THE Latest
Volume 2, Number 2
April 2004

Source: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities: Summary Report 2002

2002 PhDs: Who are they?

About 67% of 3,199 people who earned PhDs in psychology in 2002 were women, according to the federal "Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities" report, which offers data on most 2002 PhD recipients. The gender ratio is a continuing trend in psychology—women have outpaced men in degrees earned for more than 20 years—but it bucks the national academic trend. In 2002, 55% of PhD recipients in all fields were men, the report found.

Some other 2002 psychology PhD facts:

About 7% graduates were Hispanic, 6% black, 4% Asian and 2% other races or ethnicities—figures on par with the national averages.

Students' median age was 32.1 years old, compared with the all-discipline median of 33.3 years old.

Psychology grads spent a median 7.3 years getting their doctorate, compared with the all-discipline median of 7.5 years.

32 percent of graduates planned to undertake postdoctoral study; of those, 75% planned to take a research fellowship.

64% had a bachelor's degree in psychology, and 76% held a master's degree.

48% were married, and 7% said they were in a marriage-like relationship.

56% had employment plans:

• 25% planned to work for a college, university, medical school, or elementary or secondary school
• 13% in industry or business
• 7% in government
• 8% in nonprofit jobs
• 3% in other and unknown areas

The leading geographic areas of employment after graduation were:

• South Atlantic (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland and Delaware) - 17.5%
• Middle Atlantic (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York) - 16%
• Pacific and Insular (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii and US-affiliated islands, such as American Samoa and Puerto Rico) - 15.3%
• East North Central (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan) - 14.8%

The report is compiled annually by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, U.S. Department of Agriculture and NASA. It is available at www.norc.uchicago.edu/issues/docdata.htm.

—D. SMITH BAILEY

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