Engineering is the Million Dollar Degree

A recent WealthInsight & Spear’s survey ranked Engineering degrees as the number one global producer of millionaires. The data to support this claim was collected from 500 of the world’s top Universities as well as 70,000 millionaires (those worth at least $1 million USD) from all around the world.

Of the 500 universities surveyed, 43% are in the US, 8.4% in the UK, and 5.4% in both Canada and France. Accordingly, the study found that the majority of millionaires were educated in America or the UK. Topping the University list was Harvard, producing many prestigious graduates including Ralph Nader, E.E. Cummings, and President Barack Obama.

As impressive as some of these people are, however, it is the Engineering degree that produced the most millionaires. To achieve their millionaire status though, these grads often had to become entrepreneurs and take on technical or engineering ventures.

Josh Spero, Editor of Spear’s, notes that “Entrepreneurs, who ultimately end up being the wealthiest in the world, are innovators, and the top subjects are those which encourage new and smart thinking, whether technical or financial… But it's also no surprise to find that the brightest people, who go to the best universities, often leave their degrees behind and go into high finance to seek their fortune.”

Oliver Williams, an analyst at WealthInsight, adds that ”most engineering [millionaire] graduates… are not engineers but entrepreneurs. The same goes for most law and politics graduates, who owe their fortunes not to practicing their professions but climbing the ranks of the financial services sector.”

The WealthInsight and Spear’s study also shows that the age-old dream of dropping out of school and making it rich, such as was the case with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, is exactly as unrealistic as it seems. Therefore, while the occasional dropout does make it onto the list, 99% of the world’s millionaires have a college degree.

As for post-graduate degrees, it seems that Engineering is only the third most popular option on the millionaire list; though this fact could easily change should more engineers choose to pursue degrees and careers in engineering management.

 Table Sources: WealthInsight & Spear’s Survey, John A. Byrne Editor-in-Chief at C-Change Media Inc. and previous Editor-in-Chief BusinessWeek.com, NewStatesman