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

[manipulated image of an untitled Donald Judd sculpture]

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.

UPDATE (10/10/22): See this post at the APDA Blog for why there are “suddenly far fewer Philosophy PhDs” (via Carolyn Dicey Jennings in the comments).