How competitive are PhD programs in evolutionary psychology?

[Belkis]

I was wondering how competitive are programs in evolutionary psychology in the U.S. and Europe. I know this is a relatively new field and somewhat of a controversial area that is objected by some folks in mainstream psychology. The only career path seems to be academic, so I'm thinking that maybe not a lot of people are interested in these programs. What do you guys think?

 

[PokePsych]

Depends on the program overall.

In Europe u generally don't apply for a PhD program as in the 'program' (with the UK sometimes as an exception), but rather a specific grant and/or project. European PhDs (especially main land) will generally expect that you have a Master's already.

There are also very few evolutionary psychology 'programs' - rather some faculty that does research on it within a broader psych department. 

As for interest, any PhD program on a 'top school' is competitive, regardless of the specific area I would say. In general, more popular topics will have more applicans but generally also more faculty working on it. 

[Modulus]

As @PokePsych said, there are not very many "evolutionary psychology" programs. Like other niche subject areas such as "forensic psychology", researchers who take an evolutionary approach are formally in a variety of of psychology's subfields including biological/neurological, development, and clinical psychology. 

I would not spend too much time considering whether the field as a whole is "competitive" (virtually all reputable PhD programs are), but instead look at the average qualifications of accepted students are at the universities/programs which house the faculty members whose work most interests you.