Humanities

====As a major====

In 1950, 1.2% of Americans aged 22 had earned a degree in the humanities. By 2010, this figure had risen to 2.6%. This represents a doubling of the number of Americans with degrees in the humanities over a 60-year period.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Schmidt|first1=Ben|title=A Crisis in the Humanities? (10 June 2013)|url=http://www.chronicle.com/blognetwork/edgeofthewest/2013/06/10/the-humanities-crisis/|website=The Chronicle|date=10 June 2013 |access-date=4 February 2018}}</ref> The increase in the number of Americans with humanities degrees is in part due to the overall rise in college enrollment in the United States. In 1940, 4.6% of Americans had a four-year degree, but by 2016, this figure had risen to 33.4%. This means that the total number of Americans with college degrees has increased significantly, resulting in a greater number of people with degrees in the humanities as well.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Wilson|first1=Reid|title=Census: More Americans have college degrees than ever before|url=https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/326995-census-more-americans-have-college-degrees-than-ever-before/|access-date=4 February 2018|newspaper=The Hill|date=4 March 2017}}</ref> The proportion of degrees awarded in the humanities has declined in recent decades, even as the overall number of people with humanities degrees has increased. In 1954, 36 percent of Harvard undergraduates majored in the humanities, but in 2012, only 20 percent took that course of study.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Schuessler|first1=Jennifer|title=Humanities Committee Sounds an Alarm|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/arts/humanities-committee-sounds-an-alarm.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=4 February 2018|newspaper=New York Times|date=18 June 2013}}</ref> Professor Benjamin Schmidt of Northeastern University has documented that between 1990 and 2008, degrees in English, history, foreign languages, and philosophy have decreased from 8 percent to just under 5 percent of all U.S. college degrees.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-08-14/the-great-recession-never-ended-for-college-humanities|title=The Great Recession Never Ended for College Humanities|last=Smith|first=Noah|date=14 August 2018|newspaper=Bloomberg.com |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726044556/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-08-14/the-great-recession-never-ended-for-college-humanities |archive-date= Jul 26, 2020 }}</ref>