- Some college majors are more popular than others, and some are concentrated in specific US states.
- Careers site Zippia calculated the most disproportionately popular college major in each state.
- They include uncommon fields of study such as astrophysics, oceanography, and soil sciences.
At universities around the United States, you’re sure to encounter students majoring in business, political science, and psychology.
But how about petroleum engineering, forestry, and soil sciences? While those don’t sound like the most popular fields in the world, college students in certain states are studying them at disproportionate rates.
Careers site Zippia used data from the US Census Bureau’s American Communities Survey to calculate the most disproportionately popular college major in each US state. It found that compared to the rest of the country, oceanography is especially popular in South Carolina and nuclear technologies are studied to a surprising degree in Idaho.
Zippia arrived at the data by dividing the number of each major’s degree holders in a state by the state’s overall population, and then seeing which of the figures was most at odds with the nationwide rate.
Take a look at the graphic below and see what the most disproportionately common major in your state is.
