Accounting education statistics show a much larger bachelor’s pathway than graduate pathway in the 2021-22 academic year. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) IPEDS Table 318.30 reported 42,668 bachelor’s degrees in accounting, compared with 15,392 master’s degrees and 45 doctor’s degrees. The same table also separates related programs such as accounting and finance, accounting and business/management, auditing, and bookkeeping.
Contents
- Headline degree totals
- Accounting degrees by award level
- Gender breakdowns in accounting
- Related accounting programs
- Accounting and finance
- Business, management, and other related services
Headline degree totals
The broadest accounting category in NCES IPEDS Table 318.30 was accounting itself. In 2021-22, institutions reported 42,668 bachelor’s degrees, 15,392 master’s degrees, and 45 doctor’s degrees in accounting. These are counts of degrees awarded during the academic year, not enrollment counts or forecasts.
The award-level pattern is clear: the bachelor’s total was nearly three times the master’s total, while the doctoral count was much smaller. Because the figures describe completed degrees, they help show the relative scale of undergraduate and graduate completion in accounting education during this specific period.
The same table reported 20,490 male bachelor’s degrees and 22,178 female bachelor’s degrees in accounting. At the master’s level, the figures were 7,088 male degrees and 8,304 female degrees. Doctoral accounting degrees included 16 male degrees and 29 female degrees.
Accounting degrees reported in 2021-22
| Award level | Total degrees | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s | 42,668 | 20,490 | 22,178 |
| Master’s | 15,392 | 7,088 | 8,304 |
| Doctor’s | 45 | 16 | 29 |
Source: NCES IPEDS Table 318.30.
The male and female figures are presented as reported by the source. They describe the categories included in the table and should not be treated as a complete account of every possible gender identity or classification outside those categories.
Accounting degrees by award level
Bachelor’s degrees dominated the main accounting category in 2021-22, with 42,668 completions. The master’s count was 15,392, and the doctor’s count was 45. This distribution gives accounting education a pronounced undergraduate center of gravity in the reported degree data.
The related categories were much smaller. Accounting technology/technician and bookkeeping accounted for 235 bachelor’s degrees, with no master’s degrees and no doctor’s degrees reported. Auditing accounted for 15 bachelor’s degrees, 76 master’s degrees, and no doctor’s degrees. Accounting and finance accounted for 805 bachelor’s degrees, 715 master’s degrees, and no doctor’s degrees.
Accounting and business/management accounted for 543 bachelor’s degrees and 403 master’s degrees, with no doctor’s degrees reported. The category accounting and related services, other accounted for 134 bachelor’s degrees and 277 master’s degrees, again with no doctor’s degrees reported.
Across these related categories, the absence of reported doctoral degrees is a specific 2021-22 result in the supplied NCES table. It does not establish that doctoral study in every related subject was unavailable; it indicates that the table reported zero degrees for these named categories and award levels.
Gender breakdowns in accounting
The central accounting category reported more female than male degree completions at each of the three award levels shown. At the bachelor’s level, the table recorded 22,178 female degrees and 20,490 male degrees. At the master’s level, it recorded 8,304 female degrees and 7,088 male degrees. At the doctor’s level, it recorded 29 female degrees and 16 male degrees.
The gender pattern differs across several related programs. In accounting technology/technician and bookkeeping, the 235 bachelor’s degrees included 124 male degrees and 111 female degrees. No master’s or doctor’s degrees were reported in that category for either male or female students.
Auditing had 8 male bachelor’s degrees and 7 female bachelor’s degrees. Its 76 master’s degrees included 33 male degrees and 43 female degrees. No doctoral degrees were reported in auditing, including 0 male and 0 female degrees.
Accounting and finance had 467 male bachelor’s degrees and 338 female bachelor’s degrees. At the master’s level, it had 281 male degrees and 434 female degrees. No doctor’s degrees were reported for the category.
Accounting and business/management had 221 male bachelor’s degrees and 322 female bachelor’s degrees. Its master’s total included 199 male degrees and 204 female degrees. The table reported 0 male and 0 female doctor’s degrees in this category.
Finally, accounting and related services, other had 61 male bachelor’s degrees and 73 female bachelor’s degrees. Its master’s degrees included 130 male degrees and 147 female degrees. No doctor’s degrees were reported, including 0 male and 0 female degrees.
Related accounting programs
Related program categories add context to the main accounting total, but they are not interchangeable with it. Each category has its own reported degree count and award-level distribution.
Accounting technology/technician and bookkeeping was primarily represented by bachelor’s degrees: 235 in total. The gender breakdown was 124 male and 111 female bachelor’s degrees. The NCES table reported zero master’s degrees and zero doctor’s degrees, with zero in both the male and female fields at each of those levels.
Auditing showed a different graduate pattern. Its bachelor’s total was 15, consisting of 8 male and 7 female degrees. Its master’s total was 76, consisting of 33 male and 43 female degrees. The table reported no doctor’s degrees in auditing, including no male or female doctor’s degrees.
These two categories should be read separately from the 42,668-degree accounting total. The source labels identify distinct instructional program groupings, so combining them without a defined classification method would obscure the differences between accounting, auditing, and bookkeeping education.
Accounting and finance
The accounting and finance category reported 805 bachelor’s degrees in 2021-22. Of those, 467 were male bachelor’s degrees and 338 were female bachelor’s degrees. This category therefore had a larger reported male bachelor’s count than female bachelor’s count.
At the master’s level, accounting and finance reported 715 degrees. The gender detail was 281 male master’s degrees and 434 female master’s degrees. The same NCES IPEDS table reported zero doctor’s degrees in accounting and finance, including zero male and zero female doctor’s degrees.
The award-level profile was relatively balanced between bachelor’s and master’s degrees compared with the much larger undergraduate concentration in the main accounting category. That description is limited to the reported counts for this category and academic year; it does not describe admissions, current enrollment, course availability, or outcomes after graduation.
Business, management, and other related services
Accounting and business/management accounted for 543 bachelor’s degrees in 2021-22. The bachelor’s breakdown was 221 male degrees and 322 female degrees. At the master’s level, the category reported 403 degrees: 199 male and 204 female. No doctor’s degrees were reported, with zero male and zero female degrees in the doctoral fields.
The category accounting and related services, other reported 134 bachelor’s degrees. Its bachelor’s degrees included 61 male degrees and 73 female degrees. At the master’s level, it reported 277 degrees, comprising 130 male and 147 female degrees. The table reported zero doctor’s degrees, including zero male and zero female degrees.
These figures show why the program label matters when interpreting accounting education statistics. The largest reported total was the main accounting category, while the related services category had more master’s than bachelor’s degrees. Accounting and business/management had more bachelor’s than master’s degrees, and accounting and finance reported similar totals at those two levels. Those are descriptions of the 2021-22 degree counts, not estimates of future program demand.
For readers comparing pathways, the source supports three practical distinctions. First, accounting had the largest degree volume by a wide margin among the listed categories. Second, related programs varied substantially in whether their reported degrees were concentrated at the bachelor’s or master’s level. Third, doctoral completions were reported only for the main accounting category among the categories listed here, at 45 degrees total: 16 male and 29 female.
The figures in this article come from NCES IPEDS Table 318.30 for the 2021-22 academic year. They should be interpreted with the source’s program labels and award-level definitions intact. Legacy research for these figures was not independently verified, so the measurements are presented as reported by NCES IPEDS rather than as a new audit of the underlying records.