Data on the entire range of humanities disciplines is available only back to 1987, but an extended historical perspective is available for several of the largest disciplines (classical studies, English language and literature, history, languages and literatures other than English, linguistics, and philosophy), which are labeled “Historical Categories” on the graphs.

• In 2020, the number of humanities bachelor’s degrees awarded (for the entire range of disciplines) fell below 200,000 for the first time since 2002—and then fell again in both 2021 and 2022 (Indicator II-03a). The 179,272 degrees conferred in 2022 were 24% below the recent high-water mark of 236,826 degrees conferred in 2012. That decline includes a particularly sharp 7.3% drop from 2021 to 2022. The total number of bachelor’s degrees (across all fields) also fell from 2021 to 2022 for the first time since 1994, albeit by a comparatively modest 2.5%. The cause of this decline remains unclear.1
• The number of bachelor’s degrees conferred in the historical categories has been falling more quickly than for the field as a whole—with a decline of almost 37% from 2012 to 2022. The 75,087 degrees awarded in these disciplines in 2022 constituted just 41.9% of the degrees awarded in the humanities that year, which was near the smallest share on record. (See “Disciplinary Distribution of Bachelor’s Degrees in the Humanities” for an analysis of how each humanities discipline’s share of degrees awarded in the field has changed over time.)
• The disciplinary categories used by the Department of Education before 1987 failed to capture degrees awarded in certain older disciplines (e.g., communication and the humanistic study of religion and the arts) and did not include newer disciplines in the field (e.g., area and gender studies). As a result, only the trend for the historical categories can highlight the substantial waves in the number of humanities bachelor’s degrees awarded since the end of the Second World War. From the mid-1950s, the number of bachelor’s degrees in the historical categories rose steadily to a peak of 136,213 degrees conferred in 1971. But that number fell sharply throughout the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, so that by 1984 the humanities disciplines in the historical categories were awarding less than half the number of bachelor’s degrees they had conferred in the early 1970s. The number of degree conferrals then rose substantially. After plateauing somewhat in the mid-1990s, the numbers started to rise again, peaking in 2012 at 87% of the 1971 zenith. The annual number of new degrees then declined in every subsequent year through 2022.
• Even prior to the recent declines, the total number of new bachelor’s degrees awarded (across all fields) had been growing more quickly than the number conferred in the humanities. As a result, the share of new bachelor’s degrees awarded in the humanities has been shrinking since 2005 (when the field accounted for almost 15% of bachelor’s degree conferrals; Indicator II-03b). By 2022, the humanities accounted for just 8.8% of the bachelor’s degrees awarded—the smallest share since a more comprehensive accounting of humanities degree completions became possible in 1987.
• The share of bachelor’s degrees conferred by disciplines among the historical categories contracted to less than 3.7% of all degrees conferred in 2022—the smallest share in records extending back to 1949. As recently as the early 1990s, these disciplines accounted for close to 9% of the bachelor’s degrees awarded, and they constituted 17.2% of the degrees awarded in 1967.
• Three fields experienced substantial growth in their shares of all bachelor’s degrees from 2012 to 2022: health/medical sciences (climbing from 9.2% of the degrees awarded in 2012 to 13.2% in 2022), engineering (growing from 7.3% to 11.7%), and the natural sciences (rising from 9.2% to 11.3%; Indicator II-03c). All other fields experienced some loss in their share of bachelor’s degrees conferred, but the humanities had the most substantial decline from 2012 to 2022, falling by almost a third, from 13.1% to 8.8%.
• In 2022, the share of bachelor’s degrees awarded in the humanities (8.8%) was less than a quarter of the 38% share for the sciences (health/medical, natural, and behavioral/social sciences combined). The humanities’ share was also less than half that of the business/management field, which awarded 18.8% of all bachelor’s degrees.
• Within the humanities, almost every discipline awarded fewer degrees in 2022 than a decade earlier (Indicator II-03d). The largest proportional drops in degrees awarded occurred in archeology, area studies, classical studies, English, history, languages and literatures other than English, and religious studies (all of which awarded at least 38% fewer degrees than in 2012). Declines were much less in two fields, however: cultural/ethnic/gender studies and communication, which declined by less than 1%. (While the degree numbers in most disciplines declined steadily over this 10-year period, communication saw substantial growth from 2012 to 2017.)
• Linguistics was the only humanities discipline to award more bachelor’s degrees in 2022 than in 2012, though even there the number was up only a modest 1.7%.2 The number of interdisciplinary studies degrees was considerably larger in 2022 than in 2012, but this reflects the inclusion of several new interdisciplinary humanities categories—such as the combination of history and language—in the Department of Education’s 2020 revision of its Classification of Instructional Programs.

Endnotes

• 1For additional context, see A. Pevitz, M. Ryu, and D. Shapiro, Undergraduate Degree Earners: Academic Year 2021–22 (Herndon, VA: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, March 2023), https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/UndergraduateDegreeEarnersReport2023.pdf.
• 2The number of folklore degrees increased 100% over the time period but from a base of five. The 10 degrees awarded in 2022 were well below the high of 17 awarded in 2014 and 2015.