Gender Differences in the Age of Doctoral Degree Recipients in the United States

Data for the annual Survey of Earned Doctorates from the National Science Foundation shows that there are gender differences in the age of doctoral degree recipients and the time it took students to complete their doctoral studies.

On average, women who earned doctorates in 2021 were 31.7 years old when they received their doctoral degrees. For men, the average age was 31.3. But when we break the figures down by age group, we see more pronounced differences. Men were far more likely than women to earn a doctorate before the age of 30. Some 43.6 percent of women earned their doctorate before the age of 30. For men, 48.1 percent of all doctoral degree recipients in 2021 were below the age of 30. But women were more likely to earn a doctorate at an older age. For example, 14.7 percent of all women who earned doctorates in 2021 were over the age of 40. For men earning doctorates in 2021, only 9.8 percent were over the age of 40.

On average, women who earned doctorates in 2021 took nine years after they graduated from college to earn their degree. For men, it took an average of 8.3 years. Women took 7.6 years to complete their doctorate from the time they enrolled in graduate school. For men, the average was 7.0 years.

For women earning doctorates in education, the average number of years it took to earn a doctorate after earning their bachelor’s degree was 15.3 years.