Philosophy Degrees (2026 stats)
TL;DR
Philosophy maps to BLS occupations averaging about $64,987, with roughly 1,596,050 workers nationwide in those roles. About 6,645 bachelor's completions in IPEDS 2023; median program completion runs near 62%.
Key Statistics
Philosophy: what the data shows
Common questions about philosophy degrees, answered from IPEDS, College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, and O*NET in this repository—not program marketing copy.
What is a philosophy degree?
A Philosophy program is classified under NCES CIP 38.0101 in the Philosophy field family (38.01).
A program that focuses on ideas and their logical structure, including arguments and investigations about abstract and real phenomena. Includes instruction in logic, ethics, aesthetics, epistemology, metaphysics, symbolism, and history of philosophy, and applications to the theoretical foundations and methods of other disciplines
IPEDS counted 6,645 completions for this CIP in the survey year in our extract.
Types of philosophy degrees and related programs
Other NCES program codes in the 38.01 family with pages on EDsmart Data:
- Applied and Professional Ethics (CIP 38.0104)
- Ethics (CIP 38.0103)
- Logic (CIP 38.0102)
How long does it take to get a philosophy degree?
Award levels reported to IPEDS for CIP 38.0101 in our file:
- 411 Associate (5.3% of IPEDS total)—about two years of full-time study
- 6,645 Bachelor's (85.4% of IPEDS total)—typically four years
- 722 Master's (9.3% of IPEDS total)—one to two years beyond a bachelor's
- 5 Doctorate (0.1% 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 philosophy?
O*NET skill ratings for occupations mapped to this major emphasize Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Speaking, Writing, Critical Thinking, Service Orientation, and related competencies. See the Skills section for the full list in our extract.
What degree do you need?
For Teachers, Postsecondary (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 38.0101, 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 philosophy degree?
Our degree→occupation mapping links Philosophy 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Teachers, Postsecondary | 1,500,000 | — |
| Secondary School Teachers | 1,072,540 | $64,580 |
See Careers & Jobs for mean wages and industry context.
Is a philosophy degree worth it?
College Scorecard national medians for the Philosophy bachelor's program family: median debt $19,016, median earnings $54,455 four years after enrollment. Debt-to-earnings proxy: 0.60.
About 9.5% 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 $5,163 and median net price is $10,528.
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 Philosophy and the types of students that study this field.
Tuition Costs for Common Institutions
$5,163 Median In-State Public
$30,242 Median Out of State Private
Tuition costs for Philosophy majors are, on average, $5,163 for in-state public colleges, and $30,242 for out of state private colleges.
Tuition costs comparison for Philosophy programs.
Degrees Awarded Over Time
6,645 Total Degrees Awarded in 2023
This chart shows the number of degrees awarded in Philosophy from 2015 to 2023.
Historical trend of degrees awarded in Philosophy.
Top 5 Schools by Enrollment
| # | School | State | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion | AZ | 64,398 |
| 2 | Texas A&M University-College Station | TX | 59,099 |
| 3 | Ivy Tech Community College | IN | 54,926 |
| 4 | Ohio State University-Main Campus | OH | 44,617 |
| 5 | Brigham Young University-Idaho | ID | 42,090 |
Schools with the largest enrollment offering Philosophy programs.
Top 5 Most Affordable Tuition
| # | School | State | Tuition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Woodland Community College | CA | $1,124 |
| 2 | Imperial Valley College | CA | $1,126 |
| 3 | Yuba College | CA | $1,128 |
| 4 | Lassen Community College | CA | $1,144 |
| 5 | College of the Redwoods | CA | $1,147 |
Schools with the lowest tuition costs for Philosophy programs.
Top 5 Lowest Net Price
| # | School | State | Net Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | College of the Sequoias | CA | $29 |
| 2 | Central Carolina Community College | NC | $616 |
| 3 | Fort Scott Community College | KS | $665 |
| 4 | Wiregrass Georgia Technical College | GA | $1,228 |
| 5 | West Shore Community College | MI | $1,335 |
Schools with the lowest average net price for Philosophy programs.
Graduation Rates
62.16% Median Graduation Rate (150% of normal time)
61.58% Average Graduation Rate
930 Institutions Reporting
50.13% - 73.66% Interquartile Range
Graduation/completion rates for Philosophy 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 Philosophy is in CA (1,017 completions). That state represents about 15.3% 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 DC (0.33% 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA | 1,017 | 15.3% | 0.23% |
| NY | 580 | 8.7% | 0.21% |
| MA | 397 | 6.0% | 0.31% |
| PA | 345 | 5.2% | 0.20% |
| TX | 335 | 5.0% | 0.11% |
| IL | 284 | 4.3% | 0.20% |
| FL | 258 | 3.9% | 0.11% |
| OH | 215 | 3.2% | 0.15% |
| VA | 214 | 3.2% | 0.17% |
| NC | 209 | 3.1% | 0.17% |
| CO | 184 | 2.8% | 0.26% |
| MI | 180 | 2.7% | 0.16% |
| GA | 161 | 2.4% | 0.14% |
| WA | 147 | 2.2% | 0.21% |
| AZ | 146 | 2.2% | 0.10% |
| IN | 140 | 2.1% | 0.14% |
| MN | 130 | 2.0% | 0.15% |
| WI | 126 | 1.9% | 0.17% |
Related specializations
Other NCES program codes in the 38.01 CIP family with dedicated pages on EDsmart Data.
- Applied and Professional Ethics CIP 38.0104
- Ethics CIP 38.0103
- Logic CIP 38.0102
Degree Levels (IPEDS)
Completions reported to IPEDS for CIP 38.0101 in the survey year used in our extract (7,783 total across levels below).
- 411 Associate (5.3% of IPEDS total)
- 6,645 Bachelor's (85.4% of IPEDS total)
- 722 Master's (9.3% of IPEDS total)
- 5 Doctorate (0.1% 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 $64,987. Figures are national OEWS estimates for the occupation—not earnings of Philosophy graduates alone.
Related occupations (BLS OEWS)
| Occupation | Mean annual wage | U.S. employment |
|---|---|---|
| Teachers, Postsecondary | $36,511 | 1,500,000 |
| Secondary School Teachers | $104,813 | 1,072,540 |
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 Philosophy CIP family (7 programs reporting debt). Not specific to every Philosophy graduate.
- $19,016 median federal loan debt among completers
- $54,455 median earnings four years after enrollment (national program median)
- 0.60 debt-to-earnings ratio (Scorecard proxy)
- 9.5% 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
$40,621 Average Wage in Workforce
The average salary for Philosophy majors is $40,621.
Average annual salaries of the most common occupations for Philosophy majors.
Occupations by Share
1,596,050 2023 Workforce
The number of Philosophy graduates in the workforce has been growing.
Various jobs filled by those with a major in Philosophy by share of the total number of graduates.
Diversity
Demographic information for those who earn a degree in Philosophy in the United States.
Workforce Age
N/A Average Age in 2023
This chart shows distribution of ages for employees with a degree in Philosophy.
Age distribution for Philosophy degree holders in the workforce.
Gender Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
6,645 Total Degrees Awarded
3,774 Male (56.79%)
2,871 Female (43.21%)
Gender distribution of Philosophy degree recipients.
Race and Ethnicity Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
3,714 White (55.89%)
1,045 Hispanic or Latino (15.73%)
503 Asian (7.57%)
353 Black or African American (5.31%)
353 Two or More Races (5.31%)
Racial and ethnic distribution of Philosophy degree recipients.
Degrees Awarded
The most common degree types awarded to students graduating in Philosophy are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Associates Degree.
Distribution of degree types awarded in Philosophy.
Skills
Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for those working in the Philosophy field from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Required Skills
Philosophy majors need many skills, but most especially Critical Thinking, Active Listening, and Reading Comprehension.
Rating of how necessary various skills are for Philosophy 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 Philosophy majors.
About
A program that focuses on ideas and their logical structure, including arguments and investigations about abstract and real phenomena. Includes instruction in logic, ethics, aesthetics, epistemology, metaphysics, symbolism, and history of philosophy, and applications to the theoretical foundations and methods of other disciplines
In 2023, 6,645 degrees were awarded across all undergraduate and graduate programs in Philosophy.
CIP Code
38.0101 - Philosophy
What the data shows
At the program-family level, College Scorecard reports median debt of $19,016 for bachelor's completers and median earnings near $54,455, a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.60. Those figures describe national program cohorts in this CIP family—not every individual Philosophy graduate.
About 9.5% of graduates in this field family were not working and not enrolled one year after completion in Scorecard's national program medians. That is a program-level mobility signal, not a national underemployment rate.
Men earned 41.8% of 8,253 Philosophy completions in the IPEDS file used here.
Mapped BLS occupations show employment-weighted mean pay of about $64,987. The largest mapped role by headcount is Teachers, Postsecondary (1,500,000 U.S. jobs in OEWS).
Published tuition medians in College Scorecard land at $5,163 in-state at public colleges and $30,242 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.