biostudies-literatureUnknownMorgan ACU.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)United States Department of Defense | United States Air Force | AFMC | Air Force Office of Scientific ResearchUC | UCLA | California Center for Population Research, University of California, Los AngelesNational Science Foundation (NSF)United States Department of Defense | United States Air Force | AFMC | Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AF Office of Scientific Research)National Science FoundationU.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentDespite the special role of tenure-track faculty in society, training future researchers and producing scholarship that drives scientific and technological innovation, the sociodemographic characteristics of the professoriate have never been representative of the general population. Here we systematically investigate the indicators of faculty childhood socioeconomic status and consider how they may limit efforts to diversify the professoriate. Combining national-level data on education, income and university rankings with a 2017-2020 survey of 7,204 US-based tenure-track faculty across eight disciplines in STEM, social science and the humanities, we show that faculty are up to 25 times more likely to have a parent with a Ph.D. Moreover, this rate nearly doubles at prestigious universities and is stable across the past 50 years. Our results suggest that the professoriate is, and has remained, accessible disproportionately to the socioeconomically privileged, which is likely to deeply shape their scholarship and their reproduction.Nature human behaviourhttps://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9755046biostudies-literatureSocioeconomic roots of academic faculty.PMC9755046SMA 1633791DGE 1650115P2C-HD041022FA9550-19-1-0329Brand JEMorgan ACLarremore DBLaBerge NClauset AGalesic MfalseSocioeconomic roots of academic faculty.Despite the special role of tenure-track faculty in society, training future researchers and producing scholarship that drives scientific and technological innovation, the sociodemographic characteristics of the professoriate have never been representative of the general population. Here we systematically investigate the indicators of faculty childhood socioeconomic status and consider how they may limit efforts to diversify the professoriate. Combining national-level data on education, income and university rankings with a 2017-2020 survey of 7,204 US-based tenure-track faculty across eight disciplines in STEM, social science and the humanities, we show that faculty are up to 25 times more likely to have a parent with a Ph.D. Moreover, this rate nearly doubles at prestigious universities and is stable across the past 50 years. Our results suggest that the professoriate is, and has remained, accessible disproportionately to the socioeconomically privileged, which is likely to deeply shape their scholarship and their reproduction.2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 Aug2025-05-29T16:30:07.214Z2025-05-29T16:30:07.214ZS-EPMC97550463603877410.1038/s41562-022-01425-4