TL;DR

Health Services Administration maps to BLS occupations averaging about $145,427, with roughly 3,838,260 workers nationwide in those roles. About 1,046 bachelor's completions in IPEDS 2023; median in-state published tuition is about $9,992.

Key Statistics

$9,992
Median In-State Public Tuition
$39,800
Median Out-of-State Private Tuition
$145,427
Avg. Wage (related occupations)
3,838,260
Workers (related occupations)
1,046
Bachelor's Completions (IPEDS 2023)

Health Services Administration: what the data shows

Common questions about health services administration degrees, answered from IPEDS, College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, and O*NET in this repository—not program marketing copy.

What is a health services administration degree?

A Health Services Administration program is classified under NCES CIP 51.2211 in the Public Health field family (51.22).

A program that focuses on the application of policy analysis, public administration, business management, and communications to the planning and management of health services delivery systems in the public and private sectors, and prepares individuals to function as health services administrators and managers. Includes instruction in health systems planning, public health organization and management, pubic health policy formulation and analysis, finance, business and operations management, economics of health care, organizational and health communications, marketing, human resources management, and public health law and regulations

IPEDS counted 1,046 completions for this CIP in the survey year in our extract.

Types of health services administration degrees and related programs

Other NCES program codes in the 51.22 family with pages on EDsmart Data:

How long does it take to get a health services administration degree?

Award levels reported to IPEDS for CIP 51.2211 in our file:

  • 242 Associate (10.1% of IPEDS total)—about two years of full-time study
  • 1,046 Bachelor's (43.5% of IPEDS total)—typically four years
  • 1,112 Master's (46.2% of IPEDS total)—one to two years beyond a bachelor's
  • 5 Doctorate (0.2% 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 degree do you need?

For Registered Nurses (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 health services administration degree?

Our degree→occupation mapping links Health Services Administration to the BLS roles below. Employment is U.S. OEWS; median wage is national May 2024 where published in our extract.

OccupationU.S. employmentMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses3,282,010$93,600
Home Health Aides
Mental Health Counselors
Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors23,220$109,660
Community Health Workers60,730$51,030
Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents472,300$78,140

See Careers & Jobs for mean wages and industry context.

Is a health services administration degree worth it?

College Scorecard national medians for the Public Health bachelor's program family: median debt $25,768, median earnings $58,808 four years after enrollment. Debt-to-earnings proxy: 0.69.

About 5.0% 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 $9,992 and median net price is $17,321.

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 Health Services Administration and the types of students that study this field.

Tuition Costs for Common Institutions

$9,992 Median In-State Public

$39,800 Median Out of State Private

Tuition costs for Health Services Administration majors are, on average, $9,992 for in-state public colleges, and $39,800 for out of state private colleges.

Tuition costs comparison for Health Services Administration programs.

Degrees Awarded Over Time

100,000 Total Degrees Awarded in 2023

This chart shows the number of degrees awarded in Health Services Administration from 2015 to 2023.

Historical trend of degrees awarded in Health Services Administration.

Top 5 Schools by Enrollment

# School State Enrollment
1 Southern New Hampshire University NH 163,164
2 Southern New Hampshire University NH 163,164
3 University of Phoenix-Arizona AZ 85,991
4 Grand Canyon University AZ 73,371
5 Grand Canyon University AZ 73,371

Schools with the largest enrollment offering Health Services Administration programs.

Top 5 Most Affordable Tuition

# School State Tuition
1 Haskell Indian Nations University KS $600
2 Cypress College CA $1,150
3 MiraCosta College CA $1,158
4 San Joaquin Delta College CA $1,180
5 Monterey Peninsula College CA $1,188

Schools with the lowest tuition costs for Health Services Administration programs.

Top 5 Lowest Net Price

# School State Net Price
1 Canada College CA $32
2 Henry Ford College MI $660
3 St Petersburg College FL $1,471
4 Middlesex College NJ $2,288
5 San Joaquin Delta College CA $2,407

Schools with the lowest average net price for Health Services Administration programs.

Graduation Rates

Graduation rate data is not available for this degree program.

Graduation/completion rates for Health Services Administration 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 Health Services Administration is in NY (258 completions). That state represents about 24.7% 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 NJ (0.13% 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
NY25824.7%0.09%
FL23922.9%0.10%
NJ11310.8%0.13%
CA807.7%0.02%
IN807.7%0.08%
LA474.5%0.10%
WA353.4%0.05%
PA313.0%0.02%
OR292.8%0.07%
OH232.2%0.02%
MD201.9%0.03%
AZ181.7%0.01%
OK181.7%0.04%
MI171.6%0.01%
VA131.2%0.01%
PR70.7%0.02%
GA50.5%0.00%
TX40.4%0.00%

Related specializations

Other NCES program codes in the 51.22 CIP family with dedicated pages on EDsmart Data.

Degree Levels (IPEDS)

Completions reported to IPEDS for CIP 51.2211 in the survey year used in our extract (2,405 total across levels below).

  • 242 Associate (10.1% of IPEDS total)
  • 1,046 Bachelor's (43.5% of IPEDS total)
  • 1,112 Master's (46.2% of IPEDS total)
  • 5 Doctorate (0.2% 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 $145,427. Figures are national OEWS estimates for the occupation—not earnings of Health Services Administration graduates alone.

Related occupations (BLS OEWS)

Occupation Mean annual wage U.S. employment
Registered Nurses$152,3613,282,010
Home Health Aides
Mental Health Counselors
Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors$127,27823,220
Community Health Workers$64,35360,730
Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents$108,560472,300

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 Public Health CIP family (89 programs reporting debt). Not specific to every Health Services Administration graduate.

  • $25,768 median federal loan debt among completers
  • $58,808 median earnings four years after enrollment (national program median)
  • 0.69 debt-to-earnings ratio (Scorecard proxy)
  • 5.0% 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

$145,427 Average Wage in Workforce

The average salary for Health Services Administration majors is $145,427.

Average annual salaries of the most common occupations for Health Services Administration majors.

Occupations by Share

3,838,260 2023 Workforce

The number of Health Services Administration graduates in the workforce has been growing.

Various jobs filled by those with a major in Health Services Administration by share of the total number of graduates.

Diversity

Demographic information for those who earn a degree in Health Services Administration in the United States.

Workforce Age

N/A Average Age in 2023

This chart shows distribution of ages for employees with a degree in Health Services Administration.

Age distribution for Health Services Administration degree holders in the workforce.

Gender Distribution

Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).

1,046 Total Degrees Awarded

160 Male (15.30%)

886 Female (84.70%)

Gender distribution of Health Services Administration degree recipients.

Race and Ethnicity Distribution

Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).

312 White (29.83%)

279 Hispanic or Latino (26.67%)

274 Black or African American (26.20%)

95 Asian (9.08%)

31 Two or More Races (2.96%)

Racial and ethnic distribution of Health Services Administration degree recipients.

Degrees Awarded

The most common degree types awarded to students graduating in Health Services Administration are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Associates Degree.

Distribution of degree types awarded in Health Services Administration.

Skills

Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for those working in the Health Services Administration field from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Required Skills

Health Services Administration majors need many skills, but most especially Critical Thinking, Active Listening, and Reading Comprehension.

Rating of how necessary various skills are for Health Services Administration 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 Health Services Administration majors.

About

A program that focuses on the application of policy analysis, public administration, business management, and communications to the planning and management of health services delivery systems in the public and private sectors, and prepares individuals to function as health services administrators and managers. Includes instruction in health systems planning, public health organization and management, pubic health policy formulation and analysis, finance, business and operations management, economics of health care, organizational and health communications, marketing, human resources management, and public health law and regulations

In 2023, 100,000 degrees were awarded across all undergraduate and graduate programs in Health Services Administration.

CIP Code

51.2211 - Health Services Administration

What the data shows

At the program-family level, College Scorecard reports median debt of $25,768 for bachelor's completers and median earnings near $58,808, a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.69. Those figures describe national program cohorts in this CIP family—not every individual Health Services Administration graduate.

Women earned 80.0% of 2,629 Health Services Administration completions in the IPEDS file used here.

Mapped BLS occupations show employment-weighted mean pay of about $145,427. The largest mapped role by headcount is Registered Nurses (3,282,010 U.S. jobs in OEWS).

Published tuition medians in College Scorecard land at $9,992 in-state at public colleges and $39,800 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.