Critical industries · NCES IPEDS, 2015–2022
Artificial intelligence
The models and the people who build them. Computer science carries the volume. The named AI and data science codes are newer and much smaller. All three are listed separately below, so neither hides inside the other.
63.3%
of research doctorates in this field go to non-residents
+36.3 points against the 27.0% national figure
8,891
doctorates awarded in the window
5,629 of them to non-residents
122
institutions award this doctorate at all
the whole national capacity
62.3%
the share in 2025, the most recent year published
no federal access regime applies by default
No federal access restriction by default
No export-control or access-authorisation regime applies to the field as such. Specific defence and intelligence work carries its own rules. Some frontier model weights and semiconductor design tools are export-controlled. A computer science doctorate is not.
The American share, by award level
The same field at three levels, in 2025. The subject does not change. Only the level does.
| Level | Awarded to Americans | Share American | Awarded to non-residents | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's | 48,813 | 88.9% | 6,088 | 54,901 |
| Master's | 10,910 | 30.7% | 24,578 | 35,488 |
| Doctorate | 756 | 37.7% | 1,251 | 2,007 |
Americans take 88.9% of the 54,901 bachelor’s degrees in this field and 30.7% of the 35,488 master’s degrees. The American share falls 58.2 points between the two, and the graduate degree is the one these industries hire from. See the master’s expansion for the same comparison across every field. A row resting on a few dozen awards moves on one student, so read the small ones with the award count beside them.
The programmes behind the number
Every CIP code this page counts, and what each contributes. Disagree with the mapping and you can see exactly which rows to drop.
| Programme | Non-resident share | Doctorates | Non-residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Science CIP 11.0701 | 63.1% | 8,624 | 5,444 |
| Artificial Intelligence CIP 11.0102 | 69.7% | 254 | 177 |
| Data Science, General CIP 30.7001 | 61.5% | 13 | 8 |
Where it is taught
The institutions awarding these doctorates, largest first. Ten or more over the window.
| Institution | Non-resident share | Doctorates | Non-residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carnegie Mellon University | 65.2% | 374 | 244 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 53.5% | 359 | 192 |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | 69.7% | 357 | 249 |
| University of California-Berkeley | 43.0% | 277 | 119 |
| University of Southern California | 69.6% | 263 | 183 |
| Stanford University | 43.5% | 260 | 113 |
| University of California-Los Angeles | 71.3% | 216 | 154 |
| University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | 64.6% | 212 | 137 |
| University of California-San Diego | 61.5% | 205 | 126 |
| North Carolina State University at Raleigh | 52.5% | 200 | 105 |
| Purdue University-Main Campus | 81.0% | 200 | 162 |
| Arizona State University Campus Immersion | 77.7% | 197 | 153 |
| University of California-Irvine | 69.9% | 173 | 121 |
| University of Massachusetts-Amherst | 56.5% | 168 | 95 |
| Cornell University | 69.1% | 165 | 114 |
| University of California-Riverside | 71.2% | 163 | 116 |
| University of California-Davis | 59.4% | 155 | 92 |
| Columbia University in the City of New York | 61.4% | 153 | 94 |
| University of Colorado Boulder | 42.8% | 138 | 59 |
| University of Maryland-College Park | 65.9% | 135 | 89 |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | 61.2% | 134 | 82 |
| University of California-Santa Barbara | 71.3% | 129 | 92 |
| Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus | 83.5% | 121 | 101 |
| Indiana University-Bloomington | 70.7% | 116 | 82 |
| University of Illinois Chicago | 75.4% | 114 | 86 |
The share since 1995
Non-resident share of the doctorates awarded each year, against the national figure for all fields.
The line runs the full published history. The headline 63.3% above is pooled over 2015–2022. That is the window this site uses everywhere. The two figures answer different questions and will not match. Years with fewer than 20 doctorates nationally are omitted: a share computed on a dozen degrees moves on one student.
Method and limits
- A CIP code is a field of study. Nobody in this data is observed working in the industry it is matched to.
- The battery entry is a proxy built from materials programmes, because IPEDS publishes no battery category.
- Shares are of degrees awarded, not of the current workforce. A doctorate awarded in 2016 may have left the country or the field.
- 'Non-resident alien' is the IPEDS reporting category: a student on a temporary visa. Permanent residents are counted as domestic.
- The restriction note states the law as written. It is not an observed hiring outcome. This data cannot show who was employed, under what authorisation, or whether they stayed.
- Export control, access authorisation and a security clearance are three different things. Only a DOE L or Q access authorisation requires US citizenship.
Built by scripts/build_critical_industries.py from
NCES IPEDS Completions, research doctorates, 2015-2022.
Compare the others on the hub.