Largest U.S. Master's Programs in Statistics and Biostatistics

By Steve Pierson posted 02-10-2014 08:56

  

[6/19/18 update: The updated tables for universities awarding Master's Degrees in Statistics and Biostatistics from 2003-Most Recent Year (2017) can be found here:


[2/26/18 update: See this December 2017 Q&A with Data Science/Analytics Programs April 2017 Q&A with Data Science/Analytics Programs and this June 2017 Q&A with Data Science/Analytics Programs

[Update 8/23/17: The tables below are now presented much more cleanly and neatly at this ASA webapge: http://www.amstat.org/asa/education/Statistics-and-Biostatistics-Degree-Data.aspx.


9/29/15 update: See the report of the 2014 data release in this Amstat News article and the accompanying blog entry. The reports include breakouts for biostatistics degrees, proportion of degrees awarded to women, links to tables, and lists of universities granting undergraduate and graduate degrees in statistics and biostatistics for 2003-2014. No changes were made to the blog entry below. See also the September 2014 Amstat News piece on the 2013 statistics degree data: Bachelor’s Degrees in Statistics Surge Another 20%.

2/6/17 update: You may also be interested in this 2016 blog entry looking at Master's programs in data science/analytics: The Emergence of Master's in Analytics and Data Science Programs]

The tables below show the U.S. universities granting the most Master's degrees over the last three years. The first table is for statistics and the second for biostatistics. The data are from NCES IPEDS. 

For statistics programs, there are 133 universities that granted Master's degrees in 2010-2012; 51 for biostatistics. 

See also the blog entry, Largest Doctorate Programs in Statistics and Biostatistics.

Statistics Master's Degrees 2011 2012 2013 2011-2013 2003-2013
1 Columbia University in the City of New York 242 288 294 824 1943
2 Rutgers University-New Brunswick 47 62 79 188 576
3 California State University-East Bay 49 43 55 147 354
4 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 44 47 55 146 407
5 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 46 36 61 143 373
6 Cornell University 35 51 54 140 346
7 Stanford University 39 30 54 123 414
8 George Washington University 20 29 67 116 175
9 Ohio State University-Main Campus 45 43 25 113 486
10 Michigan State University 44 36 25 105 341
Subtotal 611 665 769 2045 5415
Total 1919 2026 2305 6250 17495

Table 1: Universities granting the most Master's Degrees in Statistics for the academic years 2010-2011, 2011-2012, & 2012-2013. For the full list, click here.

Biostatistics Master's Degrees 2011 2012 2013 2011-2013 2003-2013
1 Columbia University in the City of New York 30 31 37 98 238
2 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 29 25 38 92 284
3 Boston University 15 19 21 55 201
4 Emory University 16 15 18 49 110
5 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 11 21 15 47 174
6 Harvard University 12 11 24 47 118
7 University of California-Los Angeles 12 13 12 37 166
8 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 14 14 6 34 184
9 University of Washington-Seattle Campus 13 8 10 31 131
10 University of Iowa 8 7 12 27 119
Subtotal 160 164 193 517 1725
Total 359 386 463 1208 3298

Table 2: Universities granting the most Master's Degrees in Biostatistics for the academic years 2010-2011, 2011-2012, & 2012-2013. For the full list, click here.

For previous posts/articles on the growth of statistics degrees, AP Statistics, and postdocs, see the following (noting that #'s 2 & 3 include data on the number of women receiving degrees or the number of females taking AP Statistics):

  1. Statistical Science Degree Comparisons (updated through 2012), ASA Community Blog Entry, December 20, 2013. 
  2. AP Statistics Sustains Strong Growth in 2013, ASA Community Blog Entry, October 4, 2013.
  3. Undergrad Statistics Degrees Continue Large Increases in 2012, Amstat News, October, 2013.
  4. Postdoc Numbers Small but on the Rise for Statistics, ASA Community Blog Entry, September 9, 2013
  5. Growing Numbers of Stats Degrees, Amstat News, May, 2013.    
  6. See also this April 2007 Amstat News article, "Statistical Sciences Produces High Percentage of Female New Doctoral Recipients," by Rosanne Desmone: http://www.amstat.org/misc/2007_DesmoneFemalesInStats.pdf

See other ASA Science Policy blog entries. For ASA science policy updates, follow @ASA_SciPol on Twitter. 

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