Table 323.10.

Master's degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions, by field of study: Selected academic years, 1970-71 through 2020-21

Field of study	1970-71	1975-76	1980-81	1985-86	1990-91	1995-96	2000-01	2005-06	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
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	755,967	751,718	754,582	758,804	785,757	804,542	820,242	833,792	843,531	866,894
Agriculture and natural resources1	2,546	3,453	4,150	3,908	3,402	4,691	4,430	5,099	6,622	6,601	7,026	6,894	7,206	7,373	6,967	7,544	7,405	7,404
Architecture and related services	1,705	3,215	3,153	3,260	3,490	3,993	4,302	5,743	8,448	8,095	8,048	8,006	7,991	7,883	7,291	7,311	6,799	6,321
Area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies	1,032	993	802	915	1,233	1,652	1,555	2,080	1,947	1,897	1,844	1,847	1,767	1,717	1,675	1,593	1,527	1,446
Biological and biomedical sciences	5,625	6,457	5,766	5,064	4,834	6,593	7,017	8,783	12,419	13,300	13,964	14,655	15,717	16,282	17,180	18,092	18,779	19,433
Business2	26,490	42,592	57,888	66,676	78,255	93,554	115,602	146,396	191,606	188,617	189,364	185,236	186,835	187,412	192,191	197,074	197,443	202,334
Communication, journalism, and related programs	1,770	2,961	2,896	3,500	4,123	5,080	5,218	7,106	9,005	8,760	9,353	9,581	9,676	10,119	10,241	10,463	10,588	10,805
Communications technologies	86	165	209	308	204	481	427	521	497	577	577	554	491	539	529	535	539	517
Computer and information sciences and support    services	1,588	2,603	4,218	8,070	9,324	10,579	16,911	17,195	20,925	22,782	24,514	31,475	40,130	46,553	46,468	45,671	51,527	54,174
Education	87,666	126,061	96,713	74,816	87,352	104,936	127,829	174,622	179,047	164,652	154,655	146,581	145,792	145,624	146,368	146,429	146,989	153,756
Engineering	16,813	16,472	16,893	21,529	24,454	26,789	25,174	30,845	40,323	40,420	42,376	46,117	51,646	52,826	51,723	49,701	47,277	47,257
Engineering technologies3	134	328	323	617	996	2,054	2,013	2,541	4,793	4,908	4,967	5,324	6,067	7,403	7,246	6,232	6,219	6,375
English language and literature/letters	10,441	8,599	5,742	5,335	6,784	7,657	6,763	8,845	9,938	9,755	9,294	8,928	8,581	8,244	8,300	8,217	7,862	7,850
Family and consumer sciences/human sciences	1,452	2,179	2,570	2,011	1,541	1,712	1,838	1,983	3,155	3,255	3,082	3,148	3,228	3,295	3,308	3,287	3,281	3,137
Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics	5,480	4,432	2,934	2,690	3,049	3,443	3,035	3,539	3,827	3,708	3,482	3,566	3,407	3,271	3,261	3,081	2,930	2,884
Health professions and related programs	5,241	12,051	16,029	18,496	21,247	33,780	43,465	51,046	84,123	90,668	96,934	102,584	109,846	118,712	125,230	131,391	135,317	142,025
Homeland security, law enforcement, and firefighting	194	1,197	1,538	1,074	1,108	1,812	2,514	4,277	8,420	8,868	9,310	9,643	9,775	10,209	10,293	10,303	10,606	11,326
Legal professions and studies	955	1,442	1,832	1,924	2,057	2,751	3,829	4,453	6,614	7,013	7,654	7,924	8,181	8,674	9,203	9,487	10,024	7,038
Liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and    humanities	885	2,633	2,375	1,586	2,213	2,778	3,193	3,702	3,792	3,264	3,002	2,794	2,598	2,485	2,473	2,109	1,990	2,044
Library science	7,001	8,037	4,859	3,564	4,763	5,099	4,727	6,448	7,443	6,983	5,840	5,259	4,926	4,843	4,953	5,164	4,959	5,473
Mathematics and statistics	5,191	3,857	2,567	3,131	3,549	3,651	3,209	4,729	6,246	6,957	7,273	7,589	8,451	9,082	10,443	11,382	12,041	12,583
Military technologies and applied sciences	2	0	43	83	0	136	0	0	29	32	29	71	152	274	355	572	839	958
Multi/interdisciplinary studies	924	1,283	2,356	2,869	2,079	2,713	3,413	4,396	7,746	7,953	8,120	8,100	8,554	9,264	10,221	10,721	11,541	12,365
Parks, recreation, leisure, fitness, and kinesiology	218	571	643	570	483	1,684	2,354	3,994	7,047	7,139	7,609	7,654	8,268	8,651	9,010	8,963	9,108	9,880
Philosophy and religious studies	1,326	1,358	1,231	1,193	1,471	1,371	1,534	2,096	2,433	2,399	2,561	2,413	2,227	2,190	1,693	2,280	2,179	2,073
Physical sciences and science technologies	6,336	5,428	5,246	5,860	5,281	5,910	5,134	6,063	6,911	7,014	6,984	7,100	7,131	7,136	7,196	7,121	6,978	6,778
Precision production	0	0	0	0	0	8	2	9	11	9	15	4	10	14	11	12	11	8
Psychology	5,717	10,167	10,223	9,845	11,349	15,152	16,539	19,775	27,052	27,787	27,926	26,772	27,645	27,539	27,918	29,136	29,750	31,776
Public administration and social services	7,785	15,209	17,803	15,692	17,905	24,229	25,268	30,492	41,737	43,591	44,508	45,948	46,754	45,361	46,300	48,883	49,718	49,388
Social sciences and history	16,539	15,953	11,945	10,564	12,233	15,012	13,791	17,368	21,891	21,591	21,497	20,533	19,861	20,004	19,884	20,303	19,507	19,845
Theology and religious vocations	7,747	8,964	11,061	11,826	10,498	10,901	9,728	11,401	12,911	13,810	13,662	13,777	13,881	13,208	13,828	12,842	12,646	13,228
Transportation and materials moving	0	0	0	454	406	919	756	784	1,702	1,444	1,243	971	911	839	815	774	631	670
Visual and performing arts	6,675	8,817	8,629	8,420	8,657	10,280	11,404	13,531	17,307	17,869	17,869	17,756	18,052	17,516	17,668	17,119	16,521	15,743
Other and not classified	0	0	0	0	8,523	780	528	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

1Includes Agricultural, animal, plant, veterinary science, and related fields; and Natural resources and conservation.

2Includes Business, management, marketing, and related support services; and Culinary, entertainment, and personal services.

3Includes 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 2021, Completions component. (This table was prepared September 2022.)