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<p>Sociology is dependent, for its disciplinary survival, on the health of its undergraduate major, and this is objectively in steep decline. Using publicly available data, I find that since 2005 sociology undergraduate completions have declined as a share of all completions by 40%, and that since 2013 completions have fallen in absolute numbers by 25%. I find sharp declines in the probability of majoring in sociology across nearly every group of student by gender, race/ethnicity, college selectivity level, and college sector. Using fixed-effects models, I find no evidence that students are abandoning sociology for other left-leaning fields, nor for other social sciences (including psychology). Instead, I find evidence that students are passing sociology over for applied fields such as business, health fields, social work, public policy, and criminal justice. Disciplinary leaders should make turning the discipline’s fortunes around a leading priority.</p>

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A Crisis of Discipline: The Decline of Sociology as an Undergraduate Major in United States in the 21st Century

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月4日

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  • David B. Monaghan

摘要

Sociology is dependent, for its disciplinary survival, on the health of its undergraduate major, and this is objectively in steep decline. Using publicly available data, I find that since 2005 sociology undergraduate completions have declined as a share of all completions by 40%, and that since 2013 completions have fallen in absolute numbers by 25%. I find sharp declines in the probability of majoring in sociology across nearly every group of student by gender, race/ethnicity, college selectivity level, and college sector. Using fixed-effects models, I find no evidence that students are abandoning sociology for other left-leaning fields, nor for other social sciences (including psychology). Instead, I find evidence that students are passing sociology over for applied fields such as business, health fields, social work, public policy, and criminal justice. Disciplinary leaders should make turning the discipline’s fortunes around a leading priority.