Abstract
Information about successfully defended doctoral dissertations in sociology over the last eleven years allowed us to conduct a statistical analysis: to obtain structural characteristics and identify trends that emerged over this period. Out of 182 approved dissertations, almost half were prepared by women, the number of annual defenses decreased from 30 in 2012 to eight in 2022, the largest number of defenses (84) took place in the specialty 22.00.04, the least number in the specialty 22.00.05 - four. The defenses during this period were held in 40 dissertation councils, most of all in NNGU named after N.I. Lobachevsky - 17, St. Petersburg State University and Belgorod State University - 12 each. For the first time the data on the defense of doctoral dissertations in dissertation councils having the right to independently award academic degrees are given. Six of them defended 14 dissertations, among them six in the specialty of Sociology of Management. The data on the candidate degrees of doctoral candidates are presented - on average, 75% of them defended candidate dissertations in sociological and philosophical sciences every year. The time intervals between the defenses of candidate and doctoral dissertations were revealed. During the years under study there were four "ultra-early" defenses (4-5 years) at one pole of the range and 21 "ultra-late" defenses (21 years and more) at the other pole. Among the thematic preferences of the dissertants the studies of various sociological aspects of youth - 17 dissertations, economic life of society - 15 - stand out. While the problems of sociology of science, social inequality, and sociological education were ignored.