Global Undergraduate Degrees: According to the National Science Board (2022), between 2011 and 2018, the number of bachelor’s degrees in engineering or their equivalents conferred in several countries increased steadily. In 2018, China conferred over one million degrees, while the United States conferred only 147,712. In contrast, Spain awarded the fewest bachelor’s degrees among the selected nations, with 24,735.
Globally, in 2020, a larger proportion of men than women received bachelor’s degrees in engineering, manufacturing, and construction (EMC), according to an analysis of the gender distribution of engineering degrees from The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) education data. That year, 26.9 percent of women in OECD countries were awarded bachelor’s degrees in these academic programs. In our sample of countries, Brazil conferred the highest proportion of degrees (37.1%), while Japan (15.5%) and Germany (17.8%) had the lowest proportion of women graduates.
Similarly, in information and communication technologies academic programs (ICT), women comprised less than half of the bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2020. The average proportion of women graduates from the OECD was 20.7 percent. Türkiye and Mexico had the highest percentage of women obtaining an ICT bachelor’s degree at 29.7 percent and 27 percent, respectively. The countries with the lowest rate of women graduating with bachelor’s degrees in these academic programs were Spain (13.6%) and Brazil (14%).
Additional Resources
- Source: National Science Board. 2022. Higher Education in Science and Engineering. Science and Engineering Indicators 2022. NSB-2022-3.
- OECD (2022), Education at a Glance 2022: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris,
