Focus on statistics

The number of physics faculty and the number of degrees awarded in astronomy are both holding steady in the US, according to two recent studies by the American Institute of Physics.

In 2008 some 763 physics-degree-granting departments employed a total of 9100 faculty members. PhD-granting departments have more than twice the number of faculty members as departments where the highest physics degree available is the master’s; those in turn have more than twice as many as departments where the highest degree is a bachelor’s. In 2004 about one in five positions were temporary or nontenure track; in 2008 that had decreased to one in seven.

Following a 38% increase around the turn of the millennium in the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in astronomy, the number has leveled, with about 340 awarded each year in the US in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Over the past 10 years, the number of entering graduate students in astronomy has grown by a third, from 150 to 200; US citizens make up the bulk of that growth, and the number of women is growing faster than men. In 1978 women earned 5 out of 93 astronomy PhDs; in 2007 they earned 35 out of 125.

These and other data are presented in Number of Physics Faculty (available at http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/facultytrends.html ) and Astronomy Enrollments and Degrees (http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/undergradtrends.html ), the first reports to appear in the new, mainly online “focus on” format.