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How Common Is a Masters Degree?

More students are attending university every year and the level of qualifications awarded is increasing. According to official data, there was a 13% increase in the number of UK postgraduate degrees awarded between 2020/21 and 2021/22. And almost 90,000 more students completed a taught Masters degree between 2017/18 and 2021/22.

This can be attributed to increased demand for specialised skills in the job market and more financial support available. We were curious to know how common (or rare) it really is to have a Masters. Let’s find out!

How common is a Masters in the UK?

Even though there is no official record of the exact number of people in the UK with a Masters, there are a few indicators we can work with. We’ve looked at some official education data and after doing our own (albeit rough!) calculations maths, this is what we’ve found.

According to the 2021 Census, 33.8% of English and Welsh residents aged 16 or above have a university degree (including certificates, diplomas, undergraduate and all postgraduate degrees). This is equal to about 16.4 million people in England and Wales with a university degree in 2021.

According to data released by Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), 99,520 taught Masters degrees were awarded in 2021-22. Looking at the same data, 557,535 university degrees (undergraduate or postgraduate) were awarded in the same year. So, about 17.8% of graduates in England and Wales in 2021-22 were taught Masters students.

If we extrapolate this data to the 16.4 million people, aged 16 or above, in England and Wales with a university degree, 291,920 of them have a taught Masters degree. According to the latest population estimates (mid-year 2022), there are 60.2 million people in England and Wales. As a percentage of the total UK population, 4.8% of people in England and Wales are Masters graduates.

There are a lot of caveats to this data. We’ve taken reliable data from official sources, but this is just napkin maths (and I have no background in maths or statistics!), so hopefully it gives you the lay of the land.

UK-wide (also including Scotland and Northern Ireland) figures are similar with taught Masters making up 18% of total degrees awarded in 2021-22 to UK domiciled students.

What about elsewhere in the world?

The UK is known for the quality of its universities so it’s not surprising to see these numbers. But, what about some other education hubs across the world. Eurostat has some data on the number of people who were enrolled in university level education (including short courses, bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees) in 2022.

In the EU, there were a total of 17,803,433 university degrees awarded of which 5,508,921 were Masters degrees (equal to 30%). We’ve taken a look at the top five countries in the EU with the most Masters degrees awarded in 2022.

Country	Number of Masters degrees awarded	As percentage of total degrees awarded
Germany	1,133,094	33%
France	1,013,861	35%
Italy	807,116	37%
Türkiye	542,971	6.5%
Poland	442,643	32%

* Source: Eurostat 2022

Over on the other side of the Atlantic, there were 880,200 Masters degrees awarded in the US in 2022 which is 8% of the total 1.1 million postgraduate degrees awarded. (according to the National Centre for Educational Statistics).

There are plenty of reasons to study a Masters (and some not to as well!). For one, Masters graduates are 13% more likely to be in full-time employment than those with a Bachelors degree. Whether you’re looking to upskill, use it as a stepping stone for a PhD or just want to spend more time studying your favourite subject, you’re not alone in your endeavours!

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