Table 254.

Bachelor's degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by discipline division: Selected years, 1970–71 through 2004–05

Discipline division	1970–71	1975–76	1980–81	1985–86	1990–91	1993–94	1994–95	1995–96	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
Total	839,730	925,746	935,140	987,823	1,094,538	1,169,275	1,160,134	1,164,792	1,184,406	1,200,303	1,237,875	1,244,171	1,291,900	1,348,503	1,399,542	1,439,264
Agriculture and natural resources	12,672	19,402	21,886	16,823	13,124	18,056	19,832	21,425	23,276	23,916	24,238	23,370	23,331	23,294	22,835	23,002
Architecture and related services	5,570	9,146	9,455	9,119	9,781	8,975	8,756	8,352	7,652	8,246	8,462	8,480	8,808	9,054	8,838	9,237
Area, ethnic, cultural, and gender studies	2,579	3,577	2,887	3,021	4,776	5,435	5,511	5,633	5,976	6,009	6,212	6,160	6,390	6,629	7,181	7,569
Biological and biomedical sciences	35,683	54,085	43,003	38,320	39,377	51,157	55,790	60,750	65,583	64,608	63,005	59,865	59,415	60,072	61,509	64,611
Business	115,396	143,171	200,521	236,700	249,165	246,265	233,895	226,623	232,079	240,947	256,070	263,515	278,217	293,545	307,149	311,574
Communication, journalism, and related programs	10,324	20,045	29,428	41,666	51,650	51,164	48,104	47,320	49,385	51,384	55,760	58,013	62,791	67,859	70,968	72,715
Communications technologies	478	1,237	1,854	1,479	1,397	869	865	853	878	1,076	1,298	1,178	1,245	1,933	2,034	2,523
Computer and information sciences	2,388	5,652	15,121	42,337	25,159	24,527	24,737	24,506	27,829	30,574	37,788	44,142	50,365	57,439	59,488	54,111
Education	176,307	154,437	108,074	87,147	110,807	107,440	105,929	105,384	105,833	107,086	108,034	105,458	106,295	105,790	106,278	105,451
Engineering	45,034	38,733	63,642	77,391	62,448	62,247	62,331	62,257	60,252	58,260	58,822	58,315	59,627	62,611	63,558	64,906
Engineering technologies	5,148	7,943	11,713	19,731	17,303	16,415	16,238	15,829	14,397	14,405	14,597	14,660	15,052	14,656	14,669	14,837
English language and literature/letters	63,914	41,452	31,922	34,083	51,064	53,150	51,170	49,928	49,016	49,800	50,106	50,569	52,375	53,670	53,984	54,379
Family and consumer sciences/human sciences	11,167	17,409	18,370	13,847	13,920	14,432	14,081	14,353	15,654	16,059	16,321	16,421	16,938	18,166	19,172	20,074
Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics	20,988	17,068	11,638	11,550	13,937	15,242	14,558	14,832	15,279	15,821	15,886	16,128	16,258	16,901	17,754	18,386
Health professions and related clinical sciences	25,223	53,885	63,665	65,309	59,875	75,890	81,596	86,087	86,843	85,214	80,863	75,933	72,887	71,223	73,934	80,685
Legal professions and studies	545	531	776	1,223	1,827	2,233	2,127	2,123	2,079	1,960	1,969	1,991	2,003	2,466	2,841	3,161
Liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and humanities	7,481	18,855	21,643	21,336	30,526	33,397	33,356	33,997	33,202	34,772	36,104	37,962	39,333	40,221	42,106	43,751
Library science	1,013	843	375	155	90	62	50	58	73	78	154	52	74	99	72	76
Mathematics and statistics	24,801	15,984	11,078	16,122	14,393	14,171	13,494	12,713	11,795	11,966	11,418	11,171	11,950	12,493	13,327	14,351
Military technologies	357	952	42	255	183	19	27	7	3	2	7	21	3	6	10	40
Multi/interdisciplinary studies	6,346	13,778	13,061	13,829	17,879	25,652	26,598	27,149	26,960	27,545	28,561	27,189	28,943	28,757	29,162	30,243
Parks, recreation, leisure and fitness studies	1,621	5,182	5,729	4,623	4,315	10,821	12,037	12,974	15,422	16,532	17,571	17,948	18,885	21,428	22,164	22,888
Philosophy and religious studies	8,149	8,447	6,776	6,396	7,423	7,684	7,471	7,541	8,384	8,506	8,535	8,717	9,473	10,344	11,152	11,584
Physical sciences and science technologies	21,410	21,458	23,936	21,711	16,334	18,392	19,161	19,627	19,362	18,285	18,331	17,919	17,799	17,940	17,983	18,905
Precision production	0	0	0	2	2	2	1	12	52	43	33	31	47	42	61	64
Psychology	38,187	50,278	41,068	40,628	58,655	69,419	72,233	73,416	74,107	73,636	74,194	73,645	76,775	78,613	82,098	85,614
Public administration and social services	5,466	15,440	16,707	11,887	14,350	17,815	18,586	19,849	20,408	20,287	20,185	19,447	19,392	19,878	20,552	21,769
Security and protective services	2,045	12,507	13,707	12,704	16,806	23,009	24,157	24,810	25,076	24,601	24,877	25,211	25,536	26,189	28,175	30,723
Social sciences and history	155,324	126,396	100,513	93,840	125,107	133,680	128,154	126,479	125,040	124,658	127,101	128,036	132,874	143,218	150,357	156,892
Theology and religious vocations	3,720	5,490	5,808	5,510	4,799	5,377	5,555	5,292	5,855	6,235	6,789	6,945	7,762	7,926	8,126	9,284
Transportation and materials moving	0	225	263	1,838	2,622	3,923	3,698	3,561	3,206	3,383	3,395	3,748	4,020	4,567	4,824	4,904
Visual and performing arts	30,394	42,138	40,479	37,241	42,186	49,053	48,690	49,296	52,077	54,404	58,791	61,148	66,773	71,474	77,181	80,955
Not classified by field of study	0	0	0	0	13,258	3,302	1,346	1,756	1,373	5	2,398	783	264	0	0	0

NOTE: The new Classification of Instructional Programs was initiated in 2002–03. The figures for earlier years have been reclassified when necessary to make them conform to the new taxonomy. To facilitate trend comparisons, certain aggregations have been made of the degree fields as reported in the IPEDS "Completions Survey": "Agriculture and natural resources" includes Agriculture, agriculture operations, and related sciences and Natural resources and conservation; "Business" includes Business, management, marketing, and related support services and Personal and culinary services; and "Engineering technologies" includes Engineering technologies/technicians, Construction trades, and Mechanic and repair technologies/technicians. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), "Degrees and Other Formal Awards Conferred" surveys, 1970–71 through 1985–86; and 1990–91 through 2004–05 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, "Completions Survey" (IPEDS-C:91–99), and Fall 2000 through Fall 2005. (This table was prepared July 2006.)