Learn about the types of people who become engineers. This page goes into detail about the employment, gender, and ethnic ratios of the workplace.
Employment Type Mix, 2023
90% of engineers work in full-time roles while 10% work part-time.
Gender Mix By Career Interest, 2023
This graph shows the distribution of females and males that are interested in becoming an engineer. Four or five star ratings on CareerExplorer indicate interest.
More men than women are interested in becoming engineers at a ratio of 4.29 to 1.
Actual Gender Mix, 2023
31% of engineers are female and 69% are male.
Gender Bias, 2023
This is one of the most compelling statistics we collect. Gender bias shows the difference between gender interest in being an 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 an engineer and those who end up becoming one.
In this case there are more men interested in becoming an 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.
Ethnic Mix, 2019
The largest ethnic group of engineers are White, making up 34% of the population. The next highest segments are South Asian and Other, making up 28% and 10% respectively.