Learn about the types of people who become physicists. This page goes into detail about the employment, gender, and ethnic ratios of the workplace.
Employment Type Mix, 2024
73% of physicists work in full-time roles while 27% work part-time.
Gender Mix By Career Interest, 2024
This graph shows the distribution of females and males that are interested in becoming a physicist. Four or five star ratings on CareerExplorer indicate interest.
More men than women are interested in becoming physicists at a ratio of 3.14 to 1.
Actual Gender Mix, 2024
31% of physicists are female and 69% are male.
Gender Bias, 2024
This is one of the most compelling statistics we collect. Gender bias shows the difference between gender interest in being a physicist 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 physicist and those who end up becoming one.
In this case there are more men interested in becoming a physicist 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 physicists are White, making up 48% of the population. The next highest segments are Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish and South Asian, making up 13% and 13% respectively.