
In the 2024–2025 academic year, U.S. institutions awarded 8,108 bachelor’s degrees in physics, a 4 percent increase from the prior year. However, this increase is well below the all-time high of 9,296 physics bachelor’s degrees awarded in the 2019–2020 academic year.
Women earned 27 percent of physics bachelor’s degrees in 2024–2025 — the highest proportion on record. Since the early 1980s, the proportion of women among physics bachelor’s degree awardees has more than doubled. Despite these significant gains, women’s share of physics bachelor’s degree recipients remains far below their 58 percent share of all U.S. bachelor’s degree recipients and their 39 percent share of all STEM bachelor’s degree recipients.


