Kentucky
Source: IPEDS Completions, 3-yr avg AY 2022–25 (NCES; 2024–25 provisional), bachelor’s degrees, CIP 14 + 11; China 33.2%: PRC Ministry of Education, 2022 bachelor’s graduates by discipline (NSF NCSES S&E Indicators Fig. HED-30: 32.8%, 2020); Population: Census NST-EST2025.
Kentucky at China’s rate would graduate 8,182 engineers a year. It graduates 1,789.
Kentucky produces 1,789 engineering and computer science bachelor's degrees a year out of 24,644 total, among the weakest engineering producers in the country, from 20 institutions. At China's rate it would produce 8,182. Output is shrinking (-2.3% over three years). Gap Score: 22% of the China benchmark. Its own economy is projected to open 4,010 engineering, computing and technician jobs a year through 2034; in-state degrees, associate and bachelor's together, cover 56% of them.
The gap against China’s benchmark
Three-year trend: eng+CS share of degrees
Kentucky is missing 6,393 engineers a year, and its largest producer, University of Kentucky, graduates just 663. Digital ROTC is designed to add a community-college route into engineering here.
Where Kentucky’s engineers are made.
20 institutions produce engineering or computer science bachelor’s degrees in Kentucky. The top 8 account for 93% of output.
Every producing institution. Circle area = eng+CS bachelor’s degrees per year
Top producers
| # | Institution | Eng+CS / yr | % of its degrees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Kentucky | 663 | 13.0% |
| 2 | University of Louisville | 435 | 15.3% |
| 3 | Western Kentucky University | 168 | 6.2% |
| 4 | Northern Kentucky University | 167 | 8.4% |
| 5 | Murray State University | 102 | 6.5% |
| 6 | University of the Cumberlands | 63 | 4.8% |
| 7 | Morehead State University | 37 | 3.8% |
| 8 | Berea College | 32 | 10.6% |
Jobs vs. degrees
Kentucky's own labor-market projection, 2024–2034, for engineers, computer occupations and engineering technicians, against the degrees the state produces at every level.
Openings against output
Where the openings are
| Occupation | Openings / yr |
|---|---|
| Computer User Support Specialists | 560 |
| Software Developers | 390 |
| Industrial Engineers | 360 |
| Computer Systems Analysts | 300 |
| Civil Engineering Technicians | 220 |
| Civil Engineers | 200 |
Coverage: degrees ÷ openings
Openings are the state labor agency’s own 10-year projection: new jobs plus replacing workers who retire or leave the field (BLS method). Not every opening goes to a new graduate, so this is a coverage measure; it does not count vacant positions. Occupations: engineers (SOC 17-2), computer occupations (SOC 15-12) and engineering technicians (SOC 17-3, the associate-degree tier), the jobs CIP 14 + 11 degrees feed; degrees here include associate degrees to match. Source: Kentucky labor-market projections via Projections Central (U.S. Dept. of Labor).
Kentucky backed EV batteries and now AI data centers
Kentucky put its largest incentives behind an $11.4B Ford and SK On battery venture that collapsed before it ever reached scale, and is now writing 50 year sales tax exemptions for data centers, including a $100B AI campus at Paducah. The state produces the fourth smallest share of engineering and CS graduates in the country.
The drain.
Kentucky keeps its two year graduates at very high rates and loses its most technical ones. The state's own postsecondary agency found in July 2026 that a large pay gap is pulling computer science graduates out of Kentucky within a year of finishing.
Sources: Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education 2026 Kentucky Graduate Migration Report; Kentucky Today via The Interior Journal
Who’s covering it.
Reporters already cover this, but no one has combined it into a single number the way the Index does.
The fix, in Kentucky.
Condition the 50 year exemption
HB 775 grants data centers up to 50 years of sales tax relief with no hiring floor, in counties where $25M qualifies. Attach a Digital ROTC clause: a share of operations and facilities engineering hires must come from KCTCS or Kentucky university cohorts whose tuition the state covered in exchange for a service commitment.
Scale KY FAME into service-for-tuition
KY FAME already runs the national template, two days of class and three days of paid work toward an AAS in as few as five semesters, and CPE found 92 to 93% of Kentucky's certificate and associate graduates stay in state. Fund those seats outright at every KCTCS college in exchange for a multi-year Kentucky work commitment.
Buy down the $22,000 pay gap
CPE's own recommendation is to adapt service-linked scholarships and tie financial support to years worked in Kentucky. A Digital ROTC stipend for University of Kentucky and University of Louisville engineering and CS students, redeemed by serving in state, closes most of the $22,035 wage penalty that pulls the graduates Kentucky trains out of state.
What Digital ROTC would fund
Digital ROTC: federal student loans that cover two years of engineering, computer science, or cybersecurity school at a community college, whether those years end in an associate degree or transfer into a bachelor’s program. The loans are forgiven in full after 24 to 36 months of service in government technology roles. In Kentucky, 20% of engineering-track credentials are associate degrees today. Digital ROTC is built to expand that community-college route.