Community Health & Preventive Medicine

Types of Degrees Community Health & Preventive Medicine Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many community health and preventive medicine graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	1,698
Master’s Degree	273
Basic Certificate	203
Graduate Certificate	43
Doctor’s Degree	25
Associate Degree	22
Undergraduate Certificate	8

What Community Health & Preventive Medicine Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to community health and preventive medicine and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Community Health and Preventive Medicine Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in community health and preventive medicine should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• 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.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.

Skills for Community Health and Preventive Medicine Majors

community health and preventive medicine majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• 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.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Abilities for Community Health and Preventive Medicine Majors

A major in community health and preventive medicine will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What Can You Do With a Community Health & Preventive Medicine Major?

People with a community health and preventive medicine degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Community Health Workers	17.9%	$39,540
Medical and Health Services Managers	20.5%	$99,730

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Health & Preventive Medicine?

This major is dominated by women with about 83% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of community health and preventive medicine majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	173
Black or African American	308
Hispanic or Latino	269
White	782
International Students	53
Other Races/Ethnicities	113

Geographic Diversity

Community Health and Preventive Medicine appeals to people across the globe. About 3.1% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do Community Health & Preventive Medicine Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Community Health and Preventive Medicine majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $43,480 to $113,730 (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 Community Health & Preventive Medicine

Some careers associated with community health and preventive medicine require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. 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.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to community health and preventive medicine have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	3.5%
Some College Courses	1.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	21.0%
Bachelor’s Degree	59.3%
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.	2.1%
Master’s Degree	13.4%

Online Community Health & Preventive Medicine Programs

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 124 schools offered some type of community health and preventive medicine 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)	7	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	18	1
Bachelor’s Degree	10	2
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	38	6
Post-Master’s	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	13	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Community Health & Preventive Medicine Worth It?

The median salary for a community health and preventive medicine grad is $43,480 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 9% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $71,600 after 20 years!

Majors Related to Community Health & Preventive Medicine

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to community health and preventive medicine.

Major	Number of Grads
General Public Health	22,778
Public Health Education and Promotion	4,563
Other Public Health	3,432
Health Services Administration	3,119
International Public Health/International Health	1,599
Environmental Health	1,344
Behavioral Aspects of Health	814
Health/Medical Physics	258
Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene	211
Maternal and Child Health	163
Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality	43

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.