Nevada·Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations·SOC 27-3031

Best Public Relations Specialist programs in Nevada, ranked by enrollment

Promote or create an intended public image for individuals, groups, or organizations. May write or select material for release to various communications media.

5 schools in Nevada run programs that feed this job, graduating 183 people a year. The job pays a median of $73,840 in Nevada across about 1,600 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledCommunications SpecialistPublic Affairs SpecialistPublic Information OfficerPublic Relations Specialist (PR Specialist)LobbyistPublicistMedia BuyerPress Agent
Graduates / yr
183
in Nevada
Median pay · Nevada
$73,840
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
1,600
people employed
Schools
5
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
39%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Nevada that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

2 programs in Nevada that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Nevada (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Nevada page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 09.0101In Nevada
168
91.8%
3$34,858$25,000
2
CIP 09.0100In Nevada
15
8.2%
2$34,858$25,000

Top 5 schools in Nevada

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 2 of the 5 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1University of Nevada - Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV Public · 1 feeder programs
84Speech Communication and Rhetoric$32,36551%96%
2University of Nevada - Reno
Reno, NV Public · 1 feeder programs
58Speech Communication and Rhetoric$40,29661%74%
3College of Southern Nevada
Las Vegas, NV Public · 1 feeder programs
26Speech Communication and Rhetoric19%
4Truckee Meadows Community College
Reno, NV Public · 1 feeder programs
10Communication, General32%
5Nevada State University
Henderson, NV Public · 1 feeder programs
5Communication, General34%87%

All 5 schools in Nevada

Every school in Nevada with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Nevada that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
University of Nevada - Las VegasLas VegasPublic841
University of Nevada - RenoRenoPublic581
College of Southern NevadaLas VegasPublic261
Truckee Meadows Community CollegeRenoPublic101
Nevada State UniversityHendersonPublic51

What public relations specialists earn in Nevada

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Nevada
$73,840
Mean annual
$79,430
Jobs in state
1,600
What the range looks like
10th pct$44,710Median$73,84090th pct$120,160
Versus the national median
-1.2%

U.S. median $74,750. Nevada pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
0.57×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in Nevada

Reno, NV
$75,840median
290 jobs
Carson City, NV
$81,000median
50 jobs
Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV
$73,840median
1,180 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+4.8%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
27,600
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
15,000
315,900 → 331,000
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Public Relations Specialists page.

How to become a Public Relations Specialist

Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Top skills

Active ListeningSpeakingReading ComprehensionWritingCritical ThinkingActive Learning

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Nevada

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 11 majors mapped to Public Relations Specialists11 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 09.0100Communication, General
  • 09.0101Speech Communication and Rhetoric
  • 09.0900Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication
  • 09.0902Public Relations/Image Management
  • 09.0904Political Communication
  • 09.0905Health Communication
  • 09.0906Sports Communication
  • 09.0907International and Intercultural Communication
  • 19.0202Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences Communication
  • 52.0501Business/Corporate Communications, General
  • 52.0599Business/Corporate Communications, Other

Common questions

Answers for people weighing public relations specialists programs in Nevada.

What degree do you need to become a Public Relations Specialist?+

Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Speech Communication and Rhetoric, which awarded 168 degrees in Nevada in 2024-25, 91.8% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Public Relations Specialist?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 2 programs to this occupation. The largest are Communication and Media Studies. Together they graduate about 183 people a year in Nevada.

How much do public relations specialists earn in Nevada?+

The median is $73,840 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 1.2% below the U.S. median of $74,750. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for public relations specialists growing?+

BLS projects a +4.8% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 27,600 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Nevada?+

5 institutions in Nevada reported graduates from at least one of the 2 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do public relations specialists work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Communications Specialist, Public Affairs Specialist, Public Information Officer, Public Relations Specialist (PR Specialist) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 27-3031.

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

All Clema data sources and release dates →

Explore every U.S. college in one conversation

Clema turns plain-language questions into sourced answers across every U.S. institution — earnings, aid, acceptance, graduation, safety, and athletics from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and 10+ federal datasets, built in.

Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card