Business remains one of the largest fields in higher education. In the United States, institutions conferred 375,418 business bachelor’s degrees in 2021–22, while business master’s programs awarded 205,751 degrees. The field also connects to a large labor-market population: 13,736,300 people with business degrees were employed in 2023. Together, these figures show the scale of business learning from undergraduate study through advanced education and employment.
Contents
- Business degrees in the United States
- Recent bachelor’s and master’s trends
- Doctoral education and the composition of business study
- What business degree holders do
- Wages, education requirements, and work arrangements
- Occupation outlook for business-related careers
- Business-school accreditation
Business degrees in the United States
Business bachelor’s degrees represented 18.6% of all bachelor’s degrees conferred in 2021–22. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recorded 375,418 business bachelor’s degrees that year in Digest of Education Statistics Table 322.10. That total was lower than the 391,352 awarded in 2020–21, but it remained well above the 200,521 business bachelor’s degrees recorded in 1980–81.
The long-run comparison provides context for the recent movement. The 2021–22 total was not a return to the early-1980s level; it was a substantially larger number of annual awards. At the same time, the latest two-year change shows that a large field can still experience year-to-year contraction.
Business master’s degrees accounted for 17.2% of all master’s degrees in 2021–22, according to NCES Digest Table 318.20. The 205,751 business master’s degrees reported in NCES Table 323.10 exceeded the 202,350 awarded in 2020–21. Earlier totals were 197,443 in 2019–20, 197,074 in 2018–19, and 192,191 in 2017–18.
The undergraduate and master’s figures describe different stages of higher education. A bachelor’s total measures the largest entry point into business education, while the master’s series shows a sustained volume of advanced business study across the same recent period.
Recent bachelor’s and master’s trends
The latest five reported academic years in the supplied NCES series show distinct patterns by degree level.
| Academic year | Business bachelor’s degrees | Business master’s degrees |
|---|---|---|
| 2017–18 | 386,240 | 192,191 |
| 2018–19 | 390,490 | 197,074 |
| 2019–20 | 387,881 | 197,443 |
| 2020–21 | 391,352 | 202,350 |
| 2021–22 | 375,418 | 205,751 |
Source: [NCES Digest Tables 322.10 and 323.10] (source label supplied with the reported figures).
Bachelor’s awards rose from 386,240 in 2017–18 to 390,490 in 2018–19, then reached 387,881 in 2019–20 and 391,352 in 2020–21. The 2021–22 total of 375,418 was the lowest of these five years. Master’s awards moved in the opposite direction across the endpoints, increasing from 192,191 in 2017–18 to 205,751 in 2021–22.
These counts should be read as degrees conferred during the named academic years, not as enrollment totals or forecasts. They also measure awards across U.S. institutions rather than the number of unique students who studied business. A student may appear in more than one degree-level count across different years.
The broader degree context is also notable. Women earned 1,179,719 of all bachelor’s degrees in 2021–22, while men earned 835,316, according to NCES Digest Table 318.30. Those figures cover all fields, so they should not be treated as a gender breakdown for business degrees.
Doctoral education and the composition of business study
Doctoral business education is much smaller in volume than bachelor’s or master’s study. Institutions conferred 4,485 business doctorate degrees in 2021–22, equal to 2.2% of all doctorates, according to NCES Digest Tables 324.10 and 318.20. The 2021–22 total was also 4,485 compared with 3,711 in 2020–21.
The earlier business doctorate totals were 3,443 in 2019–20, 3,640 in 2018–19, and 3,338 in 2017–18. Thus, the reported series shows a smaller doctoral field with higher awards in 2021–22 than in each of the three earlier years listed here.
Business study is not a single subject. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that general business accounted for 20.0% of business majors in 2021–22. In its 2023 field-of-degree profile, business management and administration accounted for 28.0% of business majors, accounting for 17.0%, marketing and marketing research for 12.0%, and finance for 11.0%.
The different measurement years matter: the general-business share is identified as 2021–22, while the subject shares for management and administration, accounting, marketing and marketing research, and finance are identified as 2023. They should not be combined as though they were one single-year distribution.
What business degree holders do
The BLS reported 13,736,300 employed business degree holders in 2023. Their occupational destinations were distributed across management, finance, sales, administration, and technical work. Management occupations employed 25% of workers with a business degree, while business and financial operations occupations employed 23%.
Sales and related occupations accounted for 12% of workers with a business degree. Office and administrative support occupations accounted for 9%, and computer and mathematical occupations accounted for 6%. These percentages describe occupational groupings, so they show where workers are employed rather than the subjects of their degrees.
The BLS occupation-specific profile adds another layer. Accountants and auditors were 8% of degree holders in that occupation, and 29% of that occupation had an advanced degree in 2023. Managers, all other, were 6% of degree holders in that occupation, with 21% of that occupation holding an advanced degree.
Financial managers were 4% of degree holders in that occupation, and 24% of that occupation had an advanced degree. Chief executives were 3% of degree holders in that occupation, while 32% of that occupation had an advanced degree. Management analysts were 2% of degree holders in that occupation, and 36% of that occupation had an advanced degree.
The occupation-specific percentages answer different questions from the broader destination shares. For example, the 25% figure for management occupations describes the distribution of business degree holders across occupational groups. The 4% figure for financial managers describes the share of people in that occupation who hold a business degree.
Wages, education requirements, and work arrangements
Business degree holders had a median annual wage of $75,000 in 2023, according to the BLS Field of degree: Business profile. A median divides the reported population into two equal halves; it is not an average and does not describe the wage for every business graduate.
The same profile reported that 55% of business degree holders were employed in occupations requiring at least a bachelor’s degree. It also reported that 26% had an advanced degree. These measurements concern education and occupation status among business degree holders and should not be interpreted as a placement rate for a particular college or program.
Part-time employment accounted for 12% of business degree holders in 2023. Read alongside the 13,736,300 employment figure, this indicates that the BLS profile includes both full-time and part-time employed degree holders. The wage, employment, part-time, education-requirement, and advanced-degree statistics all refer to the 2023 profile year.
For students comparing business pathways, the figures support several distinct questions: how many degrees are being awarded, which subject areas are common, where graduates work, and what education levels are present in occupations. None of these measures alone establishes the earnings or outcomes of an individual program.
Occupation outlook for business-related careers
The BLS business-field top-employing-occupations table includes projections for 2024–34. These are forecasts for the named period, not counts of jobs already created and not guarantees for individual graduates.
| Occupation | Projected growth, 2024–34 |
|---|---|
| Financial managers | 15% |
| Management analysts | 9% |
| Human resources specialists | 6% |
| Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products | 0% |
| First-line supervisors of retail sales workers | -5% |
The projected rates vary substantially. Financial managers had the highest listed projected growth at 15%, followed by management analysts at 9% and human resources specialists at 6%. Sales representatives in the specified wholesale and manufacturing category had 0% projected growth, while first-line supervisors of retail sales workers had projected growth of -5%.
The table connects business education to several occupational directions but does not rank degree programs by quality. A projection describes expected change in an occupation over a future interval; it does not report the number of business degrees conferred or the share of graduates entering that occupation.
Business-school accreditation
Accreditation provides another measurable part of the higher-education business landscape. In February 2024, AACSB reported 1,013 accredited institutions in more than 60 countries and territories. In the same report, AACSB reported 194 institutions with accreditation for accounting programs.
AACSB’s 2024 State of Accreditation Report recorded 38 schools achieving business accreditation in 2023–24 and 278 schools in process for initial business accreditation as of June 30, 2024. The report also recorded 210 continuous improvement review visits in 2023–24.
The same AACSB report stated that school satisfaction with the 2020 standards visit was 94% and that 886 volunteers had been trained overall on the 2020 standards. These are accreditation-process measures for the stated reporting periods. They do not represent the number of students, degrees, or employed graduates.
Taken together, the NCES, BLS, and AACSB figures describe three different dimensions of business learning: degrees awarded by U.S. institutions, employment and occupational characteristics of business degree holders, and the scale and activity of a major accreditation system. Keeping those populations and measurement periods separate is essential when interpreting higher education business statistics.