Public Health

Types of Degrees Public Health Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many public health graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	19,225
Master’s Degree	17,864
Graduate Certificate	2,477
Doctor’s Degree	1,011
Associate Degree	971
Basic Certificate	935
Undergraduate Certificate	68

What Public Health Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, public health majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Public Health Majors

Public Health majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• 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.
• 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.

Skills for Public Health Majors

A major in public health prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• 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.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.

Abilities for Public Health Majors

A major in public 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.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

What Can You Do With a Public Health Major?

People with a public health degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Community Health Workers	17.9%	$39,540
Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health	11.1%	$71,130
Epidemiologists	8.2%	$69,660
Health Educators	14.6%	$54,220
Health Specialties Professors	25.9%	$97,370
Industrial Ecologists	11.1%	$71,130
Medical and Health Services Managers	20.5%	$99,730
Occupational Health and Safety Specialists	8.1%	$73,020
Occupational Health and Safety Technicians	9.9%	$50,780
Physicists	14.5%	$120,950

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health?

This is one of the most frequently chosen healthcare majors. It is the 2nd most popular in the country with 19,511 students graduating with a bachelor’s in public health in 2021. This major is dominated by women with about 82% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	2,758
Black or African American	3,003
Hispanic or Latino	3,843
White	7,816
International Students	332
Other Races/Ethnicities	1,473

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in Public Health. About 1.7% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Public Health

Some degrees associated with public health may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

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

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	1.2%
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)	0.7%
Some College Courses	0.5%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	10.9%
Bachelor’s Degree	42.4%
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.	2.2%
Master’s Degree	27.5%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.4%
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.	0.8%
Doctoral Degree	9.1%
Post-Doctoral Training	5.2%

Online Public Health Programs

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)	33	4
Certificate (2-4 Years)	3	0
Associate’s Degree	131	19
Bachelor’s Degree	298	115
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	682	176
Post-Master’s	51	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	199	13
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	17	3
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	6	2

Majors Related to Public Health

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

Major	Number of Grads
Nursing	308,114
Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants	88,809
Allied Health Professions	85,413
Health & Medical Administrative Services	85,302
Allied Health & Medical Assisting Services	79,189
Health Sciences & Services	35,887
Mental & Social Health Services	31,550
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	29,934
Medicine	29,206
Dental Support Services	25,040
Communication Sciences	23,288
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	19,017
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	18,729
Somatic Bodywork & Therapeutic Services	10,516
Health/Medical Prep Programs	9,413
Other Health Professions	7,387
Dentistry	6,961
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	5,644
Bioethics/Medical Ethics	5,056
Alternative Medicine & Systems	3,431
Chiropractic	2,698
Medical Illustration & Informatics	2,689
Health Aids/Attendants/Orderlies	2,244
Advanced Dentistry & Oral Sciences	1,845
Optometry	1,789
Medical Science	1,090
Ophthalmic & Optometric Support Services	760
Movement & Mind-Body Therapies	468
Alternative Medical Support Services	136
Energy & Biologically Based Therapies	116

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
• Image Credit: By Article 25 Flickr under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.