Public Health
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OverviewSalary and DebtIs a Bachelor's EnoughCareersSchoolsRelated ProgramsGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Public health is a program that generally prepares individuals to plan, manage, and evaluate public health care services; to function as public health professionals in public agencies, the private sector, and other settings; and to provide leadership in the field of public health. includes instruction in epidemiology, biostatistics, public health principles, preventive medicine, health policy and regulations, health care services and related administrative functions, public health law enforcement, health economics and budgeting, public communications, and professional standards and ethics.
Highlights
School with the highest reported median starting salary ($149K) with a Master's Degree: Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine
Explore Pathways
Careers for program graduates
Public health majors work in these careers, which are sized by percentage of majors in the career (at least 1%) and colored by the predominant level of education.
Specialized ManagersRegistered NursesMedical and Health Services Ma...Elementary and Middle School S...PhysiciansSpecialized Social WorkersPostsecondary TeachersSecretaries and Administrative...Specialized Life ScientistsCustomer Service Representativ...Receptionists and Information ...First-Line Supervisors of Offi...Labor Relations SpecialistsOffice and Administrative Supp...Occupational Health and Safety...Project Management SpecialistsSocial and Community Service M...Accountants and AuditorsCommunity and Social Service S...Management AnalystsSpecialized Healthcare Practit...Education and childcare admini...Compliance Officers
Share
Fewer details
Current completions
What level of degree do most graduates achieve, and do they match what your goals?
05K10K15K20K0-1 Year Certificate1-2 Year CertificateAssociate's DegreeBachelor's DegreePostbaccalaureate CertMaster's DegreePost-master's CertProfessional DegreeResearch DoctorateOther Doctorate
SOURCES:
Completions over time
Have completions for community and public health changed over time? Increasing completions may mean you'll likely have an easier time finding a school that offers this degree, with the opposite being true as well.
Show percentages
Number of graduates
05,00010,00015,00020,000200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019
Other Doctorate
Research Doctorate
Professional Degree
Post-master's Cert
Master's Degree
Postbaccalaureate Cert
Bachelor's Degree
Associate's Degree
2-4 Year Certificate
1-2 Year Certificate
0-1 Year Certificate
Salary and Debt
How are students who recently completed a degree in public health doing?
Below is the distribution of starting salaries along with accumulated federal and private education loans across schools that offer the degree.
Median starting salaries
$34K$34K$51K$79K$0$50K$100KDoctorateMaster'sBachelor'sAssociate's
Median cumulative loan amount
$24K$25K$43K$0$20K$40K$60K$80KMaster'sBachelor'sAssociate's
Fewer details
Context: median salaries
How does the median (middle) salary for community and public health majors compare to the median salaries for other college majors?
$53K$0$20K$40K$60K$80K$100K
Distribution: community and public health majors' salaries by education level
What is the salary distribution for graduates with a bachelor's incommunity and public health by the level of their highest degree (Graduate degrees may not be in the same field as the bachelor’s)
$64K$66K$46K$81K$0$50K$100K$150KBachelor'sMaster'sDoctorateProfessional
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
Is a bachelor's degree all you need?
Education level of workers with a bachelor's in community and public health
Is a bachelor's degree going to be sufficient to make you competative in the job market? We can look at the education level of workers with a bachelors in this degree to see if there is a likely need for a graduate degree. You'll also want to check out the careers section on this page to where they are employed.
This chart shows the level of education of workers with a bachelor's degree in community and public health. The worker's graduate degree may have been completed in a different field.
Education level of workers
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Fewer details
Context: Graduate degrees in any field by undergraduate ACS degree
About 39% of community and public health majors chose to also earn a graduate degree (possibly of a different major). The percentage of community and public health majors who also earned a graduate degree is higher than about 68% of other fields.
39%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Context: Percentage salary boost obtained with a graduate degree
How important is a graduate degree for earning a higher salary? We can see the difference in salary of workers with a bachelors in this degree to workers with a bachelor’s AND a graduate degree.
44%77%39%0%20%40%60%80%Bachelor's to Master'sBachelor's to DoctorateBachelor's to Professional
Careers
Top careers for those with a degree in community and public health
Following are the most frequent jobs held by people who earned a bachelor's degree in Community and Public Health (which combines 11 programs), though may not be limited to just those with a bachelor’s.
  1. Specialized Managers
  2. Registered Nurses
  3. Medical and Health Services Managers
  4. Elementary and Middle School School Teachers
  5. Physicians
  6. Specialized Social Workers
  7. Postsecondary Teachers
  8. Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
  9. Specialized Life Scientists
  10. Customer Service Representatives
Fewer details
Careers for community and public health majors
Where do community and public health majors work, and how well do those jobs pay? A ** in the job title indicates that the Department of Education recommends this job for this program.
Not so much?
The top ten careers for workers with a bachelor's in community and public health
Take a minute to interact with this sankey diagram. Follow the top ten jobs held by community and public health graduates through to their most hired majors. Learn where it may easiest to find work. Expand the careers to explore other majors that might lead to the job that excites you the most. *For many majors, the top ten jobs don't even include half of graduates!*
Expand careers
Specialized ManagersRegistered NursesMedical and Health S...Elementary and Middl...PhysiciansSpecialized Social W...Postsecondary Teache...Secretaries and Admi...Specialized Life Sci...Customer Service Rep...All othersThis degreeTop 10 Careers
What careers hire community and public health majors as one of their top 10?
To the left of this diagram, see all careers that hire community and public health majors as one of their top 10 majors, and on the right, see what proportion of openings for the jobs on the left are filled by community and public health majors.
Community and Public Heal...All other degreesOccupational Health and S...Community and Social Serv...Specialized Healthcare Pr...All other careersDegreeDegree in top 10 employed
Where can I complete this degree
Explore schools that offer public health degrees and certificates
You can use this table to find schools that offer this program based on location and program level offered. Each entry goes to a school page similar to this one with all our information about that school.
Understanding the columns

The school list includes a few facts about each school that give you an idea of the educational quality each school might offer:

  • Student-Faculty Ratio: A small number of students per full-time instructor suggests individual attention for each student and an up-to-date curriculum.

  • Satisfaction Rate: A high percentage of returning first-year students should correlate with satisfaction (schools call this their retention rate).

  • Repayment Rate: A high repayment rate means most alumni earn enough to make progress repaying loans within 7 years of leaving.

We also show the total enrollment for the school as measured by full-time-equivalent (FTE) students enrolled annually.

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Offering this program at this level
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Related Programs
Fewer details
Careers for community and public health majors
community and public health is part of a larger collection of programs: Community and Public Health. Is there a different program that's close to community and public health that might be a better match for your interests? You can use this table to see a little about the programs that fall under this umbrella. If you click on any of the table headers, that will sort the table by that column, or click on a row and see Ididio's profile for that program.
Gender
Gender of recent graduates
Of all people with any degree in public health earned in the last academic year, 78% were women.
Gender
Men
Women
SOURCES:
Fewer details
Completions over time
Have completions by gender changed over time, or at specific levels of education?
Award level
All levels
05K10K15K20KNumber of graduates200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019
Women
Men
Context: Gender representation
How does the gender distribution in this major compare to all other majors?
71%29%0%20%40%60%80%100%WomenMen
Context: Percentage women
This major has a higher percentage of women than 79% other programs.
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary with this degree? The closer the bar are, the less discrepancy there is.
$63K$50K$0$50K$100K$150K$200K$250KWomenMen
Context: Salary inequity
For community and public health graduates, men have a 26% higher median salary than women, This is high: 78% of programs have graduates with lower salary inequities.
26%26%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Race/Origin
Race/Origin of recent graduates
Here is an overview of race/origin for all public health graduates from this last academic year. We found a higher percentage of international graduates in this program than in 62% of other programs.
Race/Origin
White
Black
Pacific Islander
Hispanic
Asian
American Indian
Multiracial
Not Reported
International
SOURCES:
Fewer details
Completions over time
Have completions by race/origin changed over time, or at specific levels of education?
Award level
All levels
05K10K15K20KNumber of graduates200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019
International
Not Reported
Multiracial
American Indian
Asian
Hispanic
Pacific Islander
Black
White
Context: Percentage of Minority Graduates
Minority students comprise a higher percentage of graduates than in 77% of other programs.