Table 323.10.

Master's degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions, by field of study: Selected years, 1970-71 through 2019-20

Field of study	1970-71	1975-76	1980-81	1985-86	1990-91	1995-96	2000-01	2005-06	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
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	730,922	755,967	751,718	754,582	758,804	785,757	804,542	820,242	833,792	843,449
Agriculture and natural resources1	2,546	3,453	4,150	3,908	3,402	4,691	4,430	5,099	6,023	6,622	6,601	7,026	6,894	7,206	7,373	6,967	7,544	7,393
Architecture and related services	1,705	3,215	3,153	3,260	3,490	3,993	4,302	5,743	7,788	8,448	8,095	8,048	8,006	7,991	7,883	7,291	7,311	6,796
Area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies	1,032	993	802	915	1,233	1,652	1,555	2,080	1,913	1,947	1,897	1,844	1,847	1,767	1,717	1,675	1,593	1,527
Biological and biomedical sciences	5,625	6,457	5,766	5,064	4,834	6,593	7,017	8,783	11,324	12,419	13,300	13,964	14,655	15,717	16,282	17,180	18,092	18,776
Business2	26,490	42,592	57,888	66,676	78,255	93,554	115,602	146,396	187,178	191,606	188,617	189,364	185,236	186,835	187,412	192,191	197,074	197,422
Communication, journalism, and related programs	1,770	2,961	2,896	3,500	4,123	5,080	5,218	7,106	8,302	9,005	8,760	9,353	9,581	9,676	10,119	10,241	10,463	10,588
Communications technologies	86	165	209	308	204	481	427	521	502	497	577	577	554	491	539	529	535	539
Computer and information sciences and support     services	1,588	2,603	4,218	8,070	9,324	10,579	16,911	17,195	19,516	20,925	22,782	24,514	31,475	40,130	46,553	46,468	45,671	51,521
Education	87,666	126,061	96,713	74,816	87,352	104,936	127,829	174,622	185,127	179,047	164,652	154,655	146,581	145,792	145,624	146,368	146,429	146,975
Engineering	16,813	16,472	16,893	21,529	24,454	26,789	25,174	30,845	38,664	40,323	40,420	42,376	46,117	51,646	52,826	51,723	49,701	47,266
Engineering technologies3	134	328	323	617	996	2,054	2,013	2,541	4,515	4,793	4,908	4,967	5,324	6,067	7,403	7,246	6,232	6,219
English language and literature/letters	10,441	8,599	5,742	5,335	6,784	7,657	6,763	8,845	9,475	9,938	9,755	9,294	8,928	8,581	8,244	8,300	8,217	7,862
Family and consumer sciences/human sciences	1,452	2,179	2,570	2,011	1,541	1,712	1,838	1,983	2,918	3,155	3,255	3,082	3,148	3,228	3,295	3,308	3,287	3,280
Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics	5,480	4,432	2,934	2,690	3,049	3,443	3,035	3,539	3,727	3,827	3,708	3,482	3,566	3,407	3,271	3,261	3,081	2,930
Health professions and related programs	5,241	12,051	16,029	18,496	21,247	33,780	43,465	51,046	75,314	84,123	90,668	96,934	102,584	109,846	118,712	125,230	131,391	135,324
Homeland security, law enforcement, and     firefighting	194	1,197	1,538	1,074	1,108	1,812	2,514	4,277	7,433	8,420	8,868	9,310	9,643	9,775	10,209	10,293	10,303	10,606
Legal professions and studies	955	1,442	1,832	1,924	2,057	2,751	3,829	4,453	6,475	6,614	7,013	7,654	7,924	8,181	8,674	9,203	9,487	10,002
Liberal arts and sciences, general studies,     and humanities	885	2,633	2,375	1,586	2,213	2,778	3,193	3,702	3,997	3,792	3,264	3,002	2,794	2,598	2,485	2,473	2,109	1,990
Library science	7,001	8,037	4,859	3,564	4,763	5,099	4,727	6,448	7,729	7,443	6,983	5,840	5,259	4,926	4,843	4,953	5,164	4,959
Mathematics and statistics	5,191	3,857	2,567	3,131	3,549	3,651	3,209	4,729	5,866	6,246	6,957	7,273	7,589	8,451	9,082	10,443	11,382	12,039
Military technologies and applied sciences	2	0	43	83	0	136	0	0	0	29	32	29	71	152	274	355	572	839
Multi/interdisciplinary studies	924	1,283	2,356	2,869	2,079	2,713	3,413	4,396	6,762	7,746	7,953	8,120	8,100	8,554	9,264	10,221	10,721	11,547
Parks, recreation, leisure, fitness, and     kinesiology	218	571	643	570	483	1,684	2,354	3,994	6,546	7,047	7,139	7,609	7,654	8,268	8,651	9,010	8,963	9,108
Philosophy and religious studies	1,326	1,358	1,231	1,193	1,471	1,371	1,534	2,096	2,257	2,433	2,399	2,561	2,413	2,227	2,190	1,693	2,280	2,178
Physical sciences and science technologies	6,336	5,428	5,246	5,860	5,281	5,910	5,134	6,063	6,386	6,911	7,014	6,984	7,100	7,131	7,136	7,196	7,121	6,976
Precision production	0	0	0	0	0	8	2	9	5	11	9	15	4	10	14	11	12	11
Psychology	5,717	10,167	10,223	9,845	11,349	15,152	16,539	19,775	25,062	27,052	27,787	27,926	26,772	27,645	27,539	27,918	29,136	29,763
Public administration and social services	7,785	15,209	17,803	15,692	17,905	24,229	25,268	30,492	38,614	41,737	43,591	44,508	45,948	46,754	45,361	46,300	48,883	49,712
Social sciences and history	16,539	15,953	11,945	10,564	12,233	15,012	13,791	17,368	21,085	21,891	21,591	21,497	20,533	19,861	20,004	19,884	20,303	19,507
Theology and religious vocations	7,747	8,964	11,061	11,826	10,498	10,901	9,728	11,401	12,752	12,911	13,810	13,662	13,777	13,881	13,208	13,828	12,842	12,646
Transportation and materials moving	0	0	0	454	406	919	756	784	1,390	1,702	1,444	1,243	971	911	839	815	774	631
Visual and performing arts	6,675	8,817	8,629	8,420	8,657	10,280	11,404	13,531	16,277	17,307	17,869	17,869	17,756	18,052	17,516	17,668	17,119	16,517
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 Agricultural, animal, plant, veterinary science, and related fields; and Natural resources and conservation.

2 Includes Business, management, marketing, and related support services; and Culinary, entertainment, and personal 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. Data in this table are based on the 2020 Classification of Instructional Programs. 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 2020, Completions component. (This table was prepared September 2021.)