Faculty diversity statistics show how race, ethnicity, and sex are distributed across academic ranks. In fall 2023, degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the 50 states and District of Columbia reported 859,825 full-time faculty. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) identifies these 2023 figures as provisional.
Contents
- Overall faculty composition
- Professors
- Associate professors
- Assistant professors
- Instructors and lecturers
- Other faculty
Overall faculty composition
The NCES data cover degree-granting institutions that participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs, as well as U.S. service academies. The national total includes full-time faculty reported in several academic-rank categories. Race and ethnicity categories should be read carefully: race categories exclude people of Hispanic ethnicity, while Hispanic includes Latino faculty. Nonresident faculty are reported separately because race and ethnicity were not collected for that group.
In fall 2023, 219,000 full-time faculty were in the combined American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, or two-or-more-races categories. That was 28.4% of faculty with classified race or ethnicity. The calculation excludes race/ethnicity-unknown and nonresident faculty, so it is not a percentage of every person in the overall count.
The largest named race category was White, with 551,114 full-time faculty. The table also reported 100,006 Asian faculty, 51,010 Black faculty, and 51,419 Hispanic faculty. Race or ethnicity was unknown for 33,104 full-time faculty.
The overall figures combine faculty across academic ranks, so they provide context rather than a direct measure of advancement or representation at any one level. For example, a national total can include professors, associate professors, assistant professors, instructors, lecturers, and other faculty at the same time. The rank-specific sections below keep those groups separate. This matters when comparing diversity statistics because a percentage for all full-time faculty can mask different distributions within senior, early-career, and instructional categories.
The six-category grouping is also a reporting convenience rather than a complete description of individual identities. It combines American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and two-or-more-races categories. Nonresident faculty are reported outside the race and ethnicity classifications, and unknown values remain outside the classified base used for the percentages. Accordingly, the percentages in this article should be read as shares among faculty whose race or ethnicity was classified under the table’s definitions.
Sex counts were comparatively close overall. In fall 2023, 419,891 full-time faculty were female and 439,934 were male. These figures describe the sex classifications reported in the NCES table and are presented separately from the race and ethnicity categories.
Professors
Professors represented 192,300 full-time faculty in fall 2023. Within the professor group, 44,383 were in the combined six non-White race categories. This was 23.9% of professors with classified race or ethnicity, a smaller share than the 28.4% figure for full-time faculty overall.
The professor counts by selected race or ethnicity were 141,647 White, 25,136 Asian, 8,154 Black, and 8,638 Hispanic. These values are counts, not estimates of the share of the U.S. population or of all people working in higher education.
Sex distribution also differed from the full-time faculty total. There were 120,390 male professors and 71,910 female professors. Among male professors, 24.0% were in the combined six non-White race categories. Among female professors, the corresponding share was 23.6%.
| Professor measure, fall 2023 | Count or share |
|---|---|
| All full-time professors | 192,300 |
| Combined six non-White categories | 44,383 |
| Combined six categories among classified professors | 23.9% |
| Male professors | 120,390 |
| Female professors | 71,910 |
The figures indicate that the professor rank had a lower combined non-White share than associate and assistant professor ranks in the same NCES table. That comparison describes the composition of each rank; it does not establish why the differences exist.
The professor figures also show why both counts and percentages are useful. The count of 44,383 faculty in the combined six categories describes the number of professors in those categories, while 23.9% describes their share among professors with classified race or ethnicity. A count can be larger in one group simply because that group is larger overall; a percentage instead describes the internal composition of the rank. NCES presents both kinds of information so readers can examine the scale of each category and its relative position within the rank.
Associate professors
There were 162,356 full-time associate professors in fall 2023. Of these, 43,092 were in the combined six non-White race categories, equal to 28.1% of associate professors with classified race or ethnicity.
The selected counts were 110,305 White associate professors, 21,651 Asian associate professors, 9,666 Black associate professors, and 8,937 Hispanic associate professors. The categories are mutually defined by the NCES reporting framework, with Hispanic treated as an ethnicity and excluded from the individual race categories.
Associate professors were more evenly distributed by reported sex than professors. The table recorded 84,281 male associate professors and 78,075 female associate professors. The combined six non-White categories accounted for 28.2% of male associate professors and 28.0% of female associate professors.
Compared with professors, the associate-professor group had a higher combined six-category share: 28.1% versus 23.9%. The difference is a comparison of fall 2023 percentages calculated on each rank’s classified-race-or-ethnicity base.
Assistant professors
Assistant professors numbered 179,554 full-time faculty in fall 2023. The combined six non-White race categories included 51,352 assistant professors, or 33.1% of assistant professors with classified race or ethnicity. This was the highest combined six-category share among the professor, associate professor, and assistant professor groups listed in the supplied NCES figures.
Assistant professor counts included 103,624 White faculty, 23,430 Asian faculty, 13,124 Black faculty, and 10,708 Hispanic faculty. The sex counts were 81,530 male assistant professors and 98,024 female assistant professors.
The combined six non-White categories represented 33.6% of male assistant professors and 32.7% of female assistant professors. Those percentages are close even though the sex counts differ, showing why a rank-by-rank breakdown is more informative than an overall sex total alone.
| Full-time rank, fall 2023 | Total | Combined six non-White categories | Share with classified race/ethnicity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professors | 192,300 | 44,383 | 23.9% |
| Associate professors | 162,356 | 43,092 | 28.1% |
| Assistant professors | 179,554 | 51,352 | 33.1% |
The table shows a higher combined non-White share at the assistant-professor rank than at the associate-professor or professor rank. It should not be interpreted as a forecast of future faculty composition, because the data are a cross-sectional count for fall 2023.
Instructors and lecturers
Instructors and lecturers are separate categories in the NCES table. In fall 2023, there were 98,075 full-time instructors. Of those, 25,957 were in the combined six non-White race categories, representing 28.3% of instructors with classified race or ethnicity.
Among instructors, 65,614 were White, 6,311 were Asian, 7,766 were Black, and 9,340 were Hispanic. The supplied figures for instructors do not include a sex breakdown, so no sex comparison is made here.
There were 47,696 full-time lecturers in fall 2023. The combined six non-White categories included 10,845 lecturers, or 24.8% of lecturers with classified race or ethnicity. Lecturer counts included 32,872 White, 3,590 Asian, 2,524 Black, and 3,816 Hispanic faculty.
The combined non-White share was therefore reported as 28.3% for instructors and 24.8% for lecturers. Because each percentage uses its own classified-race-or-ethnicity denominator, the comparison is about composition within each job category rather than the size of the two groups.
Other faculty
NCES also reported 179,844 full-time faculty as “other faculty” in fall 2023. This category includes primarily research, primarily public service, and unranked instructional faculty. It should not be treated as a single academic rank equivalent to professor, associate professor, or assistant professor.
The combined six non-White categories included 43,371 other faculty, or 30.9% of other faculty with classified race or ethnicity. The selected race and ethnicity counts were 97,052 White, 19,888 Asian, 9,776 Black, and 9,980 Hispanic.
Other faculty had 90,973 male and 88,871 female faculty. The combined six non-White categories represented 29.5% of male other faculty and 32.2% of female other faculty.
Across the categories reported here, the fall 2023 statistics support several precise comparisons: assistant professors had a 33.1% combined six-category share, other faculty had 30.9%, associate professors had 28.1%, instructors had 28.3%, lecturers had 24.8%, and professors had 23.9%. These are descriptive percentages from provisional NCES counts, measured nationally for degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the 50 states and District of Columbia.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, table 315.20.