Learn about the types of people who become chemical engineers. This page goes into detail about the employment, gender, and ethnic ratios of the workplace.


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Employment Type Mix, 2024

87% of chemical engineers work in full-time roles while 13% work part-time.

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Gender Mix By Career Interest, 2024

This graph shows the distribution of females and males that are interested in becoming a chemical engineer. Four or five star ratings on CareerExplorer indicate interest.

More men than women are interested in becoming chemical engineers at a ratio of 2.97 to 1.

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Actual Gender Mix, 2024

40% of chemical engineers are female and 60% are male.

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Gender Bias, 2024

This is one of the most compelling statistics we collect. Gender bias shows the difference between gender interest in being a chemical engineer and the actual gender mix of people in the career.

If there is a significant difference, then it means there is a gender imbalance between those interested in becoming a chemical engineer and those who end up becoming one.

In this case there are more men interested in becoming a chemical engineer than those actually working as one. It is hard to pinpoint the exact reasons why, but there are likely various forces at play, from changing interests over time to societal norms and biases.

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Ethnic Mix, 2019

The largest ethnic group of chemical engineers are White, making up 37% of the population. The next highest segments are South Asian and East Asian, making up 21% and 13% respectively.