Over the last two decades, the globe has seen a steady rise in the number of doctoral graduates. According to an OECD report, the United States is the largest PhD producer of any country worldwide by far, churning out 67,449 graduates in 2014. That's well over twice as many as second-placed Germany's 28,147. The United Kingdom rounds off the top-three with 25,020 PhDs.
In recent years, large emerging economies substantially expanded their higher educational training capacities so it comes as little surprise to see India in fourth place with 24,300 doctoral graduates. Science is hugely popular with PhD candidates across the OECD region with 40 percent of all new doctorates graduating in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
