Interior Design Degrees (2026 stats)
TL;DR
Interior Design maps to BLS occupations averaging about N/A, with roughly 158,550 workers nationwide in those roles. About 2,775 bachelor's completions in IPEDS 2023; median in-state published tuition is about $5,340.
Key Statistics
Interior Design: what the data shows
Common questions about interior design degrees, answered from IPEDS, College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, and O*NET in this repository—not program marketing copy.
What is a interior design degree?
A Interior Design program is classified under NCES CIP 50.0408 in the Design and Applied Arts field family (50.04).
A program in the applied visual arts that prepares individuals to apply artistic principles and techniques to the professional planning, designing, equipping, and furnishing of residential and commercial interior spaces. Includes instruction in computer applications, drafting, and graphic techniques; principles of interior lighting, acoustics, systems integration, and color coordination; furniture and furnishings; textiles and their finishing; the history of interior design and period styles; basic structural design; building codes and inspection regulations; and applications to office, hotel, factory, restaurant and housing design
IPEDS counted 2,775 completions for this CIP in the survey year in our extract.
Types of interior design degrees and related programs
Other NCES program codes in the 50.04 family with pages on EDsmart Data:
- Commercial Photography (CIP 50.0406)
- Commercial and Advertising Art (CIP 50.0402)
- Design and Visual Communications, General (CIP 50.0401)
- Fashion/Apparel Design (CIP 50.0407)
- Game and Interactive Media Design (CIP 50.0411)
- Graphic Design (CIP 50.0409)
- Illustration (CIP 50.0410)
- Industrial and Product Design (CIP 50.0404)
How long does it take to get a interior design degree?
Award levels reported to IPEDS for CIP 50.0408 in our file:
- 1,508 Associate (33.5% of IPEDS total)—about two years of full-time study
- 2,775 Bachelor's (61.6% of IPEDS total)—typically four years
- 225 Master's (5.0% of IPEDS total)—one to two years beyond a bachelor's
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 Floral Designers (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 50.0408, 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 interior design degree?
Our degree→occupation mapping links Interior Design 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Floral Designers | 40,160 | $36,120 |
| Artists and Related Workers, All Other | 7,370 | $72,760 |
| Set and Exhibit Designers | 10,850 | $66,280 |
| Fashion Designers | 20,910 | $80,690 |
| Interior Designers | 69,580 | $63,490 |
| Designers, All Other | 9,680 | $66,220 |
See Careers & Jobs for mean wages and industry context.
Is a interior design degree worth it?
College Scorecard national medians for the Design and Applied Arts bachelor's program family: median debt $41,581, median earnings $51,490 four years after enrollment. Debt-to-earnings proxy: 1.24.
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 $5,340 and median net price is $13,910.
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 Interior Design and the types of students that study this field.
Tuition Costs for Common Institutions
$5,340 Median In-State Public
$36,200 Median Out of State Private
Tuition costs for Interior Design majors are, on average, $5,340 for in-state public colleges, and $36,200 for out of state private colleges.
Tuition costs comparison for Interior Design programs.
Degrees Awarded Over Time
100,000 Total Degrees Awarded in 2023
This chart shows the number of degrees awarded in Interior Design from 2015 to 2023.
Historical trend of degrees awarded in Interior Design.
Top 5 Schools by Enrollment
| # | School | State | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southern New Hampshire University | NH | 163,164 |
| 2 | Grand Canyon University | AZ | 73,371 |
| 3 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion | AZ | 64,674 |
| 4 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion | AZ | 64,674 |
| 5 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion | AZ | 64,674 |
Schools with the largest enrollment offering Interior Design programs.
Top 5 Most Affordable Tuition
| # | School | State | Tuition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antelope Valley Community College District | CA | $1,124 |
| 2 | Antelope Valley Community College District | CA | $1,124 |
| 3 | Yuba College | CA | $1,128 |
| 4 | Yuba College | CA | $1,128 |
| 5 | El Camino Community College District | CA | $1,144 |
Schools with the lowest tuition costs for Interior Design programs.
Top 5 Lowest Net Price
| # | School | State | Net Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canada College | CA | $32 |
| 2 | Canada College | CA | $32 |
| 3 | New Mexico State University-Grants | NM | $68 |
| 4 | Fort Peck Community College | MT | $400 |
| 5 | College of the Sequoias | CA | $480 |
Schools with the lowest average net price for Interior Design programs.
Graduation Rates
Graduation rate data is not available for this degree program.
Graduation/completion rates for Interior Design 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 Interior Design is in TX (238 completions). That state represents about 8.6% 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 OK (0.20% 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 | 238 | 8.6% | 0.08% |
| NY | 211 | 7.6% | 0.08% |
| CA | 193 | 7.0% | 0.04% |
| NC | 168 | 6.0% | 0.14% |
| OH | 126 | 4.5% | 0.09% |
| FL | 112 | 4.0% | 0.05% |
| VA | 111 | 4.0% | 0.09% |
| AL | 108 | 3.9% | 0.16% |
| MI | 106 | 3.8% | 0.09% |
| AZ | 103 | 3.7% | 0.07% |
| TN | 101 | 3.6% | 0.14% |
| GA | 86 | 3.1% | 0.07% |
| IN | 84 | 3.0% | 0.08% |
| IL | 83 | 3.0% | 0.06% |
| WI | 83 | 3.0% | 0.11% |
| OK | 82 | 3.0% | 0.20% |
| PA | 81 | 2.9% | 0.05% |
| WA | 76 | 2.7% | 0.11% |
Related specializations
Other NCES program codes in the 50.04 CIP family with dedicated pages on EDsmart Data.
- Commercial Photography CIP 50.0406
- Commercial and Advertising Art CIP 50.0402
- Design and Visual Communications, General CIP 50.0401
- Fashion/Apparel Design CIP 50.0407
- Game and Interactive Media Design CIP 50.0411
- Graphic Design CIP 50.0409
- Illustration CIP 50.0410
- Industrial and Product Design CIP 50.0404
Degree Levels (IPEDS)
Completions reported to IPEDS for CIP 50.0408 in the survey year used in our extract (4,508 total across levels below).
- 1,508 Associate (33.5% of IPEDS total)
- 2,775 Bachelor's (61.6% of IPEDS total)
- 225 Master's (5.0% 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 N/A. Figures are national OEWS estimates for the occupation—not earnings of Interior Design graduates alone.
Related occupations (BLS OEWS)
| Occupation | Mean annual wage | U.S. employment |
|---|---|---|
| Floral Designers | $49,284 | 40,160 |
| Artists and Related Workers, All Other | $89,549 | 7,370 |
| Set and Exhibit Designers | $105,707 | 10,850 |
| Fashion Designers | — | 20,910 |
| Interior Designers | $87,978 | 69,580 |
| Designers, All Other | $98,753 | 9,680 |
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 Design and Applied Arts CIP family (79 programs reporting debt). Not specific to every Interior Design graduate.
- $41,581 median federal loan debt among completers
- $51,490 median earnings four years after enrollment (national program median)
- 1.24 debt-to-earnings ratio (Scorecard proxy)
- 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
$N/A Average Wage in Workforce
The average salary for Interior Design majors is $N/A.
Average annual salaries of the most common occupations for Interior Design majors.
Occupations by Share
158,550 2023 Workforce
The number of Interior Design graduates in the workforce has been growing.
Various jobs filled by those with a major in Interior Design by share of the total number of graduates.
Diversity
Demographic information for those who earn a degree in Interior Design in the United States.
Workforce Age
N/A Average Age in 2023
This chart shows distribution of ages for employees with a degree in Interior Design.
Age distribution for Interior Design degree holders in the workforce.
Gender Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
2,775 Total Degrees Awarded
239 Male (8.61%)
2,536 Female (91.39%)
Gender distribution of Interior Design degree recipients.
Race and Ethnicity Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
1,749 White (63.03%)
435 Hispanic or Latino (15.68%)
135 Asian (4.86%)
125 Black or African American (4.50%)
102 Two or More Races (3.68%)
Racial and ethnic distribution of Interior Design degree recipients.
Degrees Awarded
The most common degree types awarded to students graduating in Interior Design are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Associates Degree.
Distribution of degree types awarded in Interior Design.
Skills
Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for those working in the Interior Design field from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Required Skills
Interior Design majors need many skills, but most especially Critical Thinking, Active Listening, and Reading Comprehension.
Rating of how necessary various skills are for Interior Design 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 Interior Design majors.
About
A program in the applied visual arts that prepares individuals to apply artistic principles and techniques to the professional planning, designing, equipping, and furnishing of residential and commercial interior spaces. Includes instruction in computer applications, drafting, and graphic techniques; principles of interior lighting, acoustics, systems integration, and color coordination; furniture and furnishings; textiles and their finishing; the history of interior design and period styles; basic structural design; building codes and inspection regulations; and applications to office, hotel, factory, restaurant and housing design
In 2023, 100,000 degrees were awarded across all undergraduate and graduate programs in Interior Design.
CIP Code
50.0408 - Interior Design
What the data shows
At the program-family level, College Scorecard reports median debt of $41,581 for bachelor's completers and median earnings near $51,490, a debt-to-earnings ratio of 1.24. Those figures describe national program cohorts in this CIP family—not every individual Interior Design graduate.
Women earned 91.6% of 5,651 Interior Design completions in the IPEDS file used here.
Mapped BLS occupations show employment-weighted mean pay of about N/A. The largest mapped role by headcount is Floral Designers (40,160 U.S. jobs in OEWS).
Published tuition medians in College Scorecard land at $5,340 in-state at public colleges and $36,200 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.