MAJORS · 9 OF 19 BY ROI
Is a public administration and human services degree worth it?
On average, yes — the mean lifetime ROI is +$199,831. But the spread is the real story.
MEAN LIFETIME ROI · FREOPP 2021 · COHORT-WEIGHTED
+$199,831
across 2,190 bachelor’s programs · 251,657 graduates
MEDIAN GRADUATE
+$166K
MIDDLE 50% LAND BETWEEN
+$58K ⟷ +$295K
NEVER BREAK EVEN
15.6%
MEDIAN BREAK-EVEN AGE
36
ADJUSTED FOR REAL COMPLETION RATES
+$55K
IF YOU DROP OUT
−$108K
The biggest fields inside Public Administration and Human Services
- Criminal Justice and Corrections. 113,625 grads +$279K
- Health and Physical Education/Fitness. 64,238 grads +$81K
- Social Work. 31,740 grads +$34K
- Human Services, General. 10,835 grads +$26K
- Parks, Recreation and Leisure Facilities Management. 6,439 grads +$165K
Mean lifetime ROI per field, cohort-weighted. A category average hides this spread — and the per-school spread inside each field is wider still.
Subfield deep-dives inside Public Administration and Human Services
- Is a criminal justice degree worth it? 113,625 grads +$243K
- Is a health & physical education degree worth it? 64,238 grads +$78K
- Is a social work degree worth it? 31,740 grads +$38K
- Is a human services degree worth it? 10,835 grads +$45K
- Is a recreation management degree worth it? 6,439 grads +$167K
- Is a recreation & leisure studies degree worth it? 5,204 grads +$182K
- Is a public administration degree worth it? 4,746 grads +$466K
- Is a security science & technology degree worth it? 2,944 grads +$280K
Median lifetime ROI per subfield, cohort-weighted. Each page carries the full statistics — spread, break-even age, the share who never break even.
How much of this work is AI already reaching for?
We read what the AI labs measured about their own machines. Microsoft and Anthropic scored how much of real occupations their AI is already used for — then warned it is not a measure of jobs being replaced. Here is where that lands Public Administration and Human Services, judged on where its graduates actually work — not where the degree theoretically leads.
Where Public Administration and Human Services graduates actually work — and how much of each job today’s AI is reaching for (0–1 applicability):
- 6% Managers, All Other 0.19
- 3% Social and Community Service Managers 0.21
- 3% Lawyers 0.24
- 3% Customer Service Representatives 0.56
- 2% Registered Nurses 0.17
And what people in this field actually bring to AI — the job tasks most taken to Claude, from Anthropic’s usage data:
- Use nondisciplinary tools and equipment such as a computer.
- Read from sacred texts such as the Bible, Torah, or Koran.
- Develop or apply data mining and machine learning algorithms.
- Provide road information to assist motorists.
Exposure isn’t replacement. The score is how much of the task AI touches — not whether the job survives, which turns on judgment, licensure, physical presence, and trust. Sources: Microsoft Research “Working with AI” (CC BY 4.0), the Anthropic Economic Index (CC BY), and U.S. Census ACS field-of-degree. Applicability scores are le-teen-derived, not original Microsoft figures; the task list is Anthropic’s observed Claude usage.
Questions
- Is a public administration and human services degree worth it?
- On average yes — across 2,190 U.S. bachelor’s programs (FREOPP 2021, cohort-weighted), the mean lifetime ROI for Public Administration and Human Services is +$199,831 and the median is +$166,271. 15.6% of graduates in this field never break even on the degree. The honest answer depends heavily on the specific program and school: the middle half of graduates land between +$58,300 and +$294,687.
- How long until a public administration and human services degree pays off?
- Among Public Administration and Human Services programs that do break even, the median graduate crosses into positive ROI at age 36 (FREOPP 2021). 15.6% of graduates in the field are in programs that never break even at all.
- Does the school matter for a public administration and human services major?
- Enormously. The middle 50% of Public Administration and Human Services graduates span +$58,300 to +$294,687 — a +$236K 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 field average.
- Will AI replace public administration and human services jobs?
- Careful with that word. Two AI labs — Microsoft and Anthropic — measured how much of real occupations their own AI is *already being used for*, then explicitly warned it is NOT a measure of jobs being eliminated. On that measure, Public Administration and Human Services lands in the lower-exposure tier: the largest place these grads actually work is managers, all other (6% of them), where AI applicability sits at 0.19 on a 0–1 scale. Exposure means how much of the *task* AI touches — not whether the job survives, which also depends on judgment, licensure, physical presence, and trust. Near the bottom of AI's reach — this is work of bodies, care, and physical presence a model can't stand in for.
↓ Download the data (CSV) · All 19 categories with full statistics. Free to cite with attribution. · Methodology
Cite this:
LE TEEN (2026). “Public Administration and Human Services: lifetime ROI statistics.” Data: FREOPP 2021. https://le-teen.com/majors/public-administration-and-human-services