The Number of African American Doctorates Reaches an All-Time High

The National Science Foundation recently released its annual data on doctoral degree recipients in the United States. Data for the annual Survey of Earned Doctorates shows that universities in the United States conferred 57,596, doctorates in 2022, up by more than 10 percent from the previous year. Of these, 3,389 were earned by Black students, the highest number in history and up 10.2 percent from the previous year. But 22 percent of all doctorates earned by Black students at U.S. universities went to foreign students. If we restrict the data to U.S. citizens and permanent residents of this country, we find that 2,647 African Americans earned doctorates from U.S. universities in 2022. This is the highest number ever recorded. African Americans earned 7.5 percent of all doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens or permanent residents of this country. This is just less than half the percentage that would exist if racial parity in doctoral awards was achieved. Of the 2,647 African Americans who earned doctorates from U.S. universities in 2022, 1,697 were women. Thus, women earned 64.1 percent of all doctorates awarded to African Americans in 2022. The number of African American women was up 18.7 percent from the previous year....