Best degree programs for Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary, ranked by enrollment
5 college programs and 1,070 schools train Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $77,270 median wage, 12,630 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
5 college programs at 1,070 schools train recreation and fitness studies teachers, postsecondary, graduating 41,466 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Sport and Fitness Administration/Management. The job pays a median of $77,270 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About recreation and fitness studies teachers, postsecondary
Teach courses pertaining to recreation, leisure, and fitness studies, including exercise physiology and facilities management. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
5 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 31.0504 | 18,633 | 44.9% | 666 | $30,426 | $25,643 |
| 2 | CIP 31.0501 | 12,973 | 31.3% | 370 | $30,426 | $25,643 |
| 3 | CIP 13.1314 | 7,066 | 17.0% | 415 | $43,033 | $26,044 |
| 4 | Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studiesmain feeder CIP 31.0101 | 2,249 | 5.4% | 101 | $34,451 | $22,500 |
| 5 | CIP 31.0508 | 545 | 1.3% | 47 | $30,426 | $25,643 |
Top 50 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
What recreation and fitness studies teachers, postsecondary earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | $127,780 | 1,950 | 1.32× | 92 | 6,902 |
| Texas | $76,480 | 1,460 | 1.28× | 66 | 2,374 |
| New York | $80,190 | 670 | 0.86× | 60 | 2,233 |
| Ohio | $70,260 | 420 | 0.93× | 54 | 1,964 |
| North Carolina | $73,860 | 730 | 1.81× | 39 | 1,631 |
| Florida | $76,100 | 140 | 0.17× | 26 | 1,622 |
| Virginia | $65,320 | 310 | 0.94× | 20 | 1,382 |
| Illinois | $67,180 | 630 | 1.27× | 39 | 1,246 |
| Pennsylvania | $83,150 | 640 | 1.30× | 46 | 1,219 |
| Louisiana | $65,940 | 100 | 0.64× | 12 | 1,214 |
| Tennessee | $73,280 | 220 | 0.82× | 27 | 1,184 |
| Georgia | $66,410 | 160 | 0.41× | 29 | 1,107 |
| Michigan | $83,690 | 320 | 0.90× | 33 | 1,010 |
| Massachusetts | $87,960 | 290 | 0.99× | 26 | 1,004 |
| Oklahoma | $63,590 | 110 | 0.80× | 28 | 977 |
| South Carolina | $78,800 | 280 | 1.51× | 22 | 961 |
| Kentucky | $64,890 | 230 | 1.43× | 19 | 954 |
| Kansas | $59,730 | 60 | 0.51× | 26 | 875 |
| Iowa | $75,130 | 100 | 0.81× | 20 | 823 |
| Missouri | $73,180 | 200 | 0.82× | 27 | 780 |
| West Virginia | $66,440 | 100 | 1.73× | 12 | 749 |
| Alabama | $72,680 | 110 | 0.66× | 19 | 734 |
| Mississippi | $60,560 | 190 | 2.01× | 19 | 709 |
| Utah | $76,350 | 110 | 0.77× | 9 | 702 |
| Indiana | $67,060 | 410 | 1.59× | 25 | 605 |
| Minnesota | $80,410 | 260 | 1.09× | 31 | 590 |
| Arkansas | $63,020 | 110 | 1.05× | 17 | 547 |
| Wisconsin | $80,500 | 40 | 0.16× | 20 | 526 |
| New Jersey | $65,900 | 520 | 1.50× | 20 | 505 |
| Arizona | $71,230 | 90 | 0.34× | 12 | 457 |
| Washington | $74,850 | 240 | 0.84× | 9 | 362 |
| Maryland | $97,640 | 90 | 0.42× | 12 | 333 |
| Connecticut | $79,200 | 190 | 1.35× | 14 | 318 |
| Oregon | $63,090 | 480 | 2.99× | 12 | 271 |
| Colorado | $65,730 | 180 | 0.78× | 11 | 187 |
| Idaho | $58,720 | 70 | 0.95× | 7 | 154 |
| Maine | $67,670 | 40 | 0.77× | 7 | 142 |
| New Mexico | $79,090 | 40 | 0.59× | 6 | 124 |
| South Dakota | $62,280 | 60 | 1.53× | 6 | 122 |
| Wyoming | $83,260 | 30 | 1.38× | 5 | 25 |
| Alaskamoderate | $58,330 | 60 | 2.41× | 3 | 14 |
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
- Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
- Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
- Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as anatomy, therapeutic recreation, and conditioning theory.
- Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
- Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
- Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
Skills
- Speaking4.1
- Reading Comprehension4.0
- Active Listening4.0
- Learning Strategies4.0
- Writing4.0
- Critical Thinking3.9
- Monitoring3.8
- Active Learning3.4
Knowledge areas
- Education and Training4.7
- English Language4.1
- Computers and Electronics3.6
- Psychology3.6
- Biology3.5
- Customer and Personal Service3.4
Abilities
- Oral Expression4.1
- Written Expression4.0
- Written Comprehension4.0
- Speech Clarity4.0
- Oral Comprehension4.0
- Inductive Reasoning3.8
Core activities
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships4.5
- Training and Teaching Others4.5
- Getting Information4.4
- Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge4.2
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates4.2
- Coaching and Developing Others4.2
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Recreation
Job zone 5 of 5 · SVP 8.0 and above- Typical entry education
- Doctoral or professional degree
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 5 majors mapped to Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary5 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 13.1314Physical Education Teaching and Coaching
- 31.0101Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studies
- 31.0501Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness, General
- 31.0504Sport and Fitness Administration/Management
- 31.0508Sports Studies
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Recreation?+
Doctoral or professional degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Sport and Fitness Administration/Management, which awarded 18,633 degrees in 2024-25, 44.9% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Recreation?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 5 programs to this occupation. The largest are Sports, Teacher Education and Professional Development, Parks. Together they graduate about 41,466 people a year.
How much do recreation and fitness studies teachers, postsecondary earn?+
The median is $77,270 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $44,900 at the 10th percentile to $134,890 at the 90th. 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 recreation and fitness studies teachers, postsecondary growing?+
BLS projects a +2.4% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 1,100 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
1,070 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 5 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 recreation and fitness studies teachers, postsecondary work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Professor, Instructor, Physical Education Professor (PE Professor), Health and Physical Education Professor (HPE Professor) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 25-1193.
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 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected 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 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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