National Science Board Releases 2018 Science and Engineering Indicators


January 2018

On January 18 the National Science Board (NSB), the presidentially appointed advisory body to the National Science Foundation (NSF), released the 2018 edition of its Science and Engineering Indicators.

Published every other year, this congressionally mandated report assesses the state of the country’s science and engineering (S&E) enterprise. The report is prepared by NSF’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES).

The 2018 report notes:

“[The S&E] landscape has undergone dramatic shifts: traditionally centered around the United States, Western Europe, and Japan, the S&E landscape is now increasingly multipolar. Generally, S&T growth has been faster in the developing than in the developed world, and the historically dominant developed nations have seen their relative share of global S&T activity shrink, even as their absolute activity levels kept rising. China’s rapid, unprecedented, and sustained growth has been accompanied by developments in India, South Korea, and other Asian economies as countries around the world, building on their relative strengths, added to global S&T capabilities.”

On February 1, NSB will hold two Capitol Hill briefings on “The State of U.S. Science.” This year the NSB developed a resource page and released related products—including state fact sheets. 

The Science and Engineering Indicators report is recognized as the most comprehensive source of rigorous federal data on critical topics including K-12 and postsecondary STEM education, workforce trends and composition, public attitudes and understanding, and global R&D investments.