Humanities as a Second Major

In 2001, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) began to gather data on double majoring that shed additional light on the extent to which Americans engage with the humanities as undergraduates. Unfortunately, these data are limited in two ways.

First, less than half of the colleges reporting degree completion data to NCES report second majors. As of 2022, only 1,064 colleges and universities reported the award of bachelor’s degrees as second majors, compared to 2,385 institutions reporting the award of first majors, despite a staff review that found that second majors are offered at many nonreporting colleges. As a result, the second-major counts provided below are likely undercounts. The second limitation of the data is that the information reported by colleges to NCES is for their institutions as a whole, not for individual students. As a result, we do not know on the basis of these data how likely a degree completer in a nonhumanities field is to complete a second major in the humanities. (To fill this information gap, the Humanities Indicators is conducting an analysis of transcript data that we expect to release in fall 2024. Registered users of the Humanities Indicators will be notified upon the release of the study. To register for such notifications, click here.)

Nevertheless, an analysis of the reported data indicates that the humanities’ share of second majors is more than twice as large as the field’s share of first majors. And among second majors, the number of humanities degrees fell more slowly than among primary majors.

Findings and Trends

In 2022, 21,061 humanities bachelor’s degrees were awarded as a “second major” in the humanities (Indicator II-04a).1 This was down 18% from the peak in 2012. While humanities degree completions declined, the total number of second majors increased 6.3% from 2012 to 2022 (not pictured).
The decline in double majoring in the humanities from 2012 to 2022 was less acute than for humanities degrees awarded as a first major (where the number fell by 24%), but the humanities’ share of all second majors awarded shrank to the lowest level on record (20.7% of all second majors), though this was still more than double the field’s share among reported first majors (8.8%).
From 2001 to 2015, humanities was the most popular field in which to earn a second major (Indicator II-04b). In subsequent years, however, the humanities fell below the behavioral and social sciences in the award of second degrees and awarded only slightly more degrees than business and management. In 2022, 25,390 second majors were awarded in behavioral/social sciences and 20,791 in business/management.
While the number of second majors in the humanities declined from 2012 to 2022, the number of second majors completed in engineering almost tripled, and the number in health and medical sciences rose almost 80%. The number of second majors earned in the natural sciences increased by 47% (however, due to the relatively small number of second degrees earned in these subjects, a small numerical increase translates into a large percentage change).
From 2001 to 2022, languages and literatures other than English (LOTE) was the most popular discipline for students earning second majors in humanities by a substantial margin, with 5,267 students completing LOTE degrees in 2022 (25% of all second degrees earned in a humanities discipline that year; Indicator II-04c). The next most popular disciplines for second majors were English and history, which conferred 2,987 (14.2%) and 2,757 (13.1%) degrees respectively.
Though LOTE degrees are the most popular type of second major, the number of such degrees declined 30% from 2012 to 2022. The number of religion degrees fell by the same amount. Another sizable drop-off occurred in English and the general humanities, whose degree completions decreased 25% over the period. In contrast, linguistics experienced a considerable uptick in second degree completions (27%).

Endnotes

1
Data on “second majors” are reported by the institution (rather than the student), and thus no meaning can be inferred from these degrees being designated as second (rather than first) majors.

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Data Source and Other Information

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

About the Data

Data on second majors are reported by the institution (rather than the student), and thus no meaning can be inferred from these degrees being designated as second (rather than first) majors.

Related Indicators

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Data Source and Other Information

About the Data

Data on second majors are reported by the institution (rather than the student), and thus no meaning can be inferred from these degrees being designated as second (rather than first) majors.

Related Indicators

Copy link

Data Source and Other Information

About the Data

Data on second majors are reported by the institution (rather than the student), and thus no meaning can be inferred from these degrees being designated as second (rather than first) majors.

Related Indicators

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The Humanities Indicators and Departmental Survey have been made possible in part by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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