{"chart":{"slug":"earnings-by-college-major","title":"Which college majors pay the most?","takeaway":"Of the 20 most common bachelor's degree majors, computer science paid the most four years after graduating: a median of $107,009 a year, 2.3 times the $47,382 of teacher education. These earnings cover only graduates who received federal student aid (grants or loans) and were working and not in school. They describe earnings in the two years through 2023, adjusted for inflation.","topic":"College","chart_type":"bar","ranking":true,"x_label":"Major (bachelor's degree)","y_label":"Median earnings four years after graduating, dollars a year","unit":"dollars","points_count":20,"source":{"name":"U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard","url":"https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright"},"data_as_of":"2023-12-31","updated_at":"2026-10-17T18:50:40.893Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/earnings-by-college-major","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/earnings-by-college-major","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/earnings-by-college-major/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/earnings-by-college-major/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/earnings-by-college-major/embed","credit":"U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/earnings-by-college-major)","credit_html":"U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/earnings-by-college-major\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"Computer science","value":107009},{"label":"Computer and information sciences","value":92374},{"label":"Mechanical engineering","value":92135},{"label":"Nursing","value":88910},{"label":"Finance","value":83343},{"label":"Economics","value":82686},{"label":"Accounting","value":76194},{"label":"Marketing","value":69303},{"label":"Business administration and management","value":68257},{"label":"Political science","value":63293},{"label":"Biology","value":57214},{"label":"Communication and media studies","value":56359},{"label":"Criminal justice","value":55378},{"label":"Kinesiology and physical education","value":54562},{"label":"Liberal arts and general studies","value":53072},{"label":"Sociology","value":52657},{"label":"Social work","value":51790},{"label":"Psychology","value":50706},{"label":"English","value":48590},{"label":"Teacher education","value":47382}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/earnings-by-college-major)"}