Social Work

Types of Degrees Social Work Majors Are Getting

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

Education Level	Number of Grads
Master’s Degree	34,707
Graduate Certificate	926
Doctor’s Degree	926

What Social Work Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, social work 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 Social Work Majors

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

• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
• 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.
• Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.

Skills for Social Work Majors

When studying social work, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• 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.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Abilities for Social Work Majors

As a social work major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• 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.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

What Can You Do With a Social Work Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with social work:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Child, Family, and School Social Workers	14.2%	$46,270
Counselors	14.2%	$42,130
Healthcare Social Workers	20.1%	$56,200
Marriage and Family Therapists	23.4%	$50,090
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers	19.4%	$44,840
Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists	5.7%	$53,020
Social and Community Service Managers	18.0%	$65,320
Social Work Professors	9.4%	$68,300
Social Workers	8.3%	$63,140

Who Is Getting a Master’s Degree in Social Work?

This is one of the most frequently chosen graduate majors. It is the 3rd most popular in the country with 32,218 students graduating with a master’s in social work in 2021. This major is dominated by women with about 87% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of social work majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1,216
Black or African American	5,484
Hispanic or Latino	6,124
White	18,581
International Students	459
Other Races/Ethnicities	2,843

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in Social Work. About 1.3% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Social Work

Some degrees associated with social work 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 social work careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	1.8%
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)	0.9%
Some College Courses	1.7%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	2.4%
Bachelor’s Degree	36.1%
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.	0.8%
Master’s Degree	39.3%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	8.4%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	0.2%
Doctoral Degree	7.2%
Post-Doctoral Training	1.3%

Online Social Work 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)	37	3
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	169	26
Bachelor’s Degree	61	15
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	353	73
Post-Master’s	21	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	85	9
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	12	4
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	1	0

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 Army Medicine under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.