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Number of STEM grads living in Seattle has nearly doubled since 2010
Dec. 5, 2024 at 6:00 am Updated Dec. 5, 2024 at 6:00 am
The prominence of tech in Seattle’s economy makes it unsurprising that a high proportion of the area’s college graduates have degrees in STEM fields. (Karen Ducey / The Seattle Times)
By
Gene Balk / FYI Guy
Seattle Times columnist
Seattle has long been known as one of the nation’s most highly educated cities, and the number of college grads who live here keeps rising.
The latest census data shows a remarkable 70% of the city’s 25-and-older population had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2023, up from 63% in 2010.
The data also shows that as the city’s college-educated population increased, so did the share who graduated with a degree in one of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. In fact, STEM grads now make up the majority of college graduates living in Seattle.
The Census Bureau’s “science and engineering” category for major fields of study for bachelor’s degrees covers most of the STEM fields. The bureau also has a “science and engineering related fields” category that includes nursing, architecture, public health and various other major fields of study.
The number of city residents 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree in the science and engineering category nearly doubled from 106,000 in 2010 to 207,000 in 2023, a 95% increase. Last year, these grads made up around 52% of college grads living in Seattle, up from 43% in 2010.
STEM grads surge in Seattle
The number of Seattle residents with a degree in a science and engineering field, which includes most STEM majors, nearly doubled from 2010 to 2023.
105,775
105,775
105,775
|
81,159
81,159
81,159
| 30.3% |
44,809
44,809
44,809
|
31,886
31,886
31,886
| 40.5% |
13,400
13,400
13,400
|
12,128
12,128
12,128
| 10.5% |
207,413
207,413
207,413
|
106,278
106,278
106,278
| 95.2% |
25,567
25,567
25,567
|
16,968
16,968
16,968
| 50.7% |
Arts, Humanities, and other Business Education Science and Engineering Science and Engineering related fields
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (Reporting by Gene Balk, graphic by Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times)
Seattle college grads with degrees in other majors also grew in number from 2010 to 2023 but not nearly as much. City residents with an undergraduate degree in business had the largest increase after those with STEM and STEM-related fields, at 40.5%, but that rate of growth is still less than half the rate for STEM grads.
This trend in the growth of STEM graduates is, of course, at least partly related to the prominence of tech in Seattle’s economy. Tech workers typically have a bachelor’s degree in computer science, IT, computer engineering, mathematics or some other STEM field.
Among the 50 U.S. cities with the largest number of college graduates, Seattle is one of only four that had a STEM-grad majority.
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San Jose, Silicon Valley’s largest city, had the highest percentage, at 57%. Seattle tied for second with Washington, D.C. which has become a tech hub in its own right. The neighboring city of Arlington, Va., also had a STEM majority among its college grads, at just under 52%. Amazon has a large presence in Arlington, which is the site of its second headquarters, HQ2.
San Francisco ranked fifth and was just shy of 50%.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, in a number of large cities, less than one-third of the college grads had majored in a STEM field. These cities are all located in the Sunbelt and the Midwest.
Memphis had the lowest share of STEM majors among its college-grad population, at about 30%.
In nearly all large cities — even Memphis — the number of residents who graduated with a STEM degree was still greater than the number with a degree in any of the other categories: business, education or arts/humanities.
There was one exception: Los Angeles had the highest percentage of college grads who majored in an arts/humanities field, at 36%. That was slightly higher than the percentage with a STEM degree, at just under 36%. Los Angeles, of course, is unusual in that media and entertainment are a larger part of the economy there than in other big cities.
Among the 50 cities, Miami had the highest percentage of college graduates with a degree in business, at 32%, and Mesa, Ariz., was No. 1 for the share with a degree in education, at 15% of college graduates.
Gene Balk / FYI Guy: gbalk@seattletimes.com.
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