Types of Degrees Majors Are Getting

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

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	13,350
Associate Degree	7,436
Basic Certificate	5,060
Master’s Degree	3,805
Undergraduate Certificate	2,072
Graduate Certificate	196
Doctor’s Degree	18

What Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, child development 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 Child development Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in child development should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• 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.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• 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.
• 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.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.

Skills for Child development Majors

The following list of skills has been highlighted as some of the most essential for careers related to child development:

• Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
• 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.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

Abilities for Child development Majors

As you progress with your child development degree, there are several abilities you should pick up that will help you in whatever related career you choose. These abilities include:

• 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.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• 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.

What Can You Do With a Major?

People with a child development degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education	8.0%	$55,470
Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education	10.5%	$29,780

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in ?

This major is dominated by women with about 96% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of child development majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	644
Black or African American	1,208
Hispanic or Latino	3,336
White	7,095
International Students	218
Other Races/Ethnicities	849

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Child development, too. About 1.6% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Child Development majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $34,410 to $58,370 (25th to 75th percentile). This range includes all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to

Some careers associated with child development require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. 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 child development careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	14.8%
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)	5.3%
Some College Courses	6.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	5.9%
Bachelor’s Degree	47.7%
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.	9.5%
Master’s Degree	13.3%

Online 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)	227	46
Certificate (2-4 Years)	3	1
Associate’s Degree	489	99
Bachelor’s Degree	69	19
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	232	62
Post-Master’s	18	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	10	1
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Worth It?

The median salary for a child development grad is $34,410 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

Majors Related to

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to child development.

Major	Number of Grads
Elementary Education	42,862
Secondary Education	11,071
Teacher Education	9,653
Teacher Development & Methodology	6,929
Junior High/Intermediate/Middle School Education & Teaching	3,583
Kindergarten/Preschool Education & Teaching	2,913
Adult & Continuing Education	987
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Educational Methods	286
Montessori Teacher Education	236
Online Educator/Online Teaching	153
College/Postsecondary/University Teaching	127
International Teaching and Learning	33

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 Vgrigas under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.