ASA Bachelor’s Survey Examines Growth of Undergraduate Statistics Degrees

The number of students who earned bachelor’s degrees in statistics in the United States tripled from 2010 to 2016. To gather deeper insight into this upward trend, the ASA recently conducted its first bachelor’s survey, in which 2016 graduates were asked about employment or graduate student status as of March 6, 2017. The results are proving helpful to school administrators for curriculum planning purposes, businesses looking to hire young professionals, and current and potential students considering further studies in statistics.

Key findings for the 271 respondents include the following:

Almost two-thirds of respondents went directly into the job market while one-third went to graduate school.
The median salary of $55,000 for those in the job market is in line with that of mathematics and finance majors.
Reflecting the diversity of jobs statisticians can take, there were 91 unique job titles among 127 reported and 105 unique employers from many sectors.
Technical problem-solving, programming, and data analysis are the most often used technical skills for respondents.
Teamwork is by far the most often and widely used nontechnical skill, followed by working with clients, project management, and writing.
Nearly one-third of respondents double-majored, with economics and mathematics being the most common majors.
Half the respondents reported taking the AP Statistics course in high school.

For details about and data from the bachelor’s survey, read the article in the November issue of Amstat News.