Physics bachelor’s degrees in the US trend downward

For the third year in a row, the number of physics bachelor’s degrees awarded by US institutions has declined. In the 2022–23 academic year, 8295 students received their degree, a drop of 11% from the all-time high of 9296 in 2020, according to a report released in September by the statistics team at the American Institute of Physics (AIP; publisher of Physics Today).

Physics departments whose highest degree offered was a bachelor’s or master’s experienced the steepest declines, of more than 20%. Departments that offered a PhD awarded about 4% fewer bachelor’s degrees in 2023 than in 2020.

The number of US bachelor’s degrees awarded in the broader physical sciences declined about 10% from 2018 to 2022, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. About 30% of those degrees were in physics. The reason for the decrease is not clear, says Patrick Mulvey, research manager for AIP’s statistics group. Additional data on the recent decline in physics bachelor’s degrees awarded by department type and on the number of physics degrees awarded in the 2022–23 academic year by institution can be found in the report at https://ww2.aip.org/statistics/roster-of-physics-department-with-enrollment-and-degree-data-2023 .