BC Residents Weigh In on the Professions and Organization

The survey results for understanding the professions are consistent with previous years, with 69 percent of the public familiar with the engineering profession. Familiarity with an engineer’s role has marginally increased each year since 2021.

Trust levels of the engineering profession remain high at 86 percent (a four percent decrease from 2024). What the public believes engineers do as part of their job (designing and creating; calculating safety; ensuring project safety; and codes adherence) is also mostly consistent with last year; however, 18 percent stated they don’t know what engineers do. This number has been steadily increasing since 2018 (13 percent), perhaps reflecting the growing diversity of engineering roles.

Geoscience Awareness

As with surveys conducted in previous years, awareness of geoscientists is lower than other professions. Only 29 percent (a two percent decrease from 2024) of BC residents are familiar with the role of geoscientists; a total of 18 percent of the public are not aware of what a geoscientist’s job entails, the same rate as engineers.

The public trust for the geoscience profession in BC by the public also decreased from 60 percent in 2024 to 56 percent this year. The public continues (39 percent, up five percent from 2024) to think that geoscientists do geology or study the earth as part of their job. Studying rock or soil samples and checking for ground stability or that buildings can be built safely make up the other top descriptions of what the public believes a geoscientist does as part of their job.

Understanding the Organization

A quarter of BC residents in the survey are aware of Engineers and Geoscientists BC. The 25 percent figure is similar to the previous year’s survey results. Awareness in 2025 is highest among those living on Vancouver Island or Coastal BC (31 percent) and lowest among those who are between 35–54 years of age (21 percent). Those who are aware of the organization and understand its function give it a 79 percent trust score.


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