Social Science
What you can do with Anthropology
Human cultures past and present, studied up close. Fieldwork meets social insight.
- Careers
- 2
- Early career
- $45,000
- Mid-career
- $65,000
- Growing fast
- 1 of 2
How these numbers work: A major does not have its own salary. Early and mid-career pay is what people who hold this degree earn at the start of their careers and midway through them. Career pay comes from the 2 careers an Anthropology degree commonly leads to, and counts everyone in those jobs, including people who have been doing them for thirty years. The two answer different questions, which is why they do not match.
48% of people with this degree go on to a graduate degree, so the higher-paying careers below usually mean more school after the bachelor's.
1 of 2 careers this degree leads to is projected to grow faster than average from 2024 to 2034. Of those, Curator has the most openings, about 1,800 a year.
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2 careers this degree leads to
Anthropologist / Archeologist
$70,770Study human cultures past and present, from field digs to applied research inside companies and agencies.
- Middle half of workers
- $59,400 to $89,670
- Growth
- About average
- Openings a year
- 800
Work-life48Remote17- Field Methods
- Ethnography
- Research
- Writing
Curator
$63,420Build and care for museum collections, deciding what a community sees, learns, and preserves.
- Middle half of workers
- $48,870 to $83,080
- Growth
- Much faster than average
- Openings a year
- 1,800
Work-life63Remote68- Collection Management
- Exhibition Design
- Research
- Grant Writing
Related majors
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Where these pay figures come from
Early and mid-career pay is the median annual wage of full-time workers who hold a bachelor's degree in that major, ages 22 to 27 and ages 35 to 45, from 2024 data. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (IPUMS). Published as Outcomes by Major by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Career pay is the annual wage of everyone working in that occupation, not only recent graduates, so it includes people who have done the job for decades. The middle half is the 25th to the 75th percentile. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and O*NET OnLine (median and percentile annual wages May 2025; employment projections 2024-2034).
All figures are national. What you earn depends on where you work, who you work for, and how far you take the degree.