Business Degrees (2026 stats)
TL;DR
Business maps to BLS occupations averaging about $63,546, with roughly 130,740 workers nationwide in those roles. About 21,099 bachelor's completions in IPEDS 2023; median program completion runs near 56%.
Key Statistics
Business: what the data shows
Common questions about business degrees, answered from IPEDS, College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, and O*NET in this repository—not program marketing copy.
What is a business degree?
A Business program is classified under NCES CIP 01.0006 in the Agriculture, General field family (01.00).
IPEDS counted 21,099 completions for this CIP in the survey year in our extract.
How long does it take to get a business degree?
Award levels reported to IPEDS for CIP 01.0006 in our file:
- 11,095 Associate (31.1% of IPEDS total)—about two years of full-time study
- 21,099 Bachelor's (59.1% of IPEDS total)—typically four years
- 3,404 Master's (9.5% of IPEDS total)—one to two years beyond a bachelor's
- 104 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 business?
O*NET skill ratings for occupations mapped to this major emphasize Speaking, Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Service Orientation, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, and related competencies. See the Skills section for the full list in our extract.
What degree do you need?
For New Accounts Clerks (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%). Bachelor's awards account for a majority of IPEDS completions for CIP 01.0006, but occupation data show multiple pathways.
O*NET education distributions describe incumbent workers, not minimum legal or employer requirements.
What jobs can you get with a business degree?
Our degree→occupation mapping links Business 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 |
|---|---|---|
| New Accounts Clerks | 38,030 | $46,610 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers | 219,010 | $84,130 |
| Gambling Cage Workers | 13,490 | $36,990 |
| Gambling and Sports Book Writers and Runners | 7,600 | $30,460 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers | 1,113,160 | $47,320 |
| Travel Guides | — | — |
See Careers & Jobs for mean wages and industry context.
Is a business degree worth it?
College Scorecard national medians for the Agriculture, General bachelor's program family: median debt $17,955, median earnings $53,676 four years after enrollment. Debt-to-earnings proxy: 0.46.
About 3.9% 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 $6,269 and median net price is $11,451.
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 Business and the types of students that study this field.
Tuition Costs for Common Institutions
$6,269 Median In-State Public
$32,524 Median Out of State Private
Tuition costs for Business majors are, on average, $6,269 for in-state public colleges, and $32,524 for out of state private colleges.
Tuition costs comparison for Business programs.
Institutions awarding the most Business degrees
| # | Institution | State | Completions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas A&M University-College Station | TX | 1,489 |
| 2 | Iowa State University | IA | 980 |
| 3 | University of Florida | FL | 823 |
| 4 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | IL | 801 |
| 5 | North Carolina State University at Raleigh | NC | 773 |
| 6 | Kansas State University | KS | 765 |
| 7 | Oklahoma State University-Main Campus | OK | 745 |
| 8 | Purdue University-Main Campus | IN | 719 |
| 9 | University of California-Davis | CA | 689 |
| 10 | Cornell University | NY | 669 |
IPEDS Completions (c2024_a), all award levels for this CIP in our extract.
Degrees Awarded Over Time
N/A Total Degrees Awarded in 2023
This chart shows the number of degrees awarded in Business from 2015 to 2023.
Historical trend of degrees awarded in Business.
Top 5 Schools by Enrollment
| # | School | State | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center | PA | 102 |
Schools with the largest enrollment offering Business programs.
Top 5 Most Affordable Tuition
| # | School | State | Tuition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insufficient Data | |||
Schools with the lowest tuition costs for Business programs.
Top 5 Lowest Net Price
| # | School | State | Net Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center | PA | $14,724 |
Schools with the lowest average net price for Business programs.
Graduation Rates
56.23% Median Graduation Rate (150% of normal time)
56.29% Average Graduation Rate
194 Institutions Reporting
43.44% - 67.47% Interquartile Range
Graduation/completion rates for Business 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 Business is in TX (2,942 completions). That state represents about 13.9% 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 WY (2.30% 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 | 2,942 | 13.9% | 1.00% |
| CA | 2,015 | 9.6% | 0.45% |
| IL | 769 | 3.6% | 0.56% |
| NY | 747 | 3.5% | 0.27% |
| IA | 738 | 3.5% | 1.55% |
| MO | 712 | 3.4% | 1.00% |
| TN | 682 | 3.2% | 0.92% |
| PA | 637 | 3.0% | 0.37% |
| NC | 619 | 2.9% | 0.50% |
| KY | 609 | 2.9% | 1.18% |
| OK | 605 | 2.9% | 1.45% |
| WI | 540 | 2.6% | 0.71% |
| OH | 534 | 2.5% | 0.39% |
| KS | 521 | 2.5% | 1.42% |
| IN | 459 | 2.2% | 0.44% |
| GA | 437 | 2.1% | 0.38% |
| AR | 414 | 2.0% | 1.28% |
| NE | 408 | 1.9% | 1.35% |
Degree Levels (IPEDS)
Completions reported to IPEDS for CIP 01.0006 in the survey year used in our extract (35,702 total across levels below).
- 11,095 Associate (31.1% of IPEDS total)
- 21,099 Bachelor's (59.1% of IPEDS total)
- 3,404 Master's (9.5% of IPEDS total)
- 104 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 $63,546. Figures are national OEWS estimates for the occupation—not earnings of Business graduates alone.
Related occupations (BLS OEWS)
| Occupation | Mean annual wage | U.S. employment |
|---|---|---|
| New Accounts Clerks | $57,370 | 38,030 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers | $96,985 | 219,010 |
| Gambling Cage Workers | $43,068 | 13,490 |
| Gambling and Sports Book Writers and Runners | $41,322 | 7,600 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers | $57,578 | 1,113,160 |
| Travel Guides | — | — |
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 Agriculture, General CIP family (9 programs reporting debt). Not specific to every Business graduate.
- $17,955 median federal loan debt among completers
- $53,676 median earnings four years after enrollment (national program median)
- 0.46 debt-to-earnings ratio (Scorecard proxy)
- 3.9% 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
$63,153 Average Wage in Workforce
The average salary for Business majors is $63,153.
Average annual salaries of the most common occupations for Business majors.
Occupations by Share
130,740 2023 Workforce
The number of Business graduates in the workforce has been growing.
Various jobs filled by those with a major in Business by share of the total number of graduates.
Diversity
Demographic information for those who earn a degree in Business in the United States.
Workforce Age
N/A Average Age in 2023
This chart shows distribution of ages for employees with a degree in Business.
Age distribution for Business degree holders in the workforce.
Gender Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
21,099 Total Degrees Awarded
7,604 Male (36.04%)
13,495 Female (63.96%)
Gender distribution of Business degree recipients.
Race and Ethnicity Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
14,888 White (70.56%)
2,919 Hispanic or Latino (13.83%)
1,000 Black or African American (4.74%)
737 Two or More Races (3.49%)
619 Asian (2.93%)
Racial and ethnic distribution of Business degree recipients.
Degrees Awarded
The most common degree types awarded to students graduating in Business are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Associates Degree.
Distribution of degree types awarded in Business.
Skills
Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for those working in the Business field from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Required Skills
Business majors need many skills, but most especially Critical Thinking, Active Listening, and Reading Comprehension.
Rating of how necessary various skills are for Business 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 Business majors.
About
Business
In 2023, N/A degrees were awarded across all undergraduate and graduate programs in Business.
CIP Code
01.0006 - Business
What the data shows
At the program-family level, College Scorecard reports median debt of $17,955 for bachelor's completers and median earnings near $53,676, a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.46. Those figures describe national program cohorts in this CIP family—not every individual Business graduate.
Women earned 65.4% of 53,204 Business completions in the IPEDS file used here.
Mapped BLS occupations show employment-weighted mean pay of about $63,546. The largest mapped role by headcount is New Accounts Clerks (38,030 U.S. jobs in OEWS).
Published tuition medians in College Scorecard land at $6,269 in-state at public colleges and $32,524 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.