Allied Health Professions

Types of Degrees Allied Health Professions Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many allied health professions graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Associate Degree	27,677
Basic Certificate	20,874
Master’s Degree	12,328
Undergraduate Certificate	11,543
Bachelor’s Degree	9,264
Doctor’s Degree	533
Graduate Certificate	89

What Allied Health Professions Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to allied health were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Allied Health Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.

Skills for Allied Health Majors

When studying allied health, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.

Abilities for Allied Health Majors

A major in allied health will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

What Can You Do With a Allied Health Professions Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with allied health:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Athletic Trainers	22.7%	$47,510
Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians	10.0%	$56,850
Diagnostic Medical Sonographers	23.2%	$72,510
Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics	15.1%	$34,320
Health Specialties Professors	25.9%	$97,370
Health Technologists and Technicians	19.6%	$42,920
Hearing Aid Specialists	20.6%	$52,770
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technologists	13.4%	$71,670
Neurodiagnostic Technologists	19.6%	$42,920
Nuclear Medicine Technologists	10.0%	$76,820
Occupational Health and Safety Technicians	9.9%	$50,780
Physician Assistants	37.4%	$108,610
Radiation Therapists	12.6%	$82,330
Radiologic Technologists	12.3%	$59,520
Respiratory Therapists	23.3%	$60,280
Surgical Technologists	11.7%	$47,300

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Allied Health Professions?

This is one of the most frequently chosen healthcare majors. It is the 6th most popular in the country with 9,264 students graduating with a bachelor’s in allied health in 2021. The major attracts more women than men. About 74% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of allied health majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	453
Black or African American	662
Hispanic or Latino	1,335
White	5,915
International Students	175
Other Races/Ethnicities	724

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Allied Health, too. About 1.9% of those with this major are international students. The most popular countries for students from outside the country are:

• Saudi Arabia
• Canada
• Japan
• South Korea
• United Kingdom

How Much Do Allied Health Professions Majors Make?

Bachelor’s Degree Starting Salary

According to 2019-2020 data from the U.S. Department of Education, students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in allied health have a median salary of $51,384 during the early years of their career. During this timeframe, most salaries fell between $37,437 (25th percentile) and $58,715 (75th percentile).

Note that some of these people may have jobs that are not directly related to a allied health degree.

Salaries According to BLS

Allied Health majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $51,380 to $78,870 (25th to 75th percentile). This range includes all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Allied Health Professions

Some degrees associated with allied health may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for allied health careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	0.1%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	5.1%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	12.1%
Some College Courses	5.9%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	40.8%
Bachelor’s Degree	17.7%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	1.4%
Master’s Degree	7.7%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	2.9%
Doctoral Degree	1.0%
Post-Doctoral Training	0.7%

Online Allied Health Professions Programs

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 1,786 schools offered some type of allied health professions program. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	930	23
Certificate (2-4 Years)	129	1
Associate’s Degree	2,220	35
Bachelor’s Degree	46	6
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	511	17
Post-Master’s	4	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	11	3
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	9	6
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Allied Health Professions Worth It?

The median salary for a allied health grad is $61,540 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 54% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $432,800 after 20 years!

Majors Related to Allied Health Professions

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to allied health.

Major	Number of Grads
Nursing	322,592
Health & Medical Administrative Services	89,359
Allied Health & Medical Assisting Services	84,492
Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants	84,274
Public Health	40,596
Health Sciences & Services	35,945
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	29,833
Mental & Social Health Services	29,053
Medicine	28,629
Dental Support Services	26,399
Communication Sciences	22,298
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	20,393
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	18,901
Somatic Bodywork & Therapeutic Services	10,751
Health/Medical Prep Programs	9,210
Other Health Professions	7,984
Dentistry	6,770
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	6,158
Bioethics/Medical Ethics	5,115
Alternative Medicine & Systems	3,564
Chiropractic	2,658
Health Aids/Attendants/Orderlies	2,374
Medical Illustration & Informatics	2,089
Optometry	1,822
Advanced Dentistry & Oral Sciences	1,775
Ophthalmic & Optometric Support Services	960
Medical Science	909
Movement & Mind-Body Therapies	294
Alternative Medical Support Services	227
Energy & Biologically Based Therapies	68

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.