The number of students earning bachelor’s degrees in statistical science has more than doubled during the last five years, topping 1,000 for the first time in 2012, says Marie Davidian, president of the American Statistical Association (ASA).

Additionally, master’s and doctorate degrees maintained strong growth, building on a nearly decade-long growth trend, according to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Most, if not all, of this growing interest in statistics by post-secondary students is being driven by the promise of readily available and well-paying positions in the private and public sectors after graduation, says Davidian, who is also the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Statistics at North Carolina State University.

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