Departments

• As of fall 2023, approximately 167 departments were awarding degrees in linguistics at colleges and universities in the United States. These departments included large, freestanding departments in the discipline as well as programs within departments awarding degrees in multiple disciplines. In the latter case, department chairs were asked to report information for linguistics only.
• Of the 167 departments awarding degrees in linguistics, 113 (68%) were awarding graduate degrees in the discipline, and 86 (51%) were awarding PhDs.

Faculty

• Linguistics departments employed 1,800 full- and part-time faculty members in fall 2023, with an average of 11 faculty members per department (and a median of 10).
• Approximately 74% of linguistics faculty members either had tenure or were on the tenure track.
• Faculty members employed full-time with tenure or on the tenure track taught an average of 30 undergraduate students in fall 2023, while full-time faculty employed off the tenure track taught an average of 44 undergraduates. Faculty employed part-time taught an average of 47 undergraduate students during that fall term.
• While 43% of linguistics departments had made at least one new hire for the 2023–24 academic year, amounting to 100 new permanent faculty, the departments collectively had lost an average of 130 faculty per annum over the previous two years. Among the faculty who left, 62% had retired.
• An estimated 24% of linguistics department chairs thought the number of tenure-line faculty in their department had increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023, while 38% estimated their tenure-line faculty count had decreased. In addition, 25% of chairs in the discipline thought the number of nontenure-track faculty had increased over the same period, while 9% thought the number had decreased.
• Looking ahead, 26% of department chairs expected the number of tenure-track faculty in their departments to increase over the next three academic years, while 16% thought the number would decrease. (The remainder thought the most likely outcome would be no change or were not sure what would happen.) In contrast, 18% thought their nontenure-track faculty count would increase, while 11% thought the number would decrease. Linguistics chairs were some of the least likely among the surveyed disciplines to predict a decline in the number of either type of faculty.
• About 42% of the departments had a faculty member come up for tenure during the previous two academic years. Averaging over these two years, 40 faculty were granted tenure per annum nationwide, none were denied tenure, and 10 left prior to a tenure decision.
• Because it is not appropriate for a person to assign a demographic identity to another person, the survey did not ask department chairs to report their faculty members’ races or genders. However, the survey did ask chairs to describe themselves. Women constituted 51% of the chairs in linguistics departments in fall 2023, and 82% of chairs identified their race/ethnicity as white.

Undergraduate Students

• In fall 2023, departments that awarded degrees in linguistics had undergraduate course enrollments of 49,880, with an average enrollment of 299 per department. (These are duplicated enrollment figures, with students taking multiple courses in the discipline counted in every course.) The average is skewed upward by large programs, typically at research universities, which had significantly larger-than-average enrollments, as indicated by a median enrollment of 212
• Approximately 70% of linguistics department chairs thought undergraduate enrollments had held steady or increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023.
• On average, linguistics departments awarded 20 bachelor’s degrees per department in the 2022–23 academic year (with a median of 14 per department). These departments had an average of 41 juniors or seniors with a declared major in the subject (and a median of 25).
• In the 2022–23 academic year, linguistics departments awarded an average of 9 minors per department in the discipline (with a median of 8 per department), as well as 6 certificates or other microcredentials per department (with a median of7). However, only 25% of linguistics departments awarded a certificate or other microcredential in the discipline, while 66% of departments offered minors.

Graduate Students

• Degree-granting departments in linguistics had 6,150 enrollments in graduate courses in fall 2023, with an average of 54 enrollments (and a median of 47) per department for those with a graduate program.
• Approximately 3,040 students were working toward graduate degrees in linguistics. The average number of students pursuing an advanced degree in linguistics was 27 (and a median of 26) per department that granted such degrees.
• The 86 departments awarding PhDs admitted an average of almost 7 new doctoral students into their programs in fall 2023, for a total of 570 new doctoral students in the discipline.

Departmental Practices and Concerns

• Approximately 61% of department chairs were optimistic about the future of linguistics at their institution (linguistics, along with musicology, having the largest share among all 14 disciplines in the survey), while 16% were pessimistic.(The remainder were either unsure or neither optimistic nor pessimistic.)
• The survey found that 17% of the chairs in linguistics—one of the smallest shares among the surveyed disciplines—were concerned about the academic freedom of faculty members in their departments. Among those chairs, the most common concern was threats to such freedom from federal and state governments and boards of trustees (each cited by 75% of chairs).
• While 96% of linguistics departments provided research support for their full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members, and 75% offered such support for full-time nontenured faculty, only 23% offered such support for part-time faculty.
• Asked what their departments had done in recent years to attract additional majors, 58% of linguistics department chairs reported outreach to students who were in other majors or undeclared. The second most common strategy, reported by 56% of chairs, was to add high-interest introductory courses intended to attract students.
• An estimated 61% of departments supported the career development of their undergraduates by offering (and for a small share of departments, by requiring) occupationally oriented lectures, while 51% offered internships, and 50% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.
• In departments awarding doctorates in the discipline, 72% offered occupationally oriented lectures for their doctoral students; 42% offered internships; and 64% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.