Roster of Astronomy Departments with Enrollment and Degree Data, 2024

The Astronomy Roster is a listing of all degree-granting astronomy departments in the US. It includes enrollment data for the fall of 2024 and the degrees conferred during the 2023-24 academic year. The findings in this report come from AIP’s annual departmental survey of Enrollments and Degrees.

In the 2023-24 academic year, U.S. institutions awarded 982 astronomy bachelor’s degrees, the highest number on record. This continues a decade-and-a-half trend of growth, representing a 200% increase since 2008-09 (see figure on page 7).

There were 201 astronomy PhDs were conferred in the 2023-24 academic, an 11% decrease from the previous year, which had marked the all-time high for astronomy PhDs in the U.S. (see figure on page 7). These totals do not include astrophysics PhDs awarded by physics departments that do not offer an explicit astronomy degree; such degrees are counted in the data presented in the Roster of Physics Departments.