what is the meaning " edge up" in this text? Thank you
Interestingly, the number of female engineers edged up by 12,000 over nine
years, while the number of male engineers declined by 106,000.

Question

what is the meaning " edge up" in this text? Thank you
Interestingly,  the  number  of female  engineers  edged  up  by  12,000  over  nine 
years, while the number of male engineers declined by 106,000.

Answer

'To edge' means to move in small increments, so here 'edged up' means increased by a little bit.