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Table 16. Doctorate recipients, by subfield of study and sex: 2016

Subfield of study Totala Male Female % female
All fields 54,904 29,616 25,278 46.0
Life sciences 12,568 5,643 6,923 55.1
Agricultural sciences and natural resources 1,385 760 624 45.1
Agricultural economics 113 72 40 35.4
Agronomy, horticulture science, plant breeding, plant pathology, plant sciences-other 303 180 123 40.6
Animal nutrition, poultry science 63 40 23 36.5
Animal sciences, other 83 38 45 54.2
Environmental science 193 88 105 54.4
Fishing and fisheries sciences and management 47 26 21 44.7
Food science, food technology-other 163 75 88 54.0
Forest biology, forest management, wood science, forestry sciences- other 87 62 25 28.7
Natural resource and environmental policy 68 36 32 47.1
Natural resources and conservation, wildlife and range management 86 46 40 46.5
Soil chemistry, soil sciences-other 61 27 34 55.7
Agricultural sciences, aggregated 118 70 48 40.7
Biological and biomedical sciences 8,884 4,163 4,720 53.1
Anatomy, developmental biology 183 84 99 54.1
Bacteriology, parasitology 38 16 22 57.9
Biochemistry (biological sciences) 834 411 423 50.7
Bioinformatics 194 128 66 34.0
Biomedical sciences 331 140 191 57.7
Biometrics and biostatistics 198 107 91 46.0
Biophysics (biological sciences) 165 115 50 30.3
Botany, plant pathology, plant physiology 138 83 55 39.9
Cancer biology 439 179 260 59.2
Cell, cellular biology, and histology 261 120 141 54.0
Computational biology 133 98 35 26.3
Ecology 482 230 251 52.1
Endocrinology, human/animal pathology 60 29 31 51.7
Entomology 127 70 57 44.9
Environmental toxicology, toxicology 130 63 67 51.5
Epidemiology 343 92 251 73.2
Evolutionary biology 200 117 83 41.5
Genetics-human/animal, plant genetics 405 174 231 57.0
Immunology 402 192 210 52.2
Microbiology 467 204 263 56.3
Molecular biology, medicine 574 260 314 54.7
Neurosciences, neurobiology 997 485 512 51.4
Nutrition sciences 204 46 158 77.5
Pharmacology, human and animal 208 92 116 55.8
Physiology, human and animal 167 82 85 50.9
Structural biology 47 27 20 42.6
Virology 141 69 72 51.1
Wildlife biology 47 24 23 48.9
Zoology 38 17 21 55.3
Biological and biomedical sciences, general 773 335 438 56.7
Biotechnology, biology/biomedical sciences-other 158 74 84 53.2
Health sciences 2,299 720 1,579 68.7
Environmental health, public health 455 114 341 74.9
Health and behavior 119 19 100 84.0
Health services research 121 36 85 70.2
Health systems administration 41 15 26 63.4
Kinesiology, exercise science 232 148 84 36.2
Medical physics, radiological science 94 62 32 34.0
Nursing science 481 36 445 92.5
Pharmaceutical sciences 274 145 129 47.1
Rehabilitation, therapeutic services 108 44 64 59.3
Speech-language pathology and audiology 115 19 96 83.5
Health sciences, aggregated 259 82 177 68.3
Physical sciences and earth sciences 6,252 4,286 1,963 31.4
Chemistry 2,704 1,713 991 36.6
Analytical chemistry 392 216 176 44.9
Chemical biology 120 66 54 45.0
Inorganic chemistry 343 223 120 35.0
Medicinal chemistry 72 48 24 33.3
Organic chemistry 564 387 177 31.4
Physical chemistry 379 254 125 33.0
Polymer chemistry 148 108 40 27.0
Theoretical chemistry 88 63 25 28.4
Chemistry, general 417 256 161 38.6
Chemistry, other 181 92 89 49.2
Geosciences, atmospheric, and ocean sciences 1,227 716 510 41.6
Atmospheric science and meteorology 245 150 95 38.8
Atmospheric physics, meteorology 78 52 26 33.3
Atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric sciences-general, atmospheric sciences-other 167 98 69 41.3
Geological sciences 617 369 247 40.0
Geochemistry, mineralogy 87 44 43 49.4
Geology 127 78 49 38.6
Geomorphology, geological sciences-general, geological sciences-other 223 122 101 45.3
Geophysics and seismology 138 101 36 26.1
Paleontology, stratigraphy 42 24 18 42.9
Ocean and marine sciences 365 197 168 46.0
Marine biology and biological oceanography 90 33 57 63.3
Oceanography, chemical and physical 79 48 31 39.2
Ocean/marine sciences, aggregated 196 116 80 40.8
Physics and astronomy 2,321 1,857 462 19.9
Astronomy and astrophysics 315 218 97 30.8
Astronomy 95 61 34 35.8
Astrophysics 211 150 61 28.9
Astronomy and astrophysics, other 9 7 2 22.2
Physics 2,006 1,639 365 18.2
Acoustics, optics/photonics 242 205 37 15.3
Applied physics 229 180 49 21.4
Atomic physics, polymer physics 180 146 34 18.9
Biophysics (physics) 138 112 26 18.8
Condensed matter, low-temperature physics 350 303 47 13.4
Elementary particle physics 231 189 42 18.2
Nuclear physics 92 75 17 18.5
Plasma, high-temperature physics 79 68 11 13.9
Physics, general 356 275 79 22.2
Physics, other 109 86 23 21.1
Mathematics and computer sciences 3,957 2,998 959 24.2
Computer and information sciences 2,085 1,666 419 20.1
Computer science 1,651 1,363 288 17.4
Information science, systems 175 121 54 30.9
Computer and information sciences, general 161 116 45 28.0
Computer and information sciences, other 98 66 32 32.7
Mathematics and statistics 1,872 1,332 540 28.8
Algebra 83 64 19 22.9
Analysis and functional analysis 97 72 25 25.8
Applied mathematics, computing theory 488 348 140 28.7
Geometry, geometric analysis 52 46 6 11.5
Logic, topology/foundations 55 42 13 23.6
Number theory 48 34 14 29.2
Operations research, mathematics/statistics-general, mathematics/statistics-other 784 568 216 27.6
Statistics (mathematics) 265 158 107 40.4
Psychology and social sciences 9,078 3,749 5,329 58.7
Psychology 3,946 1,138 2,808 71.2
Behavioral analysis 65 26 39 60.0
Clinical psychology 1,224 286 938 76.6
Cognitive neuroscience 162 71 91 56.2
Cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics 165 70 95 57.6
Community psychology 34 9 25 73.5
Counseling 316 84 232 73.4
Developmental and child psychology 236 40 196 83.1
Educational psychology (psychology) 108 26 82 75.9
Experimental psychology 144 64 80 55.6
Family psychology, human development and family studies 204 53 151 74.0
Health, medical psychology 53 15 38 71.7
Industrial and organizational psychology 217 91 126 58.1
Marriage and family therapy, counseling 77 21 56 72.7
Neuropsychology, physiological psychology 69 23 46 66.7
School psychology (psychology) 129 21 108 83.7
Social psychology 219 87 132 60.3
Psychology, general 302 92 210 69.5
Psychology, aggregated 222 59 163 73.4
Social sciences 5,132 2,611 2,521 49.1
Anthropology 460 171 289 62.8
Anthropology, cultural 290 109 181 62.4
Anthropology, physical and biological 80 26 54 67.5
Anthropology, general 90 36 54 60.0
Economics 1,238 820 418 33.8
Econometrics, economics 1,179 777 402 34.1
Natural resources and environmental economics (social sciences) 59 43 16 27.1
Political science and government 745 462 283 38.0
Sociology 615 259 356 57.9
Other social sciences 2,074 899 1,175 56.7
American, U.S. studies 111 44 67 60.4
Applied linguistics 81 26 55 67.9
Area, ethnic, cultural, and gender studies 261 85 176 67.4
Criminal justice and corrections 93 46 47 50.5
Criminology 104 48 56 53.8
Demography, gerontology, statistics, urban affairs, social sciences- general, social sciences-other 382 156 226 59.2
Geography 246 139 107 43.5
Health policy analysis 61 18 43 70.5
International relations, international affairs 137 80 57 41.6
Linguistics 237 93 144 60.8
Public policy analysis 230 103 127 55.2
Urban, city, community and regional planning 131 61 70 53.4
Engineering 9,469 7,277 2,192 23.1
Aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering 369 313 56 15.2
Bioengineering and biomedical engineering 1,089 687 402 36.9
Chemical engineering 923 626 297 32.2
Civil engineering 565 438 127 22.5
Electrical, electronics, and communications engineering 1,827 1,532 295 16.1
Industrial and manufacturing engineering 256 185 71 27.7
Materials science engineering 985 723 262 26.6
Mechanical engineering 1,299 1,097 202 15.6
Other engineering 2,156 1,676 480 22.3
Computer engineering 402 341 61 15.2
Environmental, environmental health engineering 216 121 95 44.0
Nuclear engineering 131 113 18 13.7
Robotics 120 113 7 5.8
Structural engineering 116 95 21 18.1
Systems engineering 113 85 28 24.8
Other engineering, aggregated 1,058 808 250 23.6
Education 5,153 1,550 3,603 69.9
Education administration 829 306 523 63.1
Educational administration and supervision 148 57 91 61.5
Educational and human resource studies, development 63 17 46 73.0
Educational leadership 559 216 343 61.4
Urban education and leadership 59 16 43 72.9
Education research 2,386 719 1,667 69.9
Counseling education, counseling and guidance 276 79 197 71.4
Curriculum and instruction 380 97 283 74.5
Educational assessment, testing, measurement 66 26 40 60.6
Educational policy analysis 173 56 117 67.6
Educational psychology (education) 220 51 169 76.8
Educational statistics, research methods 76 29 47 61.8
Educational/instructional technology, media design 250 103 147 58.8
Higher education evaluation and research 451 171 280 62.1
International education 57 15 42 73.7
School psychology (education) 117 19 98 83.8
Social and philosophical foundations of education 63 26 37 58.7
Special education 257 47 210 81.7
Teacher education 181 43 138 76.2
Teaching fields 1,167 315 852 73.0
English as a second or foreign language 70 18 52 74.3
Health education 70 13 57 81.4
Literacy and reading education 137 13 124 90.5
Mathematics education 182 65 117 64.3
Music education 87 42 45 51.7
Physical education and coaching 38 20 18 47.4
Science education 133 38 95 71.4
Teaching fields, aggregated 450 106 344 76.4
Other education 590 167 423 71.7
Education, general 368 98 270 73.4
Other education, aggregated 222 69 153 68.9
Humanities and arts 5,484 2,639 2,843 51.8
Foreign languages and literature 599 228 371 61.9
French, Italian 141 43 98 69.5
Germanic language and literature 67 29 38 56.7
Latin American languages and literature 96 44 52 54.2
Spanish language and literature 127 47 80 63.0
Other aggregated languages 168 65 103 61.3
History 1,147 621 526 45.9
American history, United States and Canada 391 224 167 42.7
Asian history 73 35 38 52.1
European history 207 112 95 45.9
History, science and technology and society 66 34 32 48.5
Latin American history 77 32 45 58.4
Middle, Near East history 62 39 23 37.1
History, general 155 81 74 47.7
History, aggregated 116 64 52 44.8
Letters 1,533 600 933 60.9
American literature, United States and Canada 342 133 209 61.1
Classics 109 61 48 44.0
Comparative literature 173 65 108 62.4
English language 127 39 88 69.3
English literature, British and Commonwealth 414 147 267 64.5
Rhetoric and composition 212 71 141 66.5
Speech and rhetorical studies 39 27 12 30.8
Letters, aggregated 117 57 60 51.3
Other humanities and arts 2,205 1,190 1,013 45.9
Archaeology (humanities) 166 81 85 51.2
Art history, criticism, and conservation 278 68 209 75.2
Drama, theater arts 87 34 53 60.9
Film, cinema, video studies 73 44 29 39.7
Music 60 40 20 33.3
Musicology and ethnomusicology 127 47 80 63.0
Music performance 91 41 50 54.9
Music theory and composition 92 68 24 26.1
Philosophy, ethics 493 322 171 34.7
Religion/religious studies, Jewish/Judaic studies 281 165 116 41.3
Theology, religious education 212 157 54 25.5
Other humanities, aggregated 245 123 122 49.8
Otherb 2,943 1,474 1,466 49.8
Business management and administration 1,510 933 576 38.1
Accounting 177 102 75 42.4
Business administration and management 263 167 96 36.5
Finance 251 196 55 21.9
Human resources development 197 98 99 50.3
Management information systems, business statistics 107 81 25 23.4
Marketing management and research 140 68 72 51.4
Other aggregated business fields 375 221 154 41.1
Communication 673 261 410 60.9
Communication research 183 60 122 66.7
Mass communication, media studies 211 92 119 56.4
Communication, general 143 47 96 67.1
Communication, aggregated 136 62 73 53.7
Non-S&E fields not elsewhere classified 760 280 480 63.2
Architecture and environmental design 99 47 52 52.5
Family, consumer sciences and human sciences 39 8 31 79.5
Parks, sports, recreation, leisure and fitness 83 45 38 45.8
Public administration 143 70 73 51.0
Social work 294 60 234 79.6
Fields not elsewhere classified, aggregated 102 50 52 51.0
S&E = science and engineering.
a Includes 10 respondents who did not report sex.
b Non-science and engineering fields.
NOTE: See table A-5 in the technical notes for a listing of aggregated fields and their constituent fine fields.
SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2016.