Accounting Degrees (2026 stats)
TL;DR
Accounting maps to BLS occupations averaging about $109,476, with roughly 472,190 workers nationwide in those roles. About 59,105 bachelor's completions in IPEDS 2023; median program completion runs near 58%.
Key Statistics
Accounting: what the data shows
Common questions about accounting degrees, answered from IPEDS, College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, and O*NET in this repository—not program marketing copy.
What is a accounting degree?
A Accounting program is classified under NCES CIP 30.3016 in the Computational Science field family (30.30).
IPEDS counted 59,105 completions for this CIP in the survey year in our extract.
Types of accounting degrees and related programs
Other NCES program codes in the 30.30 family with pages on EDsmart Data:
- Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, General (CIP 30.30)
- Political Science (CIP 30.3046)
How long does it take to get a accounting degree?
Award levels reported to IPEDS for CIP 30.3016 in our file:
- 31,048 Associate (26.1% of IPEDS total)—about two years of full-time study
- 59,105 Bachelor's (49.7% of IPEDS total)—typically four years
- 28,354 Master's (23.8% of IPEDS total)—one to two years beyond a bachelor's
- 414 Doctorate (0.3% of IPEDS total)—varies by program
Time to completion depends on enrollment intensity and transfer credits; figures above describe credential type, not calendar time for every student.
What do you learn in accounting?
O*NET skill ratings for occupations mapped to this major emphasize Critical Thinking, Speaking, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Writing, Monitoring, and related competencies. See the Skills section for the full list in our extract.
What degree do you need?
For Financial Managers (top mapped occupation), O*NET incumbent surveys in our career profile report these education credentials most often: Some college (29%), High School or Equivalent (27%), Bachelors Degree (22%).
O*NET education distributions describe incumbent workers, not minimum legal or employer requirements.
What jobs can you get with a accounting degree?
Our degree→occupation mapping links Accounting to the BLS roles below. Employment is U.S. OEWS; median wage is national May 2024 where published in our extract.
| Occupation | U.S. employment | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Managers | 818,620 | $161,700 |
| Accountants and Auditors | 1,448,290 | $81,680 |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 1,455,770 | $49,210 |
| Chefs and Head Cooks | 182,320 | $60,990 |
| New Accounts Clerks | 38,030 | $46,610 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers | 219,010 | $84,130 |
See Careers & Jobs for mean wages and industry context.
Is a accounting degree worth it?
About 5.9% of graduates in this field family were not working and not enrolled one year after completion in Scorecard's national program medians.
Among schools reporting in our Scorecard extract, median published in-state tuition is $5,590 and median net price is $11,146.
We do not score "worth" on opinion—compare debt, earnings, wages for mapped occupations, and completion data above against your cost and career target.
Institutions
Information about the types of higher education institutions that grant degrees in Accounting and the types of students that study this field.
Tuition Costs for Common Institutions
$5,590 Median In-State Public
$20,890 Median Out of State Private
Tuition costs for Accounting majors are, on average, $5,590 for in-state public colleges, and $20,890 for out of state private colleges.
Tuition costs comparison for Accounting programs.
Institutions awarding the most Accounting degrees
| # | Institution | State | Completions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The University of Texas at Austin | TX | 2,364 |
| 2 | Liberty University | VA | 1,951 |
| 3 | University of California-San Diego | CA | 1,704 |
| 4 | Purdue University Global | IN | 1,646 |
| 5 | University of North Texas | TX | 1,513 |
| 6 | The University of Texas at Dallas | TX | 1,439 |
| 7 | Brigham Young University-Idaho | ID | 1,288 |
| 8 | Florida International University | FL | 1,140 |
| 9 | Fullerton College | CA | 1,110 |
| 10 | University of Pennsylvania | PA | 1,069 |
IPEDS Completions (c2024_a), all award levels for this CIP in our extract.
Degrees Awarded Over Time
59,105 Total Degrees Awarded in 2023
This chart shows the number of degrees awarded in Accounting from 2015 to 2023.
Historical trend of degrees awarded in Accounting.
Top 5 Schools by Enrollment
| # | School | State | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southern New Hampshire University | NH | 156,755 |
| 2 | Lone Star College System | TX | 47,486 |
| 3 | Texas State University | TX | 34,547 |
| 4 | Georgia State University | GA | 27,109 |
| 5 | California State University-San Bernardino | CA | 15,771 |
Schools with the largest enrollment offering Accounting programs.
Top 5 Most Affordable Tuition
| # | School | State | Tuition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central Arizona College | AZ | $2,250 |
| 2 | Paradise Valley Community College | AZ | $2,358 |
| 3 | Lone Star College System | TX | $3,090 |
| 4 | Illinois Eastern Community Colleges | IL | $4,390 |
| 5 | Stark State College | OH | $4,670 |
Schools with the lowest tuition costs for Accounting programs.
Top 5 Lowest Net Price
| # | School | State | Net Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Suburban College | IL | $2,919 |
| 2 | Central Arizona College | AZ | $4,591 |
| 3 | Gogebic Community College | MI | $5,216 |
| 4 | California State University-San Bernardino | CA | $5,918 |
| 5 | Stark State College | OH | $6,693 |
Schools with the lowest average net price for Accounting programs.
Graduation Rates
57.55% Median Graduation Rate (150% of normal time)
58.39% Average Graduation Rate
270 Institutions Reporting
47.71% - 71.14% Interquartile Range
Graduation/completion rates for Accounting programs across institutions.
Where students complete this major (IPEDS)
Bachelor's-level completions (IPEDS Completions, award level 5) summed by institution state. State is taken from IPEDS Directory (HD2023) for each reporting institution.
Geographic concentration
The largest number of reported bachelor's completions for Accounting is in TX (7,860 completions). That state represents about 13.3% of U.S. bachelor's completions reported for this CIP in the IPEDS file we use.
Among states, the highest concentration relative to all bachelor's degrees awarded in-state is ID (4.34% of that state's bachelor's completions).
Top states by count of bachelor's completions for this CIP (IPEDS).
| State | Bachelor's completions (this CIP) | % of U.S. total (this CIP) | % of state's all bachelor's |
|---|---|---|---|
| TX | 7,860 | 13.3% | 2.68% |
| CA | 7,176 | 12.1% | 1.60% |
| FL | 4,228 | 7.2% | 1.84% |
| NY | 3,524 | 6.0% | 1.28% |
| VA | 2,955 | 5.0% | 2.41% |
| PA | 2,698 | 4.6% | 1.58% |
| NC | 1,985 | 3.4% | 1.61% |
| TN | 1,815 | 3.1% | 2.45% |
| MA | 1,521 | 2.6% | 1.19% |
| GA | 1,387 | 2.4% | 1.21% |
| AZ | 1,370 | 2.3% | 0.99% |
| MI | 1,304 | 2.2% | 1.14% |
| MN | 1,286 | 2.2% | 1.51% |
| WI | 1,273 | 2.1% | 1.67% |
| ID | 1,232 | 2.1% | 4.34% |
| OH | 1,214 | 2.0% | 0.88% |
| WA | 1,145 | 1.9% | 1.67% |
| IL | 982 | 1.7% | 0.71% |
Related specializations
Other NCES program codes in the 30.30 CIP family with dedicated pages on EDsmart Data.
- Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, General CIP 30.30
- Political Science CIP 30.3046
Degree Levels (IPEDS)
Completions reported to IPEDS for CIP 30.3016 in the survey year used in our extract (118,921 total across levels below).
- 31,048 Associate (26.1% of IPEDS total)
- 59,105 Bachelor's (49.7% of IPEDS total)
- 28,354 Master's (23.8% of IPEDS total)
- 414 Doctorate (0.3% of IPEDS total)
Source: IPEDS Completions (c2024_a), summed by award level for this CIP.
Careers & Jobs
Occupations linked to this major in our degree→career mapping, with wages and employment from processed BLS career profiles in this repo.
Across these BLS occupations, employment-weighted mean pay is about $109,476. Figures are national OEWS estimates for the occupation—not earnings of Accounting graduates alone.
Related occupations (BLS OEWS)
| Occupation | Mean annual wage | U.S. employment |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Managers | $214,546 | 818,620 |
| Accountants and Auditors | $106,651 | 1,448,290 |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | $60,965 | 1,455,770 |
| Chefs and Head Cooks | $73,379 | 182,320 |
| New Accounts Clerks | $57,370 | 38,030 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers | $96,985 | 219,010 |
Open each occupation for full career profile charts and industry breakdowns on EDsmart Data.
Program outcomes (College Scorecard)
National medians across bachelor's programs in the Computational Science CIP family (n/a programs reporting debt). Not specific to every Accounting graduate.
- $104,864 median earnings four years after enrollment (national program median)
- 5.9% of graduates not working and not enrolled one year out (program cohort)
Source: College Scorecard program-level outcomes aggregated by 4-digit CIP family.
Employment
Wages and industry mix below use BLS OEWS data for occupations linked to this major in our mapping—not a graduate earnings survey.
Yearly Income for Common Jobs
$111,404 Average Wage in Workforce
The average salary for Accounting majors is $111,404.
Average annual salaries of the most common occupations for Accounting majors.
Occupations by Share
472,190 2023 Workforce
The number of Accounting graduates in the workforce has been growing.
Various jobs filled by those with a major in Accounting by share of the total number of graduates.
Diversity
Demographic information for those who earn a degree in Accounting in the United States.
Workforce Age
N/A Average Age in 2023
This chart shows distribution of ages for employees with a degree in Accounting.
Age distribution for Accounting degree holders in the workforce.
Gender Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
59,105 Total Degrees Awarded
22,549 Male (38.15%)
36,556 Female (61.85%)
Gender distribution of Accounting degree recipients.
Race and Ethnicity Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
27,880 White (47.17%)
10,333 Hispanic or Latino (17.48%)
6,308 Black or African American (10.67%)
6,233 Asian (10.55%)
2,736 Two or More Races (4.63%)
Racial and ethnic distribution of Accounting degree recipients.
Degrees Awarded
The most common degree types awarded to students graduating in Accounting are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Associates Degree.
Distribution of degree types awarded in Accounting.
Skills
Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for those working in the Accounting field from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Required Skills
Accounting majors need many skills, but most especially Critical Thinking, Active Listening, and Reading Comprehension.
Rating of how necessary various skills are for Accounting majors.
Skills Bar Chart
This bar chart shows the same information as the radar chart, displaying the importance of each skill.
Skill importance ratings for Accounting majors.
About
Accounting
In 2023, 59,105 degrees were awarded across all undergraduate and graduate programs in Accounting.
CIP Code
30.3016 - Accounting
What the data shows
Women earned 59.4% of 134,694 Accounting completions in the IPEDS file used here.
Mapped BLS occupations show employment-weighted mean pay of about $109,476. The largest mapped role by headcount is Financial Managers (818,620 U.S. jobs in OEWS).
Published tuition medians in College Scorecard land at $5,590 in-state at public colleges and $20,890 at private institutions for programs in this field.
Data Sources
This page uses data from the following sources:
- College Scorecard - U.S. Department of Education
- Institutional characteristics, costs, completion rates, and earnings data
- Data years: 2015-2024
- Source: collegescorecard.ed.gov
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)
- Employment and wage data by occupation
- Latest data: May 2024
- Source: bls.gov/oes
- O*NET Online - U.S. Department of Labor
- Occupational skills, knowledge, abilities, and work activities
- Database version: 28.0 (August 2023)
- Source: onetcenter.org
- IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) - National Center for Education Statistics
- Institutional data, completions, enrollment, and financial aid
- Data years: 2015-2024
- Source: nces.ed.gov/ipeds
- Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS)
- Demographic and workforce data
- Latest data: 2023 ACS 5-Year Estimates
- Source: census.gov/acs
Data Processing: All data has been processed, cleaned, and aggregated for presentation. Where specific data points are unavailable, estimates are based on available data and clearly marked.
Last Updated: Data reflects the most recent available information as of January 2025.
Methodology
Data for this profile is sourced from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard dataset, IPEDS completion data, and Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data.
All financial figures are adjusted for inflation and represent the most recent available data. Employment and wage data are from the most recent Census Bureau ACS PUMS estimates.