JULY 9, 2025 — The U.S. Census Bureau today released a new report that shows the demographic, social and geographic characteristics of bachelor’s degree holders by field of study. According to the report, Field of Bachelor’s Degree in the United States: 2022, bachelor’s degrees in business management and administration (4.8 million), psychology (3.7 million), general business (3.7 million), nursing (3.6 million), and general education (3.1 million) were the most common in 2022 among those age 25 and older.  

The Census Bureau has collected field of degree data as part of the American Community Survey (ACS) since 2009. The data in this report, which come from the 2022 ACS 1 year-estimates, are more detailed than annual ACS data product releases. In standard ACS data products, fields of degree are aggregated into five major fields of degree groups, such as  “science and engineering.” This report breaks out the 30 most common individual fields of degree and aggregates all others, presenting data on people with, for example, degrees in “economics” instead of in “social science” or “science and engineering.”

Highlights:

• Fields of degree in engineering and its subfields (general, civil, electric and mechanical), computer science, finance and economics were populated primarily by men (67% to 90%).
• Most (71% to 92%) people who held degrees in psychology, education (general and elementary), social work, nursing, and family and consumer sciences were women.
• The percentage of people with fields of degree in science and engineering varied across both states and metropolitan areas. Washington was the state with the highest rate (43.8%) and, among the 30 largest metropolitan areas covered in this report, San Francisco had the highest rate (44.3%).

This report also examines median annual earnings by field of degree:

• Fields of degree with relatively high earnings included electrical engineering ($121,600), computer science ($108,500), and economics ($101,400).
• Fields of degree with median annual earnings under $60,000 included general education ($58,000), social work ($55,060), and fine arts ($53,450).
• Women earned less than men across all fields of degree presented in this report, ranging from 70.8% to 90.5% of men’s earnings.

For more information, visit the detailed table package or data.census.gov.

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