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How many STEM workers are there in the world today?
Hello! Thanks for your question about how many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workers are there in the world currently.
The short answer is that the estimated average percentage of STEM workers against total workforce globally is 9.015%. With a total workforce of 3.45 billion globally, STEM workers account for 311 million. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
In order to provide you with the current number of STEM workers in the world, I consulted academic databases, industry reports, government reports/databases, trusted media sites, and user forums and review sites.
After an extensive search online, I learned that there are no readily available reports that could directly answer your question. However, while I wasn't able to find a direct quote for the current STEM workers globally, I found some really useful reports and from this collected data and information, a triangulated and estimation number was derived.
I was able to find data for the United States region, Europe or EU28 countries, Australia and Canada. Though this reports was released recently, their statistics was based from most recent available data, i.e. 2011, 2013 but have identified forecast and projected figures up to 2018 and some even until 2025. The estimated global number was derived from the average percentage of these regions against global total workforce.
STEM WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES
From the news article released by Wired and a report by the website STEMconnector.org, the estimated size of the STEM workforce in the U.S. by 2018 would be 8,650,000. There is a huge shortage in the manufacturing sector which requires about 600,000, while in cloud computing industry will have created 1.7 million workers between 2011 and 2015. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2018 the following industries would comprise the STEM workforce:
According to the U. S. Department of Commerce, "STEM occupations are growing at 17%, while other occupations are growing at 9.8%." In 2010, there were 7.6 million STEM workers in the United States, representing about 1 in 18 workers (5.56% of the U.S. total workforce, or a 1.7% year-over-year growth). Using these figures to calculate STEM workforce in 2017, the result would be 8.504 million;
7.6M*(1+(1.7%*7)) = 8.504 million U.S. STEM workforce in 2017.
STEM WORKERS IN EUROPE (EU28)
According to a report released by the European Parliament in 2015, there were 6.6 million STEM professional workers in the EU28 in 2013. This accounts for 17% of all professionals and 3% of the total employment in the EU28. STEM associated professionals comprised 9.7 million workers in this group in the EU28 in 2013. This number accounts for 2% of all associate professionals and 5% of the total employment in the EU28. Combining both STEM professional and associate professional would be 16.3 million, an average of 4% from the total workforce. According to this report, employment growth between 2013 to 2015 creates additional 1 million jobs for professional and 0.25 million for associated professional, an additional of about 104,000 each year. This would mean that in 2017, there is around 16.716 million STEM workforce in EU28.
STEM WORKERS IN AUSTRALIA AND CANADA
A report released in 2016 by the Office of the Chief Scientist provides the "first detailed analysis" of Australia’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) trained workforce revealed that there are 2.3 million STEM qualified population in Australia of which 32% are University qualified and 68% are Vocational Education & Training (VET) qualified.
The top six industries are — Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (25%), Manufacturing (10%), Public Administration and Safety (10%), Education and Training (10%), Health Care and Social Assistance (6%) and Financial and Insurance Services (5%).
The current total workforce in Australia is 13,133,000. With this given figure, STEM workforce consists of 17.5% from the total workforce, which is way higher compared to U.S. and Europe.
In Canada, "out of thirty-seven occupational groups, STEM jobs have experienced the eighth most pronounced expansion in their share of total employment since 1997, currently accounting for 9% of full- and part-time jobs combined", according to TD Canada report. About 557,000 STEM jobs fall into the technical category, comprising 45% of the STEM job market or that is about 1.238 million total STEM workers (calculated from 557,000/0.45).
ESTIMATED STEM WORKERS GLOBALLY
From the figures and trends above, we can roughly estimate global figure for STEM workers.
The STEM workers percentage against total workforce for each region are:
The total average percentage would be 9.015% (by adding all the above percentage and dividing it by 4). The current total workforce in the world according to World Bank database is 3.45 billion.
3.45 billion * 9.015% = 311,017,500 or 311 million, the estimated number of STEM workers in the world today.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, total estimated STEM workers in the world today is 311 million with U.S. accounting for 8.504 million, EU28 at 16.716 million, Australia with 2.3 million and Canada with 1.238 million.
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