How Have the Top 25 Most Popular College Majors Changed Over Time?

The Most Popular College Majors Over Time

Key Highlights

The number of applications for education majors has nearly halved.

Education has slipped from third to fourth place in our top-ten rankings, now under psychology as a top major. Our finding is consistent with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which has found a sharp decrease in bachelor’s degrees in education conferred over the last few decades. Experts blame the teacher pay gap, wherein the weekly wages of teachers have not kept pace with other college graduates. According to the Economic Policy Institute, teachers earned 32.9 percent less in average weekly wages compared other college grads in 2021.

But beyond wages, another factor may be overall demoralization of the profession due to hot political issues, which has also resulted in the crisis of teachers quitting en masse (dubbed “the Great Teacher Resignation”).

This naturally has resulted in a labor shortage for the profession, which hopefully will result in pay raises. Some have considered this to be a crisis point that needs to inspire policy changes. If improvements are made, increased wages and support may make teaching positions more appealing to young people once again.

Communications has experienced a slow drain in the past five years.

Our number of communication majors has also nearly halved, going from 9^th place in 2017-2019 to 12^th today.  Zooming out, communications grads have been dealing with a tough job market for more than a decade, according to the Pew Research Center. The death of traditional media obviously has had a negative impact; however, this is another area where wages spell out issues. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, those with communications degrees received a median wage of $57,000 annually, which is less than the average for all fields ($63,000) in 2021. Many young students have noticed the slower growth, worse wages, and higher barriers of entry when compared to other fields.

While business is still the most popular college major, nursing has seen a sharp increase.

Across the board, many majors, from business to biology, have seen a drop off in the number of student loan applications, with a few glaring exceptions: Nursing and nursing (RN/LPN) applications.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected nursing to experience 6% growth from 2022 to 2032, which is higher than average. Also, the median annual wage for registered nurses is estimated to be $86,070, which, for reference, is 27.6% higher than the average wage of high-school teachers.

Nurses are in high demand. Even with this growth, the Health Workforce Analysis has found that there could be a shortage of 63,720 full-time RNs by 2030. All of this is consistent with what we’re seeing in  terms of applications.

And yet, liberal arts has returned.

One might notice in our list of college majors that humanities majors, like English, music, or fine arts, may have decreased but they have not fallen off the map. Also, liberal arts has seen as resurgence in interest. This may be due to the fact that the classic pitting of STEM against liberal arts is now considered a bit of a false dichotomy, and many students crave the critical thinking skills that only the humanities can provide. Interestingly, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences has recorded a sharp decrease between 2021 and 2022 for bachelor’s degrees in the humanities, but a steady increase for associate degrees. In other words, the trends suggest that more students are studying their liberal arts college major at the community college level, and many are using those credits to move in different directions with their four-year degrees.

Fewer people are attending college overall.

Looking at at our college majors list as a whole, one may notice an overall decrease in student loan applications from 2016 to 2023. Our numbers reflect a consistent trend found elsewhere as well: Pew Research reported that 1.2 million fewer 18-to-24-year-olds were enrolled in college in 2022 compared to 2011. Some estimate that these numbers could also decrease again in 2025 due to declining birth rates. Some of the top reasons for this decrease beyond birthrate are doubts about value and economic concerns due to the pandemic.

However, in a post-pandemic 2024, things are actually starting to look up: the enrollment of undergraduate students has increased for two consecutive semesters. Fall 2023 saw an enrollment increase of 1.2%, while Spring 2024 enjoyed a boost of 2.5%.

Regardless of enrollment trends or fluctuating public sentiment, the facts show that college is still important. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown consistently that there is a sharp increase in median wage for those with four-year higher education degrees compared to those without, and fewer years of unemployment.

Our Data