4. GLOBAL RANKINGS – SCIENCE – Science, Engineering & Innovation

Doubting Science. Why?

GLOBAL “STEM” EDUCATION – BENCHMARKS

The National Science Board is required under the National Science Foundation (NSF) Act to prepare and transmits the biennial Science and Engineering Indicators report. Indicators provides information on the state of the U.S. science and engineering (S&E) enterprise over time and within a global context.

Among STEM workers with a bachelor’s degree, there was wide variation in the representation of Blacks and Hispanics across S&E occupations and women in S&E- related occupations in 2019. Compared with their share of S&E occupations overall (5%), Black workers were disproportionately higher among postsecondary teachers in the social and related sciences (9%), computer support specialists (10%), network and computer systems administrators (11%), and information security analysts (17%). Hispanics, who were 8% of workers in S&E occupations overall, had a relatively large presence among social scientists (12%).

American’s trust in scientists varies by level of education. Although 84% of U.S. adults overall expressed “a fair amount” or “a great deal” of confidence in scientists to act in the best interests of the public, this confidence varied slightly by education.