Quick answer:Kinesiology degrees usually cover anatomy, biomechanics, exercise physiology and motor behavior. The field is growing at 11.9% with about 74,200 openings a year, but the median wage in the main entry occupation is $47,160, and this page treats that gap as the central decision. Programs, careers and pay are covered below.
What Kinesiology Coursework Usually Covers
Human anatomy and physiology - the structural and systems foundation the rest of the degree is built on
Biomechanics - force, leverage and loading applied to the human body, taught with the same physics a trade uses on a structure
Exercise physiology - how the cardiovascular, respiratory and muscular systems respond to training and recover from it
Motor learning and motor control - how movement patterns are acquired, refined and relearned after injury
Nutrition and metabolism - energy systems, body composition, and the evidence behind the claims clients arrive with
Assessment and program design - screening, testing protocols, and building a training program from the results
Most programs include a laboratory component and many include a supervised practicum. Widely recognized industry certifications in personal training and strength work are commonly pursued alongside the degree, and they are often what an employer screens on first. Ask each school whether its coursework aligns to any of them.
Why This Page Is Separate From Sports Management
CIP 31.0505, kinesiology and exercise science, is a distinct program code from CIP 31.0504, sports and fitness administration. They sit in the same CIP family, which is why they get confused, and they are not the same degree in any way that matters to a student.
Kinesiology is the science side: what the body does under load and how to measure it. Sports management is the business side: running facilities, programs, contracts and staff. Someone searching for kinesiology programs and landing on Online Sports Management Degree would see a school list built from a different program code and a completely different curriculum.
654 institutions awarded CIP 31.0505 at degree level in 2024 (IPEDS Completions, 2024), which is a deep supply for a specialized science credential. The school list below is filtered to institutions that actually award this code.
Before you request information anywhere, ask how the laboratory and practicum components are delivered for distance students, and get a written transfer evaluation. With those two questions ready, compare online kinesiology and exercise science programs enrolling now:
Colleges Offering This Degree
Every school listed is verified in federal IPEDS data both to award this degree and to offer programs that can be completed entirely by distance education at this level. Whether this exact degree is delivered fully online varies by school, so confirm the format before you apply.
How we rank schools – graduation rate, graduate earnings, cost and retention.
Advertising plays no part.
This page lists 10 schools, closest group first, then ordered by
BOC Score with the highest at the top.
10 of them carry a score.
LOCAL RANK
Location / proximity to this page
Defines the local group
Graduation rate how often students finish
30%
Median earnings, 10 years after entry whether it paid off
25%
Average net price what students actually pay after aid; lower ranks higher
20%
Retention rate how many come back for year two
15%
Fully online availability whether you can study while working
10%
Scores come from IPEDS (2024) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Earnings are for all graduates of a school, not one program, so treat them as a signal
about the institution rather than about this subject.
Sponsored listings are paid placements and are labelled as such; they are separate from
this ranking and never change it. Read the full methodology.
People already working in fitness who want the science underneath what they have learned by repetition. The personal trainer career guide covers that route as a career in its own right, including the certification-first path that needs no degree at all. This page is for the reader who has decided the degree is worth the four years.
Anyone aiming at a licensed clinical role. Kinesiology is the standard undergraduate feeder into graduate clinical training. That is the strongest version of the case for this degree, and it depends on finishing the graduate step - see Online Physical Therapy Degree for the doctoral credential that route requires, or Online Occupational Therapy Degree for the parallel one.
Tradespeople with a body that has taken a beating. People who have loaded, lifted and climbed for a living tend to arrive with a working understanding of mechanics and injury that classroom students do not have. The coursework formalizes it.
Credit transfer is decided by the receiving institution and genuinely varies, so request a written transfer evaluation before you enroll.
The Wage Problem, Stated Plainly
The growth number here is genuinely good and the wage number is genuinely not, and both are true at once.
Employment of exercise trainers and group fitness instructors is projected to grow 11.9% through 2034, adding openings at a rate of about 74,200 a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). Demand is not the issue.
The issue is the pay distribution. The median is $47,160 and the 25th percentile is $35,280 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). A four-year degree that lands in the middle of that distribution is a hard financial case to make on its own terms, particularly for a reader who is already earning in a trade. The 90th percentile of $83,100 shows the ceiling exists, but it sits well above where most of the occupation is.
Three things change the arithmetic:
The specialized roles pay better. Athletic trainers earn a median $62,520 and exercise physiologists $59,460 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Both are meaningfully above the general fitness occupation and both are small: 30,500 and 8,560 jobs respectively, against 322,930. The degree improves your pay mainly by moving you out of the largest occupation and into a narrower one, which is a real strategy and a competitive one.
The degree as a ladder rung. Kinesiology is also the standard undergraduate preparation for licensed clinical training, where the wage distributions are different again. If the plan runs through a graduate clinical credential, the bachelor’s is a prerequisite rather than the endpoint, and none of the medians on this page are the number that matters.
The degree as a business foundation. A meaningful share of the higher earners in the fitness occupation are self-employed or own their facility. Independent work moves the ceiling in a way employment alone does not, and it puts you back in territory a tradesperson who has run a truck already understands.
Is It Worth It?
The case for is growth and durability. Movement, rehabilitation and aging are not going anywhere, the projection reflects that, and the underlying science is not the kind of knowledge that gets automated out. It is also a degree that can be studied while you keep working, which matters more than it sounds.
The case against is the wage distribution above, taken honestly. For a reader currently earning a skilled-trade wage, a bachelor’s whose largest destination occupation has a median of $47,160 is a step sideways or down unless it is a step toward something narrower. The specialized roles at $62,520 and $59,460 are that something, and there are far fewer of them. This page recommends treating kinesiology as the first half of a plan rather than the whole plan.
Is college worth it covers the general tradeoff. Individual outcomes may vary.
What These Careers Pay
Exercise trainers and group fitness instructors earn a median $47,160 across 322,930 jobs, with employment projected to grow 11.9 percent through 2034 (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). Two narrower occupations this degree feeds pay better: athletic trainers at $62,520 and exercise physiologists at $59,460.
Exercise Science at a Glance
Metric
Detail
Source
Median annual wage
$47,160 ($22.67 per hour)
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Mean annual wage
$52,420
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Wage range
$28,800 (10th pct) - $83,100 (90th pct)
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Employment
322,930 exercise trainers and group fitness instructors
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Projected change (2024-34)
11.9%, about 74,200 openings per year
BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34
Typical credential
Bachelor’s, with master’s common for clinical and research roles
Program catalogs
Institutions awarding
654
IPEDS Completions, 2024
SOC codes covered
39-9031 exercise trainers and group fitness instructors; 29-9091 athletic trainers; 29-1128 exercise physiologists
BLS OEWS, May 2025
The Three Destinations Compared
Role
Median
75th percentile
Employment
Projected change
Exercise trainers and group fitness instructors
$47,160
$61,730
322,930
11.9%
Athletic trainers
$62,520
$74,630
30,500
11.1%
Exercise physiologists
$59,460
$67,230
8,560
9.5%
All wage and employment figures BLS OEWS, May 2025; growth figures BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34.
Read down the median column and the case for specializing is obvious. Read across to employment and the cost of it appears. The general fitness occupation holds 322,930 jobs and pays a median of $47,160; the two specialized roles pay $62,520 and $59,460 and hold 30,500 and 8,560 jobs between them. You are trading into a better-paid occupation that has a fraction of the positions, and about 2,400 and 1,700 annual openings respectively against about 74,200 in the large one (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
Growth is healthy in all three, at 11.9 percent, 11.1 percent and 9.5 percent. That is the genuinely good news on this page, and it is worth noting that the wage floors differ as much as the medians do: a 10th percentile of $28,800 in the general occupation against $48,180 for athletic trainers and $42,760 for exercise physiologists (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Specialization raises the floor more than it raises the ceiling.
Employment in the general occupation is projected to move from 370,100 in 2024 to 414,200 in 2034, and its 2024 median was $46,180 (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). Expansion at that scale has not pulled the middle of the wage distribution up much, which is the pattern this page asks you to plan around.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do exercise trainers and fitness instructors make?
The national median annual wage is $47,160, or $22.67 an hour (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The bottom 10 percent earn $28,800 or less and the top 10 percent earn $83,100 or more, across employment of 322,930.
Is kinesiology a growing field?
Yes. Employment of exercise trainers and group fitness instructors is projected to grow 11.9% from 2024 to 2034, with about 74,200 openings per year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). That is one of the stronger growth figures on this site.
Is a kinesiology degree worth doing if the pay is modest?
That is the honest question this page is built around. The median of $47,160 in the general fitness occupation is low for a four-year credential, and the specialized roles the degree feeds pay better without paying spectacularly - $59,460 for exercise physiologists and $62,520 for athletic trainers (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Individual outcomes may vary.
What jobs does a kinesiology degree actually map to?
Three occupations cover most of it. Exercise trainers and group fitness instructors at a median of $47,160 across 322,930 jobs; athletic trainers at $62,520 across 30,500 jobs; exercise physiologists at $59,460 across 8,560 jobs (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The first is large and general, the other two are small and specialized.
How many schools offer a kinesiology degree?
654 institutions awarded CIP 31.0505 at bachelor's or master's level in 2024 (IPEDS Completions, 2024). Supply is broad, which is unusual for a specialized science degree.
What is the difference between kinesiology and sports management?
Kinesiology is CIP 31.0505, the science of human movement - anatomy, biomechanics, exercise physiology. Sports management is CIP 31.0504, the business of athletics - facilities, contracts, marketing, operations. They share a CIP family and almost nothing else.
Can you study kinesiology online?
Partly. The physiology, biomechanics and nutrition coursework transfers to distance delivery cleanly. Laboratory sections and any supervised practicum usually require in-person hours, so confirm with each school how those components are handled before you apply.
Does this make sense coming from a physical trade?
It can. People who have spent years on tools often already understand loading, movement mechanics and injury the hard way, and the coursework gives that a formal vocabulary. The pay ceiling in the trainer occupation is the constraint to weigh, with a 90th percentile of $83,100 (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 - Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors (SOC 39-9031), Exercise Physiologists (SOC 29-1128), Athletic Trainers (SOC 29-9091)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2024-34
U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS Completions, 2024 - CIP 31.0505
About this guide: Researched and written by the TradeCareerPath Editorial Team. Our editorial team researches and sources every trade school and career guide using federal labor and education data, including BLS OEWS and Employment Projections, DOL apprenticeship records, IPEDS, College Scorecard, and state licensing boards. We follow the editorial standards documented at /editorial-policy/.
