During most of the decade of the 1950's, the production of physics doctorates was on a plateau at about 500 per year. Recent evidence is that it has begun to climb again, at about the long‐term rate of an increase of 7&percent; per annum. The data on physics doctorate output, shown in Table 1 and in Figure 1, come from the Doctorate Records File of the Office of Scientific Personnel of the National Academy of Sciences—National Research Council. Figure 1 is plotted on semilogarithmic paper so that a given percentage rate of increase will appear as a straight line. For the last four years, the increase each year has come very near to the 7&percent; per annum rate of increase, which, over many decades, tends to characterize doctorate output in all fields combined.