How many Engineers worldwide

[semerich]

I found the Bureau of Labor Statistics data for the number of engineers in the U.S. - 1,512,000 in 2006. I need to find out how many there are world wide, but cannot for the life of me find that statistic in any form. Ideas? Thanks.

 

[ivymike]

first cut estimate: 1512000*(70/3)*0.5 = 17,640,000

 

[ivymike]

that'd probably be an overestimate. stfi method isn't working for me either.

 

[HamishMcTavish]

you can find the population of the world (ish) - if you assumed the US was representative of the rest of the world you could use your figure to work out a percentage and scale it up...

try to validate your percentage figure by looking at other areas (Europe, India, Japan, China etc) and carrying out the same calculation

As long as you state your assumptions for the figure you eventually arrive at it's as valid as anybody else's finger in the air...

regards HM

No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary - William of Occam

 

[jmw]

Hmmm,
I wonder what the ratio of lawyers to engineers is in each country and what that might tell us.....

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[SomptingGuy]

The new WolframAlpha toy suggests that the US has 169950 engineers and 555770 lawyers. I wonder where they got their numbers from.

- Steve

 

[Twoballcane]

I think you have to be careful. In other countries and the USA, the term engineer may mean engineer technician, train engineer (conductor), maintenance engineer (janitor), and so on...

Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."

 

[KENAT]

I see where this is going, if it goes there how about putting it in one of the many threads that already touch on the subject like thread765-235838, but seriously, don't go there.

As to the numbers, I'd suggest at least trying to find numbers for the countries with the largest population as these are most likely to skew the answer, so try and find info for India & China.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484

 

[ivymike]

using this graph

http://www.issues.org/23.3/images/wadhwa_f2.jpg

from this article

http://www.issues.org/23.3/wadhwa.html

Extrapolating in both directions, and summing under the curves, I get about 1,200,000 engineers in the USA, 800,000 in China, and 500,000 in India. USA+China+India gives 41% of the world population according to google, so I'd estimate 6,000,000 engineers worldwide.

My earlier figure of 17,000,000 was based on your figure for engineers in the US, scaled up by population (world/us), and divided by two.

 

[Debaser]

ivymike,

I would guesstimate that the distribution of engineers within the population of Europe (at least the EU) would be on a similar scale to that of the US, i.e. higher than for China or India, which could bump up the figure slightly.

 

[KENAT]

However Debaser, I'd expect it to be lower in much of Africa and possibly some areas of Asia & South America.

I'd try and get figures for the largest nations, obviously India & China being the largest but I'd probably want figures for Brazil & Russia etc.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484

 

[semerich]

I really want to thank you all! I used a lot of the possibilities suggested and found only a number for Germany, 173,000. I did find numbers of things like graduates, and a lot of negative speculation about same, such as 600,000 in China, and decided to use a factor of 3 times the US numbers for international - 4.5 million.

 

[davidbeach]

In other countries and the USA, the term engineer may mean ... train engineer (conductor)

A train engineer and a conductor are two separate and distinct jobs. It may be that both people in the locomotive cab are qualified to do either or both, but one is the engineer and one is the conductor and they do separate and distinctly different things.

 

[Debaser]

Evidently I was wrong about the distribution of engineers through the general population re the US vs EU.

1.5million out of 300million is a damn sight higher proportion than 173k out of 80million.
(Unless the relative definitions ARE out of whack).