General Public Health

Types of Degrees General Public Health Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many general public health graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Master’s Degree	12,307
Bachelor’s Degree	11,149
Graduate Certificate	917
Doctor’s Degree	585
Associate Degree	411
Basic Certificate	180
Undergraduate Certificate	9

What General Public Health Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, general public health majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for General Public Health Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.

Skills for General Public Health Majors

A major in general public health prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Abilities for General Public Health Majors

General Public Health majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What Can You Do With a General Public Health Major?

People with a general public health degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Community Health Workers	17.9%	$39,540
Health Educators	14.6%	$54,220
Health Specialties Professors	25.9%	$97,370
Medical and Health Services Managers	20.5%	$99,730

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in General Public Health?

This major is dominated by women with about 82% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of general public health majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1,637
Black or African American	1,711
Hispanic or Latino	2,342
White	4,385
International Students	164
Other Races/Ethnicities	910

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in General Public Health. About 1.5% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to General Public Health

Some degrees associated with general public health may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for general public health careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	2.5%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	0.7%
Some College Courses	0.7%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	25.7%
Bachelor’s Degree	42.6%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	1.2%
Master’s Degree	16.5%
Doctoral Degree	5.9%
Post-Doctoral Training	4.4%

Online General Public Health Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	4	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	37	9
Bachelor’s Degree	99	43
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	316	104
Post-Master’s	13	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	67	5
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	12	3
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	2	1

Majors Related to General Public Health

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to general public health.

Major	Number of Grads
Public Health Education and Promotion	4,112
Other Public Health	3,157
Health Services Administration	3,047
Community Health and Preventive Medicine	2,042
International Public Health/International Health	1,696
Environmental Health	1,439
Behavioral Aspects of Health	633
Maternal and Child Health	275
Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene	261
Health/Medical Physics	244
Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality	87

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Article 25 Flickr under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.