Table 323.10.

Master's degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions, by field of study: Selected years, 1970-71 through 2018-19

Field of study	1970-71	1975-76	1980-81	1985-86	1990-91	1995-96	2000-01	2005-06	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
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	599,862	693,313	730,922	755,967	751,718	754,582	758,804	785,757	804,542	820,242	833,706
Agriculture and natural resources1	2,457	3,340	4,003	3,801	3,295	4,551	4,272	4,653	5,215	5,766	6,390	6,336	6,544	6,426	6,702	6,843	6,967	7,288
Architecture and related services	1,705	3,215	3,153	3,260	3,490	3,993	4,302	5,743	7,280	7,788	8,448	8,095	8,048	8,006	7,991	7,883	7,291	7,311
Area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies	1,032	993	802	915	1,233	1,652	1,555	2,080	1,775	1,913	1,947	1,897	1,844	1,847	1,767	1,717	1,675	1,590
Biological and biomedical sciences	5,625	6,457	5,766	5,064	4,834	6,593	7,017	8,783	10,730	11,324	12,419	13,300	13,964	14,655	15,717	16,282	17,180	18,090
Business2	26,490	42,592	57,888	66,676	78,255	93,554	115,602	146,396	177,748	187,178	191,606	188,617	189,364	185,236	186,835	187,412	192,191	197,089
Communication, journalism, and related programs	1,770	2,961	2,896	3,500	4,123	5,080	5,218	7,106	7,630	8,302	9,005	8,760	9,353	9,581	9,676	10,119	10,241	10,463
Communications technologies	86	165	209	308	204	481	427	521	463	502	497	577	577	554	491	539	529	535
Computer and information sciences	1,588	2,603	4,218	8,070	9,324	10,579	16,911	17,195	17,955	19,516	20,925	22,782	24,514	31,475	40,130	46,553	46,468	45,667
Education	87,666	126,061	96,713	74,816	87,352	104,936	127,829	174,622	182,165	185,127	179,047	164,652	154,655	146,581	145,792	145,624	146,368	146,432
Engineering	16,813	16,472	16,893	21,529	24,454	26,789	25,174	30,845	35,133	38,664	40,323	40,420	42,376	46,117	51,646	52,826	51,723	49,690
Engineering technologies3	134	328	323	617	996	2,054	2,013	2,541	4,258	4,515	4,793	4,908	4,967	5,324	6,067	7,403	7,246	6,232
English language and literature/letters	10,441	8,599	5,742	5,335	6,784	7,657	6,763	8,845	9,202	9,475	9,938	9,755	9,294	8,928	8,581	8,244	8,300	8,217
Family and consumer sciences/human sciences	1,452	2,179	2,570	2,011	1,541	1,712	1,838	1,983	2,592	2,918	3,155	3,255	3,082	3,148	3,228	3,295	3,308	3,287
Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics	5,480	4,432	2,934	2,690	3,049	3,443	3,035	3,539	3,756	3,727	3,827	3,708	3,482	3,566	3,407	3,271	3,261	3,080
Health professions and related programs	5,330	12,164	16,176	18,603	21,354	33,920	43,623	51,492	69,112	75,571	84,355	90,933	97,416	103,052	110,350	119,242	125,230	131,569
Homeland security, law enforcement, and     firefighting	194	1,197	1,538	1,074	1,108	1,812	2,514	4,277	6,717	7,433	8,420	8,868	9,310	9,643	9,775	10,209	10,293	10,303
Legal professions and studies	955	1,442	1,832	1,924	2,057	2,751	3,829	4,453	5,767	6,475	6,614	7,013	7,654	7,924	8,181	8,674	9,203	9,486
Liberal arts and sciences, general studies,     and humanities	885	2,633	2,375	1,586	2,213	2,778	3,193	3,702	3,822	3,997	3,792	3,264	3,002	2,794	2,598	2,485	2,473	2,109
Library science	7,001	8,037	4,859	3,564	4,763	5,099	4,727	6,448	7,448	7,729	7,443	6,983	5,840	5,259	4,926	4,843	4,953	5,164
Mathematics and statistics	5,191	3,857	2,567	3,131	3,549	3,651	3,209	4,729	5,639	5,866	6,246	6,957	7,273	7,589	8,451	9,082	10,443	11,380
Military technologies and applied sciences	2	0	43	83	0	136	0	0	0	0	29	32	29	71	152	274	355	572
Multi/interdisciplinary studies	924	1,283	2,356	2,869	2,079	2,713	3,413	4,396	5,947	6,762	7,746	7,953	8,120	8,100	8,554	9,264	10,221	10,721
Parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies	218	571	643	570	483	1,684	2,354	3,994	5,617	6,546	7,047	7,139	7,609	7,654	8,268	8,651	9,010	8,963
Philosophy and religious studies	1,326	1,358	1,231	1,193	1,471	1,363	1,386	1,739	2,045	1,839	2,003	1,934	2,095	1,912	1,756	1,704	1,693	1,691
Physical sciences and science technologies	6,336	5,428	5,246	5,860	5,281	5,910	5,134	6,063	6,066	6,386	6,911	7,014	6,984	7,100	7,131	7,136	7,196	7,121
Precision production	0	0	0	0	0	8	2	9	10	5	11	9	15	4	10	14	11	12
Psychology	5,717	10,167	10,223	9,845	11,349	15,152	16,539	19,775	23,763	25,062	27,052	27,787	27,926	26,772	27,645	27,539	27,918	29,135
Public administration and social services	7,785	15,209	17,803	15,692	17,905	24,229	25,268	30,492	35,740	38,614	41,737	43,591	44,508	45,948	46,754	45,361	46,300	48,890
Social sciences and history	16,539	15,953	11,945	10,564	12,233	15,012	13,791	17,368	20,234	21,085	21,891	21,591	21,497	20,533	19,861	20,004	19,884	20,301
Theology and religious vocations	7,747	8,964	11,061	11,826	10,498	10,909	9,876	11,758	12,848	13,170	13,341	14,275	14,128	14,278	14,352	13,694	13,828	13,431
Transportation and materials moving	0	0	0	454	406	919	756	784	1,074	1,390	1,702	1,444	1,243	971	911	839	815	774
Visual and performing arts	6,675	8,817	8,629	8,420	8,657	10,280	11,404	13,531	15,562	16,277	17,307	17,869	17,869	17,756	18,052	17,516	17,668	17,113
Other and not classified	0	0	0	0	8,523	780	528	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

1 Includes Agriculture, agriculture operations, and related sciences; and Natural resources and conservation.

2 Includes Business, management, marketing, and related support services; and Personal and culinary services.

3 Includes Engineering technologies and engineering-related fields; Construction trades; and Mechanic and repair technologies/technicians.

NOTE: Data in this table represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Data are for postsecondary institutions participating 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). 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 2019, Completions component. (This table was prepared June 2020.)