How many Industrial Ecologists are there? What do they do? Simple answers are difficult to give.
Below an overview of the master student graduates of industrial ecology programs around the world.
| MSc host university | Year started | Estimated number of graduates so far |
| Leiden University /Delft University of Technology | 2010/2011 2004/2005 | 261 IE degree ~125 IE specialization |
| Chalmers University of technology | 2006/2007 | ~250 |
| NTNU | 2005/2006 1999/2001 | ~130 IE degree ~400 IE specialization |
| MIND Program | 2012/2013 | ~70 |
| Mahidol university | 2002/2003 | ~350 |
These are the programs that are called MSc Industrial Ecology, but there are also programs that are very similar to these programs. We have identified at least 6 master programs. If these programs together have delivered the same amount of graduates, graduates with an Industrial Ecology background could well be around 3000 worldwide now. And from the number of study programs, we estimate that around 200 new Industrial Ecologists graduate every year.