Scientists might complain about shrinking grants, growing administrative workloads and long hours, but most are satisfied with their jobs. When Nature’s careers team surveyed almost 4,000 scientists in May and June, 61% said that they were at least moderately satisfied with their work. Around 75% felt either optimistic or neutral about their job prospects, and 65% would recommend a research career to students.

Salary ranked seventh out of the eight factors assessed as a driver of job satisfaction. Meaningful and engaging work, work–life balance, job security and sufficient research funding were all considered more important than take-home pay. Late-career scientists, researchers with permanent positions and those earning more than the equivalent of US$50,000 a year reported higher satisfaction than did other respondents.

Men were more optimistic than women about their career outlook: 56% of men felt positive about their prospects, compared with 44% of women. Respondents working in industry were not significantly more satisfied than those in academia, a change from the 2021 survey. This was despite industry scientists earning 66% more than academics on average, according to the 2026 survey.

“This is very interesting and shows that satisfaction is about more than money,” says Henry Sauermann, a science-policy scholar at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin. Academic scientists might benefit from greater research autonomy than their industry colleagues and from being able to pursue interesting work, he says.

Funding and job shortages remain major barriers

A lack of funding and too few available jobs were the main barriers to career advancement identified by respondents. Scientists were asked which single workplace change would make the greatest difference to their careers.

Suggestions included mandatory work breaks and staff networking sessions. One academic in Japan proposed these changes; 22% of respondents there were dissatisfied with their relationships with colleagues. Others called for higher wages to cover living costs. In Ethiopia, 73% of respondents said that their salaries did not cover basic living expenses.

Working overtime did not appear to affect overall job satisfaction globally, suggesting that long hours have become normalized in many science jobs. However, scientists who worked overtime were less likely to be satisfied with their work–life balance than were those who worked only their contracted hours.

Scientists’ job satisfaction has mostly recovered since the pandemic

Job satisfaction appears to have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels. In 2021, 53% of respondents said that their job satisfaction had worsened over the previous 12 months. In 2026, that figure had fallen to 33%. The largest group of respondents, 39%, said that their satisfaction had stayed the same over the past year.

The proportion of satisfied respondents rose slightly from 58% in 2021 to 61% in 2026, although it remained below the 68% recorded in 2018. Changes varied by country. Satisfaction among researchers in China fell by 24 percentage points from 2018, reaching 51% in 2026. In the United States, the decline was 3 percentage points. Italy was the only country to remain stable, at 64%.

These comparisons should be treated cautiously because the locations of self-selecting respondents changed between surveys. In 2026, the largest share of respondents, 39%, lived in Asia, followed by Europe at 25% and North and Central America at 17%. This reversed the pattern recorded in 2018, when around 40% of respondents lived in North and Central America, 35% in Europe and 16% in Asia. The mix of career stages and job sectors also varied between countries.

Nature examined several countries with at least 100 respondents to explore what makes scientists satisfied — or dissatisfied — with their jobs in 2026.

Canada has the highest scientist job satisfaction

Canada had the highest overall satisfaction rate — 76% — among the ten countries with more than 100 responses. Canadian scientists were significantly more likely than the global average to be satisfied with their opportunities to work on interesting projects (81% versus 60%), their independence (81% versus 72%), the meaningfulness of their jobs (80% versus 66%), their ability to work remotely (69% versus 49%), their benefits (66% versus 46%), workplace inclusivity (62% versus 50%) and their salaries (61% versus 44%).

“None of these findings surprise me,” says Glen Jones, a higher-education researcher at the University of Toronto. Academics, who made up 64% of Canada’s respondents, generally report a supportive working environment and high levels of academic freedom and professional autonomy, he says. Growing workloads and short-term contracts remain challenges.

Canada’s government has made major commitments to science funding while other countries are reducing such spending, says David Robinson, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers in Ottawa. He believes that this supports job satisfaction. The high proportion of unionized employees at Canadian universities could also contribute by providing better job security, salaries and benefits.

Robinson adds that the anti-science policies of the administration of US President Donald Trump might be making Canada look more attractive by comparison. Dozens of US scholars have relocated to Canada through an international recruitment drive, according to a Canadian government announcement in August. “We’re not without our problems and challenges, but when we look south of the border, researchers may be taking some comfort in knowing they are comparatively faring much better,” he says.

India’s young scientists are optimistic about their careers

India had the largest national sample, with 541 respondents. Its scientists were the most optimistic about their career prospects among the ten countries with more than 100 responses. Although 59% reported being satisfied with their jobs, 70% felt positive about their prospects and 82% would recommend a career in science. Both figures were significantly above the global averages.

Indian respondents were also the least likely to say that their prospects were worse than those of previous generations of scientists. Only 30% held this view, compared with 47% globally.

Suma Nair, a public-health researcher at DY Patil University in Mumbai, says that India’s science community is multifaceted and that satisfaction probably varies considerably across the country. National averages can therefore be misleading.

Even so, she thinks that India’s young scientists might account for the country’s strong optimism. “Those who take up research are probably very passionate about it, with the younger generation especially keen on the start-up culture and innovation,” she says. “They feel that they can make a difference.”

India’s sample included more early-career researchers than the global average: 32% identified as early-career, compared with 27% worldwide. Only 14% identified as late-career researchers, compared with 20% globally.

Nair suggests that mid-to-late-career scientists might have a less positive outlook. Although the Indian government has increased resources for young researchers, overall funding remains “paltry” compared with leading science nations. “As a senior researcher, I still feel a lot more needs to be done,” she says.

Brazil’s scientists show resilience despite financial pressures

Brazil had the second-highest overall satisfaction rate, at 68%. However, the difference from the global average was not statistically significant and should therefore be interpreted cautiously.

“I would for sure not describe Brazilian scientists as the ‘second happiest’ in the world,” says Haroldo Ribeiro, a physicist at the State University of Maringá. Scientists in Brazil often complain about salaries and research-grant funding, both of which are lower in absolute terms than in wealthier countries.

Rising numbers of Asian and African PhD students choose to study in China

The survey does offer clues to Brazil’s high satisfaction score. Some 67% of respondents were satisfied with their job security, significantly above the global average of 56%. Brazil also had a higher-than-average proportion of full professors: 26%, compared with 18% globally, even though the overall distribution of career stages matched the global average.

The results might reflect the large proportion of respondents with permanent positions at public universities or research institutions, says Bruno de Bezerril Andrade, an infectious-disease researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, who also works in Salvador, Brazil. “Once someone reaches such a position, job security can be substantial,” he says. The route to a permanent position is difficult, however, and many young scientists spend years on fixed-term contracts before leaving research. “There is likely some survivor effect here.”

Brazil’s researchers also experienced a difficult period: government grant funding reached a two-decade low in 2021. Ribeiro suspects that the survey might reflect improvements in political support and research funding, including increased philanthropy for science. “I would describe the Brazilian scientific community today as more optimistic than comfortable,” he says.

That optimism is visible in the survey data. Some 72% of Brazilian scientists would recommend a career in science to students, compared with 65% globally.

People in Brazil often respond more positively to surveys than do people in many other countries. This was discussed in depth when Nature reported in 2025 that Brazil’s PhD students were the most satisfied in the world (Nature 646, 1013–1016; 2025).

De Bezerril Andrade does not believe that innate optimism tells the whole story. He describes Brazilian scientists’ outlook as “partly cultural and partly adaptive”. Researchers have had to build meaning and community in unstable conditions, he says. “Such resilience is admirable in people,” he says. “But it becomes a policy failure when the system depends on it.”

German scientists are satisfied with their pay but wary of job security

Researchers in Germany reported higher salary satisfaction than participants in any other country with more than 100 respondents. Overall, 68% were at least somewhat satisfied with their take-home pay, compared with 44% globally. In addition, 22% were “extremely satisfied” with their pay, almost twice the global average of 12%.

The results might be influenced by Germany’s relatively large industry sample. Industry scientists made up 12% of German respondents, twice the global average, and industry salaries tend to be higher than academic salaries.

Germany’s strong pay performance is consistent with data from the Research and Innovation Careers Observatory of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Germany tops the index for average gross earnings of employed PhD holders after adjustment for purchasing power, ahead of Luxembourg, the United States and Switzerland, among other countries.

Some 87% of German respondents said that they could afford luxuries beyond their basic expenses, compared with 56% globally. The survey did not define “luxuries”, and the meaning is likely to vary between countries. Nevertheless, Sauermann says the result is consistent with German-based scientists feeling financially secure.

German respondents were also significantly more satisfied than the global average with their access to technology, their ability to work remotely or in a hybrid arrangement and their time off. Overall, 67% were satisfied with their jobs.

However, only 47% would recommend a career in science, significantly below the global average. Job scarcity might influence their advice, particularly among academics, says Anne Krüger, a sociologist at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. Many university scientists work part time or on short-term contracts, she says. “That may explain why most researchers would not recommend working in academia.”

Job precarity was one of the main drawbacks identified by German respondents. When asked which workplace change would make the biggest difference, they commonly chose better job security, stronger leadership and less bureaucracy.

Although these factors might drive early-career researchers towards other professions, Germany attracts many scientists from abroad. Some 43% of respondents in Germany were born outside the country, compared with 22% of respondents worldwide who work outside the country where they grew up. One Greek scientist working at a German university wrote that, despite the lack of tenure-track positions, Germany “is a paradise for research”.

China’s science careers send mixed messages

China might be rapidly becoming a science superpower, but it had the lowest proportion of satisfied researchers among the countries with more than 100 respondents. Only 51% reported being satisfied with their jobs.

Scientists in China were significantly less satisfied than the global average with several aspects of their working lives, including their relationships with colleagues, time off, work–life balance and professional-development opportunities.

China-based scientists also reported distinctive career challenges. Some 23% identified the impact of artificial intelligence on their field as one of their biggest challenges, significantly above the global average of 12%. Competition for funding and limited language skills were also cited more often than by scientists in most other countries.

By contrast, only 6% of respondents in China identified the effects of geopolitics on science as a major career challenge, compared with 16% globally.

Stagnating salaries present hurdles to career satisfaction

Despite these challenges, most respondents in China were satisfied with their independence (71%) and the meaningfulness of their jobs (60%). They were also optimistic about their own prospects, with 55% reporting a positive outlook. In addition, 37% said that their career prospects were better than those of previous generations of scientists, compared with 31% globally.

Nature’s findings on career optimism in countries such as China and India reflect the “changing landscape of science”, says Benedetto Lepori, a research-policy specialist at the University of Lugano in Switzerland.

Although salaries and funding opportunities in some regions, including India and parts of China, might not match those in Western countries, research careers could appear more attractive because investment in science is growing in these nations. “Career prospects seem to be mostly related to the perception of working in science systems that are expanding and improving their quality,” Lepori says. For example, China spent more research and development funding per researcher than Europe did in 2023.

The opposite perception — that science systems are declining — is likely to increase career uncertainty in the United States and Europe, he says.