Curiosities surrounding doctoral studies

As students, or future doctoral students, figures, and numbers are passionate since they feed critical thinking, analysis, and decision-making. Taking this into account, we wanted to make a compendium of the most curious data, by category, related to doctoral studies, according to figures revealed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)*.

By age:
● Doctorate holders represent 1.1% of 25-64 year-olds on average across OECD countries, though this varies from 0.1% or less in Indonesia and Mexico to more than 3% in Slovenia and Switzerland.

● The median age at entry to doctoral programs is 29 on average across OECD countries with 60% of entrants aged between 26 and 37 years old.

● If current entry patterns continue, 2.3% of today’s young adults across OECD countries will enter a doctoral program in their lifetime. This varies from 4% and more in Switzerland and the United Kingdom – mostly due to a large share of international students in these countries – to less than 0.5% in Chile, China, Colombia, and Saudi Arabia. Excluding international students, the countries with the highest entry rates at the doctoral level are Germany (3.2%), Spain (3.1%), and Korea (3.0%).

● The median age at entry to doctoral programs is 29 on average across OECD countries with 60% of entrants between the ages of 26 and 37. However, the median age varies markedly across countries, ranging from 26 in France and the Netherlands to 35 in Colombia.

● The age of entry to a doctoral program depends largely on the first-time entry and graduation ages to tertiary education, and the extent to which students are likely to have started to work between tertiary degrees.

● In some countries like Greece, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, and Spain; students tend to enroll in their degree after the age of 30 because they value opportunities to work first to gain industry or sector experience, which they can leverage in their doctoral research. By Countries

● On average across OECD countries, 25% of enrolled doctoral graduates are international students.

● The relative employment advantage of adults with a doctoral degree compared to those with a master’s varies across OECD countries from 10% in Finland, Hungary, and Italy to 1% in Iceland and Sweden.

● On average across OECD countries, the employment rate of women with a doctorate is 5% higher than that of women with a master’s and is 15% or higher in Greece and Hungary. In contrast, men with a doctorate have an employment rate that is 3% higher than men with a master’s, on average across OECD countries, and this advantage does not exceed 8% in any OECD or partner country.

● Doctorate holders account for a small proportion of the adult population. In 2018, just 1.1% of 25-64 year-olds held a doctorate on average across OECD countries, though this varies from less than 0.1% in Indonesia and Mexico to more than 3% in Slovenia and Switzerland. In spite of these low levels, the number of doctorate holders has been increasing. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of students graduating with a doctorate increased by approximately 8% across OECD countries, reaching 276 800 students in 2017. This growth is primarily driven by the increase in doctoral graduates in Mexico, Spain, and the United States over this period. The United States remains the top supplier of doctoral graduates among OECD countries with about 71 000 graduates in 2017, followed by Germany and the United Kingdom (around 28 000 each).

● Doctoral students are more likely than other tertiary students to study abroad. On average across OECD countries, 22% of enrolled doctoral students are international or foreign students, compared to 13% at the master’s level and 4% at the bachelor’s. In some countries, international students make up the majority of graduates at the doctoral level: more than half are international students in Luxembourg and Switzerland.



Countries are ranked in descending order of the share of international doctoral graduates among total doctoral graduates.

Source: OECD (2019)
In case you want to learn more about The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD*), a unique forum where the governments of 37 democracies with market-based economies collaborate to develop policy standards to promote sustainable economic growth, here you have their website link.

All information shared is from OECD indicators.