Table 323.10.

Master's degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions, by field of study: Selected years, 1970-71 through 2015-16

Field of study	1970-71	1975-76	1980-81	1985-86	1990-91	1995-96	2000-01	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
Total	235,564	317,477	302,637	295,850	342,863	412,180	473,502	599,731	610,597	630,666	662,082	693,313	730,922	755,967	751,718	754,582	758,804	785,595
Agriculture and natural resources	2,457	3,340	4,003	3,801	3,295	4,551	4,272	4,640	4,623	4,684	4,878	5,215	5,766	6,390	6,336	6,544	6,426	6,681
Architecture and related services	1,705	3,215	3,153	3,260	3,490	3,993	4,302	5,743	5,951	6,065	6,587	7,280	7,788	8,448	8,095	8,048	8,006	7,986
Area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies	1,032	993	802	915	1,233	1,652	1,555	2,080	1,699	1,778	1,779	1,775	1,913	1,947	1,897	1,844	1,847	1,766
Biological and biomedical sciences	5,625	6,457	5,766	5,064	4,834	6,593	7,017	8,781	8,898	9,689	10,018	10,730	11,324	12,419	13,300	13,964	14,655	15,714
Business	26,490	42,592	57,888	66,676	78,255	93,554	115,602	146,406	150,211	155,637	168,404	177,748	187,178	191,606	188,617	189,364	185,236	186,834
Communication, journalism, and related programs	1,770	2,961	2,896	3,500	4,123	5,080	5,218	7,244	6,773	6,915	7,042	7,630	8,302	9,005	8,760	9,353	9,581	9,676
Communications technologies	86	165	209	308	204	481	427	501	499	631	475	463	502	497	577	577	554	491
Computer and information sciences	1,588	2,603	4,218	8,070	9,324	10,579	16,911	17,055	16,232	17,087	17,907	17,955	19,516	20,925	22,782	24,514	31,475	40,128
Education	87,666	126,061	96,713	74,816	87,352	104,936	127,829	174,620	176,572	175,880	178,538	182,165	185,127	179,047	164,652	154,655	146,581	145,781
Engineering	16,813	16,472	16,893	21,529	24,454	26,789	25,174	30,848	29,299	31,557	34,546	35,133	38,664	40,323	40,420	42,376	46,117	51,621
Engineering technologies	134	328	323	617	996	2,054	2,013	2,541	2,690	2,873	3,462	4,258	4,515	4,793	4,908	4,967	5,324	6,064
English language and literature/letters	10,441	8,599	5,742	5,335	6,784	7,657	6,763	8,845	8,742	9,161	9,262	9,202	9,475	9,938	9,755	9,294	8,928	8,577
Family and consumer sciences/human sciences	1,452	2,179	2,570	2,011	1,541	1,712	1,838	1,983	2,080	2,199	2,453	2,592	2,918	3,155	3,255	3,082	3,148	3,228
Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics	5,480	4,432	2,934	2,690	3,049	3,443	3,035	3,539	3,443	3,565	3,592	3,756	3,727	3,827	3,708	3,482	3,566	3,405
Health professions and related programs	5,330	12,164	16,176	18,603	21,354	33,920	43,623	51,380	54,531	58,120	62,642	69,112	75,571	84,355	90,933	97,416	103,052	110,348
Homeland security, law enforcement, and       firefighting	194	1,197	1,538	1,074	1,108	1,812	2,514	4,277	4,906	5,760	6,125	6,717	7,433	8,420	8,868	9,310	9,643	9,756
Legal professions and studies	955	1,442	1,832	1,924	2,057	2,751	3,829	4,453	4,486	4,815	5,150	5,767	6,475	6,614	7,013	7,654	7,924	8,178
Liberal arts and sciences, general studies,       and humanities	885	2,633	2,375	1,586	2,213	2,778	3,193	3,702	3,634	3,797	3,729	3,822	3,997	3,792	3,264	3,002	2,794	2,599
Library science	7,001	8,037	4,859	3,564	4,763	5,099	4,727	6,448	6,767	7,162	7,091	7,448	7,729	7,443	6,983	5,840	5,259	4,926
Mathematics and statistics	5,191	3,857	2,567	3,131	3,549	3,651	3,209	4,730	4,884	4,980	5,211	5,639	5,866	6,246	6,957	7,273	7,589	8,446
Military technologies and applied sciences	2	0	43	83	0	136	0	0	202	0	3	0	0	29	32	29	71	152
Multi/interdisciplinary studies	924	1,283	2,356	2,869	2,079	2,713	3,413	4,391	4,611	5,165	5,225	5,947	6,762	7,746	7,953	8,120	8,100	8,571
Parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies	218	571	643	570	483	1,684	2,354	3,992	4,110	4,440	4,825	5,617	6,546	7,047	7,139	7,609	7,654	8,244
Philosophy and religious studies	1,326	1,358	1,231	1,193	1,471	1,363	1,386	1,739	1,716	1,879	1,859	2,045	1,839	2,003	1,934	2,095	1,912	1,756
Physical sciences and science technologies	6,336	5,428	5,246	5,860	5,281	5,910	5,134	6,063	6,012	6,061	5,862	6,066	6,386	6,911	7,014	6,984	7,100	7,122
Precision production	0	0	0	0	0	8	2	9	5	3	10	10	5	11	9	15	4	10
Psychology	5,717	10,167	10,223	9,845	11,349	15,152	16,539	19,770	21,037	21,431	23,415	23,763	25,062	27,052	27,787	27,926	26,772	27,645
Public administration and social services	7,785	15,209	17,803	15,692	17,905	24,229	25,268	30,510	31,131	33,029	33,934	35,740	38,614	41,737	43,591	44,508	45,948	46,751
Social sciences and history	16,539	15,953	11,945	10,564	12,233	15,012	13,791	17,369	17,665	18,495	19,241	20,234	21,085	21,891	21,591	21,497	20,533	19,828
Theology and religious vocations	7,747	8,964	11,061	11,826	10,498	10,909	9,876	11,758	12,436	12,578	12,851	12,848	13,170	13,341	14,275	14,128	14,278	14,352
Transportation and materials moving	0	0	0	454	406	919	756	784	985	982	1,048	1,074	1,390	1,702	1,444	1,243	971	911
Visual and performing arts	6,675	8,817	8,629	8,420	8,657	10,280	11,404	13,530	13,767	14,164	14,918	15,562	16,277	17,307	17,869	17,869	17,756	18,048
Not classified by field of study	0	0	0	0	8,523	780	528	0	0	84	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

NOTE: Data through 1990-91 are for institutions of higher education, while later data are for postsecondary institutions that participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs. The new Classification of Instructional Programs was initiated in 2009-10. 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 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS): "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 and engineering-related fields, Construction trades, and Mechanic and repair technologies/technicians. Some data have been revised from previously published figures.

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; Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), "Completions Survey" (IPEDS-C:91-99); and IPEDS Fall 2000 through Fall 2016, Completions component. (This table was prepared August 2017.)