Continued research confirms that the number of electronic schematics designers in the world or even in the U.S. is not available, nor can it be triangulated with any reliability.
HELPFUL FINDINGS
- There are 422,000 worldwide members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the professional organization for electrical and electronic engineers.
- Members are located in 160 countries around the world.
- As of 2016, there were 324,600 electrical and electronics engineers in the U.S.
- As of 2018, there were 130,500 Electrical and electronics engineering technicians in the U.S.
- Employment for design engineers is expected to grow at a rate of 9% through 2026.
- Employment for electronics design engineers is expected to grow at a rate of 8.5% through 2026.
- In California, there are an estimated 28,300 electronics design engineers employed as of 2016.
- According to ESCO, the "UK electronics industry employs more than 850,000 engineers who design, develop and manufacture technical products that often change the world in which we live."
- There were 33,094 electrical engineering degrees awarded in the United States in 2016.
- A breakdown of engineering degrees by specialty for 2015 is available here.
- There are approximately 40 different engineering types, of which electronic engineering is one. The schools that offer electronic engineering can be searched to find the number of graduates.
- There does not appear to be any data on the number of OrCAD or KiCAD users.