According to the Federal Statistical Office, 205,300 people were currently pursuing a doctorate at universities in Germany last year. That was 5,000 doctoral students or 2 percent more than in 2021. As in the previous year, the proportion of women in 2022 was 48 percent, while the proportion of men was 52 percent. The average age of doctoral students was 30.3 years. 48,100 doctoral students (23%) had a foreign nationality.
A good quarter of the doctoral students, or 26 percent, were pursuing their doctoral degree in the subject group of human medicine/health sciences in 2022. The second largest group was made up of doctoral students in the subject group mathematics and natural sciences, followed by engineering and law, economics and social sciences.