AHA Data on the Historical Profession
A vital part of the Association's activities is the collection of data, principally from history departments at four-year colleges and universities. Data on the history job market is derived from the information in the annual Directory of History Departments and Organizations, job listings submitted to Perspectives, and an annual survey of history departments. Data on history salaries at colleges and universities comes from annual surveys by the College and University Personnel Association and the American Association of University Professors, with supplementary data from the annual survey of history departments. The Association has also developed some modest amounts of information about trends in the number of undergraduate and graduate students studying history, relying heavily on information from federal government. For reports more than two years old, please see our archive of past reports about the profession.
If you have questions about the data, would like more specific information, or have suggestions for how this site could be improved, please contact Robert B. Townsend, Assistant Director for Publications, Information Systems, and Research.
History Departments in the United States
At a Glance
According to the Department of Education's most recent Digest of Education Statistics, in the 2005–06 academic year, 89 institutions conferred associate’s degrees in history 1,197 conferred baccalaureate degrees in the discipline, 331 conferred history master’s degrees, and 127 conferred PhDs in history. The most recent information on the number of faculty and students in the field is from the 2003–04 academic year, when approximatately 29,221 faculty were teaching 220,313 students majoring in the field.
Reports
What’s In a Label?: Changing Patterns of Faculty Specialization since 1975 (January 2007)
Historians Teach More and Larger Classes, but Make Less Use of Technology (April 2006)
Federal Faculty Survey Shows Gains for History Employment but Lagging Salaries (March 2006)
The State of the History Department: The 2001–02 AHA Department Survey (April 2004)
A Survey of Tenure Practices in History (February 2004)
The Academic Job Market for History PhDs
At a Glance
Figure: Trends in History PhDs Awarded and Job Openings Advertised, 1970–71 to 2006–07 (January 2008)
Reports
Number of History PhDs Rising Again, but Job Openings Keep Pace (January 2008)
History PhD Numbers Lowest in Almost a Decade as Job Listings Continue to Rise (January 2007)
Job Market Report 2005: Signs of Improvement? (January 2006)
New Study Highlights Prominence of Elite PhD Programs in History (October 2005)
Job Market Report 2004: Fall in Advertised Vacancies Contrasts
with Growth in Faculty Size and Number of PhDs
(January 2005)
Salaries for Historians at Colleges and Universities
At a Glance
Table: Average Salaries for Historians in the Academy, AY 2007–08
Reports
Barely Keeping Up? The 2007–08 Salary Report Suggests History Salaries Are Closing the Gap (May 2008)
Left Behind? Historians Lag in the 2006–07 Salary Report (November 2007)
The 2005–06 Salary Report: History Still Lags, but Sees Modest Gains at Private Institutions (May 2006)
The 2004–05 Salary Report: History Slips at Private Institutions, but Posts Modest Gains at Publics (May 2005)
History Student Enrollments and Degrees
At a Glance
Figure: BA's Produced in History
AY 1970–71 to 2004–05
(compared to other social science and humanities disciplines)
Figure: MA's Produced in History
AY 1970–71 to 2004–05
(compared to other social science and humanities disciplines)
Figure: PhD's Produced in History
AY 1970–71 to 2004–05
(compared to other social science and humanities disciplines)
Figure: History Degrees as a Proportion of All Degrees Conferred
at Level, 1970–71 to 2004–05
Reports
Challenges for History Doctoral Programs and Students: Rising Admissions and High Attrition (May 2008)
Undergraduate History Degrees Continue to Grow in Number (November 2007)
What Do We Know about History PhDs? (December 2006)
History Gains Ground in Majors and Undergraduate Degrees, Graduate Studies Continue to Decline (October 2006)
How Long to the History PhD? (February 2006)
A Statistical Snapshot of History PhDs: 2004 (January 2006)
Rising Tide of History Undergraduates Contrasts with Declining PhDs: But Demographics of History Students Quite Different from Other Fields (December 2005)
Privileging History: Trends in the Undergraduate Origins of History PhDs (September 2005)
History Degrees Declining Relative to Other Fields, but Newer Data Provides Some Cheer (March 2005)
Other Recent and Notable Reports
Oral History and Review Boards: Little Gain and More Pain (February 2006)
Slight Decline in History Book Publishing, but Still Near Record Highs (November 2005)
Publishing in 2003: One for the History Books? (October 2004)
History and the Future of Scholarly Publishing (October 2003)
The Status of Women and Minorities in the History Profession (April 2002)
The 2002 AHA-OAH Survey of Part-time and Adjunct Faculty (October 2002)
New Data Reveals a Homogeneous but Changing History Profession (January 2002)
Summary of Data from Surveys by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce: A Cross-disciplinary Study on the Use and Treatment of Part-time and Adjunct Faculty (November 2000)
Other Sources of Information
From the AHA
History Doctoral Programs in the United States
This site includes listings of U.S. departments conferring the PhD with listings organized by name, state, and specialization, as well as databases of history dissertations in progress and completed. The site also includes advice for applicants and recommendations on the type of information that should be included on all history Ph.D. program web sites.
The Education of Historians for the Twenty-First Century
The full text of the Committee on Graduate Education’s report with an updated bibliography and earlier essays and reports published by the AHA on the training of history doctorates. For easier reading, we also encourage you to by the print edition of the report from the University of Illinois Press.
Retrieving the Master's Degree from the Dustbin of History
The full text of the Committee on the Master’s Degrees report is also available in print though AHA Publications Sales.
From Federal and Other Sources
National Center for Education Statistics
The annual Digest of Education Statistics provides for a broad perspective on postsecondary education. For more specific and comparative slices of the data from the Department of Education, see the WebCaspar database.
WebCaspar
A clearinghouse for specific data about degrees conferred at all levels, although it requires a fair amount of effort to extract the information as you might need. Feel free to contact Robert Townsend on the AHA staff for assistance in pulling out data for your purposes.
IPEDs College Opportunities On-line
Another valuable resource from the Department of Education, which allows you to obtain information on colleges and universities in a specific locality or region.
Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate
“The Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID) is a multi-year research and action project to support departments' efforts to more purposefully structure their doctoral programs.” The project includes 10 history doctoral programs.
Survey of Earned Doctorates
Currently prepared by the Nation Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, this survey provides a detailed snapshot of new Ph.D. recipients at the time of their degree. In addition to gross numbers, it also provides demographic details about who is receiving the degree, how long they spent working toward it, and their immediate employment plans and prospects.