[PW] Worldwide Doctorate Holders

[James Aaron]

I believe this is just one of those unattainable statistics. The relevant
statistic from the UN Demographic Yearbook for 2003, which is the only place
I can think of that would have this kind of statistic, has been delayed
until some time this year and by looking at the methods for it, it seems
that even that will not measure exactly what you want (
http://unstats.un.org/UNSD/Demographic/sconcerns/education/edmethods.htm#C).
Rather, world measurements focus on attainment of primary, secondary, and
tertiary education. The statistic will have a further break down between
beginning tertiary and ending tertiary, but does not seem to distinguish
between Master's, Doctorate, Professional Doctorates (MD, JD, etc.), and
other graduate degrees.

The US Census does have a tally of US doctorate holders, which is estimated
to be nearly 2.5 million as of 2006 (
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/education/cps2006/tab01-01.xls).