MAJORS · 7 OF 19 BY ROI
Is a social sciences excluding economics degree worth it?
On average, yes — the mean lifetime ROI is +$183,047. But the spread is the real story.
MEAN LIFETIME ROI · FREOPP 2021 · COHORT-WEIGHTED
+$183,047
across 2,376 bachelor’s programs · 184,110 graduates
MEDIAN GRADUATE
+$158K
MIDDLE 50% LAND BETWEEN
+$41K ⟷ +$286K
NEVER BREAK EVEN
19.1%
MEDIAN BREAK-EVEN AGE
36
ADJUSTED FOR REAL COMPLETION RATES
+$102K
IF YOU DROP OUT
−$113K
The biggest fields inside Social Sciences excluding Economics
- Sociology. 53,832 grads +$94K
- Political Science and Government. 53,114 grads +$296K
- Criminology. 15,516 grads +$182K
- Anthropology. 13,359 grads −$6K
- International Relations and National Security Studies. 13,330 grads +$284K
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 Social Sciences excluding Economics
- Is a sociology degree worth it? 53,832 grads +$101K
- Is a political science degree worth it? 53,114 grads +$258K
- Is a criminology degree worth it? 15,516 grads +$176K
- Is an anthropology degree worth it? 13,359 grads −$14K
- Is an international relations degree worth it? 13,330 grads +$273K
- Is a general social sciences degree worth it? 9,886 grads +$188K
- Is a geography degree worth it? 7,338 grads +$223K
- Is an ethnic & gender studies degree worth it? 6,770 grads +$51K
- Is an area studies degree worth it? 5,785 grads +$183K
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 Social Sciences excluding Economics, judged on where its graduates actually work — not where the degree theoretically leads.
Where Social Sciences excluding Economics graduates actually work — and how much of each job today’s AI is reaching for (0–1 applicability):
- 13% Lawyers 0.24
- 7% Managers, All Other 0.19
- 3% Chief Executives 0.21
- 3% Management Analysts 0.44
- 2% Paralegals and Legal Assistants 0.11
And what people in this field actually bring to AI — the job tasks most taken to Claude, from Anthropic’s usage data:
- Determine existence and amount of liability according to current laws, administrative and judicial precedents, and available evidence.
- Read from sacred texts such as the Bible, Torah, or Koran.
- Develop or apply data mining and machine learning algorithms.
- Interpret laws, rulings and regulations for individuals and businesses.
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 social sciences excluding economics degree worth it?
- On average yes — across 2,376 U.S. bachelor’s programs (FREOPP 2021, cohort-weighted), the mean lifetime ROI for Social Sciences excluding Economics is +$183,047 and the median is +$157,959. 19.1% 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 +$40,916 and +$286,429.
- How long until a social sciences excluding economics degree pays off?
- Among Social Sciences excluding Economics programs that do break even, the median graduate crosses into positive ROI at age 36 (FREOPP 2021). 19.1% of graduates in the field are in programs that never break even at all.
- Does the school matter for a social sciences excluding economics major?
- Enormously. The middle 50% of Social Sciences excluding Economics graduates span +$40,916 to +$286,429 — a +$246K 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 social sciences excluding economics 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, Social Sciences excluding Economics lands in the elevated-exposure tier: the largest place these grads actually work is lawyers (13% of them), where AI applicability sits at 0.24 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. Solidly within AI's reach, but not at the frontier — a lot of the work is still judgment, people, and rooms.
↓ Download the data (CSV) · All 19 categories with full statistics. Free to cite with attribution. · Methodology
Cite this:
LE TEEN (2026). “Social Sciences excluding Economics: lifetime ROI statistics.” Data: FREOPP 2021. https://le-teen.com/majors/social-sciences-excluding-economics