MAJORS · 16 OF 19 BY ROI
Is a health and nursing degree worth it?
On average, yes — the mean lifetime ROI is +$775,786. But the spread is the real story.
MEAN LIFETIME ROI · FREOPP 2021 · COHORT-WEIGHTED
+$775,786
across 2,285 bachelor’s programs · 401,246 graduates
MEDIAN GRADUATE
+$802K
MIDDLE 50% LAND BETWEEN
+$475K ⟷ +$1.07M
NEVER BREAK EVEN
6.8%
MEDIAN BREAK-EVEN AGE
27
ADJUSTED FOR REAL COMPLETION RATES
+$413K
IF YOU DROP OUT
−$115K
The biggest fields inside Health and Nursing
- Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. 274,445 grads +$1.00M
- Health and Medical Administrative Services. 32,075 grads +$307K
- Public Health. 18,936 grads +$190K
- Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions. 14,055 grads +$640K
- Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences, General. 14,005 grads +$266K
Mean lifetime ROI per field, cohort-weighted. A category average hides this spread — and the per-school spread inside each field is wider still.
Questions
- Is a health and nursing degree worth it?
- On average yes — across 2,285 U.S. bachelor’s programs (FREOPP 2021, cohort-weighted), the mean lifetime ROI for Health and Nursing is +$775,786 and the median is +$802,488. 6.8% of graduates in this category never break even on the degree. The honest answer depends heavily on the specific program and school: the middle half of graduates land between +$474,708 and +$1,069,818.
- How long until a health and nursing degree pays off?
- Among Health and Nursing programs that do break even, the median graduate crosses into positive ROI at age 27 (FREOPP 2021). 6.8% of graduates in the category are in programs that never break even at all.
- Does the school matter for a health and nursing major?
- Enormously. The middle 50% of Health and Nursing graduates span +$474,708 to +$1,069,818 — a +$595K spread within one major. The same field can be a strong trade at one school and a losing one at another, which is why the per-school number matters more than the category average.
↓ Download the data (CSV) · All 19 categories with full statistics. Free to cite with attribution. · Methodology
Cite this:
LE TEEN (2026). “Health and Nursing: lifetime ROI statistics.” Data: FREOPP 2021. https://le-teen.com/majors/health-and-nursing