,000

You can see more related data at the NSF’s site.

Originally appeared on Daily Nous Read More