The following information shows insights from the 2021 Census of Population and Housing (the Census) regarding diversity in STEM in Australia.
This information only includes Census respondents whose characteristics were known, such as occupation field, First Nations status and language background. Data from respondents who did not state or inadequately described their characteristics were not included in numbers or percentages.
You can use this interactive data to explore STEM occupations and qualifications by diversity groups.
The Power BI dashboards in the monitor present data in different formats, including charts, graphs and tables. You can customise these dashboards based on what you're interested in.
On Census night in 2021, approximately 12.0 million residents of Australia were employed. Of those, 11.8 million described their job as:
Overall, 190,000 or 14% of people in STEM occupations were women. In other fields:
While 11% of employed people overall were in STEM occupations rather than other occupations, some diversity groups had a higher or lower proportion in STEM occupations. For example:
A lower proportion of women across diversity groups were working in STEM jobs, compared to men.
Of all people working in STEM occupations, the largest proportion earned between $65,000 and $103,999 per year. Overall, 38% of all women and 33% of all men in STEM occupations earned within this income range.
This income range was also the most prevalent among some diversity groups. For example:
Of women in STEM occupations, 11% earned $156,000 or more, compared to 16% of men in STEM occupations. In other occupation types, there were greater differences between genders:
Of all groups working in STEM occupations, men from remote and very remote locations had the highest proportion earning within the $156,000 or more income range. Overall, 23% of men from remote locations in STEM occupations and 24% of men from very remote locations earned $156,000 or more, compared to 17% of men from major cities.
Of women working in STEM occupations, women from remote locations also had the highest proportion earning $156,000 or more. Of women in STEM occupations from remote locations, 14% earned $156,000 or more, compared to 12% of women from major cities.
The largest number of women in STEM occupations were working as software and application programmers. There were 22,500 women in this occupation on Census night in 2021. This was followed by:
The largest number of men in STEM occupations were working as electricians. There were 128,900 men in this occupation. This was followed by:
The largest number of First Nations women in STEM occupations were employed as environmental scientists. This was the STEM occupation with the highest number of First Nations women across all regional and remote location categories. However, for First Nations women in major cities, ICT support technician was the most popular STEM occupation. The largest number of First Nations men in STEM were employed as electricians.
Software and applications programmer was the most popular STEM occupation among:
The largest number of men with disability in STEM were employed as motor mechanics, accounting for 99% of all motor mechanics with disability.
The STEM occupation with the highest proportion of women was medical laboratory scientists. Women accounted for 70% of all people in this occupation in 2021. When looking across diversity groups, medical laboratory scientists was the STEM occupation which continued to have the highest proportion of women. For example, of medical laboratory scientists from a non-English speaking background, 68% were women.
On Census night in 2021, approximately 13.1 million residents of Australia had completed a non-school qualification. This means 63% of all adult residents aged 15 years and over had qualifications above school level. Of these, 11.3 million provided their field of qualification.
Out of these 11.3 million people:
This breakdown was quite different between men and women showing that:
Of people with STEM qualifications, 554,000 were women. This means 19% of people with STEM qualifications were women. In other fields:
Across other diversity groups:
Among women with STEM qualifications, the highest proportion (37%) were qualified in the field of natural and physical sciences. For men with STEM qualifications, the highest proportion were qualified in the field of engineering and related technologies (70%).
Gender differences in field of STEM study remained when looking across other diversity and location groups, particularly the popularity of engineering and related technologies among men. At vocational education and training (VET) level, this field of study includes training for tradespeople such as electricians and motor mechanics. Among people with STEM qualifications:
Across Australia on Census night in 2021, there were approximately 2.9 million people with STEM qualifications. Of these, 1.6 million people (58%) had a STEM qualification at VET level and 1.2 million people (42%) had a STEM qualification at university level. This means most STEM-qualified people in Australia have a VET qualification.
Overall, women made up 19% of people with STEM qualifications. Women accounted for 10% of people with STEM qualifications at the VET level, and 31% of people with STEM qualifications at the university level.
Women with STEM qualifications were more likely to have a university qualification, while men were more likely to have a VET qualification. Of women with STEM qualifications:
Of men with STEM qualifications:
In other fields of study, there were lower differences in the proportions of women and men with university qualifications:
Women with STEM qualifications across other diversity groups also had higher proportions of university-level qualifications. Of people with qualifications in a STEM field:
The Census is conducted by the ABS and occurs every 5 years. The Census date for the data in this article was 10 August 2021.
The data in this article was accessed using TableBuilder. For more detail and custom analysis, visit the Census TableBuilder.
This article only includes Census respondents whose characteristics were known. Data from respondents who did not state or inadequately described their characteristics were not included in numbers or percentages.
Census counts throughout this article are by place of usual residence. This means that counts by location, such as state and territory and location groups in the visualisation above, refer to the location where a person lives most of the time. This may be a different location to where they were counted on Census night.
STEM qualifications and occupations are defined in the STEM Equity Monitor. More information about these can be found in our methodology.
First Nations people are those who identify as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
People from a non-English speaking background are those who use a language other than English at home.
People with disability are those who require assistance with everyday activities of self-care, mobility or communication. Need for assistance could be due to a long-term health condition, disability or old age.
This page shows detailed occupation data for 2021 only, with intersecting diversity groups and state/territory splits. For users who would prefer:
