Doctorate recipients’ expected median salaries vary by broad field of study and position type. However, in 2024, doctorate recipients in every broad field of study with definite post-graduation commitments in the United States expected to earn more in industry than in academia or postdoc positions. Industry also had the largest spread of expected salaries, where the highest median salary by field of study (computer and information sciences) was nearly double that of the lowest median salary (non-S&E fields).

Although most doctoral recipients in each broad field of study are funded through research assistantships or traineeships; teaching assistantships; or fellowships, scholarships, and dissertation grants, the prevalence of the financial support type varies by field. In 2024, research assistantships and traineeships were the most common source of financial support in most broad fields. About one-third of doctorate recipients in psychology, health sciences, and non-S&E fields relied on their own resources as their primary funding source.

Talent is critical to the U.S. science and engineering enterprise and competitiveness. The U.S. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce represented about a quarter of the total domestic workforce in 2023, with distinct education, employment, and wage patterns. Recent assessments reveal incomplete recovery for U.S. K–12 students from pandemic-related STEM learning losses. STEM degree production grew at U.S. higher education institutions at all levels between 2013 and 2023. In 2023, the United States was the leading destination for international students, despite a small decline in overall share since 2013.

Nearly one-quarter (23%) of the estimated 4.9 million for-profit companies with at least one employee introduced an innovation during 2020–22. Ten percent of companies reported a product innovation and 20% of companies reported a business process innovation during this period. Data are from the 2023 Annual Business Survey (ABS) (data year 2022), which provides a comprehensive view of business innovation in the United States. The ABS was developed and is cosponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the U.S. National Science Foundation and by the Census Bureau.

Total higher education research and development (R&D) expenditures reached $117.7 billion in FY 2024, an increase of $8.9 billion or 8.1% from FY 2023. Federally funded R&D at universities exceeded $64 billion, accounting for 55% of total higher education R&D in FY 2024. The data in this report are from the Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey, sponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the U.S. National Science Foundation.

In FY 2023, federal agency obligations to the top 10 higher education recipient institutions totaled $9.9 billion, or 20.1% of all federal S&E support obligations to higher education institutions. In FY 2014, the top 10 recipient institutions totaled $7.2 billion, or 22.7% of all federal S&E support obligations to higher education institutions. This InfoBytes presents statistics on changes in the population of the top 10 recipient institutions during the past decade. Estimates are from the FY 2023 Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support module within the Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development, conducted by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Imputation of missing data from surveys aims to mitigate the risk of nonresponse bias associated with item nonresponse and provide data users with a complete data set with no missing values to facilitate data analyses. In addition, the imputation procedures seek to support multivariate inferences by reflecting the relationships among survey variables. Particularly, in imputation for longitudinal surveys, it is crucial to maintain longitudinal relationships in the data by preserving temporal patterns and accurately predicting missing data at a given time. The research described in this working paper investigates the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) to determine the effects of the systematic usage of information from past cycles in the cross-sectional imputation and in the longitudinal imputation. The key goal is to improve donor matching in the cross-sectional imputation and, in turn, enhance the data quality of (1) the cross-sectional data sets by strengthening the imputation accuracy and (2) the longitudinal data sets by reducing the chance of creating unobserved and unverifiable longitudinal patterns. The SDR is sponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the U.S. National Science Foundation and by the National Institutes of Health.

This working paper outlines the research conducted to develop public use synthetic microdata for the longitudinal sample of the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (LSDR) and summarizes the findings that led to the construction of the synthetic data file. Synthetic microdata were generated by using a select synthetic data approach. This paper includes the rationale behind choosing the selected aspects of synthetic data generation, a comparison of each option in consideration, and variance estimation methods, which allows users to determine the uncertainty of the estimates. The public use synthetic microdata for LSDR and corresponding estimates discussed and included in this working paper are designated as experimental statistical products.

This publication releases data tables for the FY 2024 Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey. The tables present data on research and development expenditures at higher education institutions across all academic disciplines and include R&D expenditures by institution, R&D field, geographic area, source of funds, type of R&D (basic research, applied research, and experimental development), cost categories (salaries, software, equipment, and indirect costs), headcounts and full-time equivalents, and trends over time. The HERD Survey is conducted by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the U.S. National Science Foundation.

State government agencies’ expenditures for research and development (R&D) rose nearly 11% in FY 2024 from the prior year to $3.3 billion. Although state government expenditures for R&D are relatively small within the national portfolio of R&D performance, state agencies in FY 2024 performed $812 million in R&D while also financing $2.5 billion in extramural R&D to businesses, higher education institutions, nonprofit organizations, and others. Data are from the Survey of State Government Research and Development, sponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the U.S. National Science Foundation.