State and local public health agencies are on the front lines of responding to an ever-increasing number of infectious disease outbreaks, preventing chronic disease, and protecting community health. As those responsibilities have grown, colleges and universities across the country have dramatically expanded public health degree programs to prepare the next generation of professionals. But new research from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) suggests that growth in degree programs has not yet translated into a governmental public health workforce where most employees have formal public health training.

To conduct the study, researchers analyzed responses from more than 56,000 governmental public health workers across the U.S. The findings, published in the American Journal of Public Health, included:

• Only 22% of employees working in state and local governmental public health agencies reported having a formal public health degree, meaning the vast majority of the workforce holds degrees in other fields, such as nursing, medicine, environmental science, communications, policy, and data science.
• Younger workers are more likely to have public health degrees. Nearly one in four employees aged 35 and younger (24%) held a graduate public health degree, compared with just 9% of employees ages 50–64.
• Expanding degree programs have not yet translated into a more highly trained governmental workforce. Despite the growth of public health education over the past decade, the overall share of governmental public health workers with formal public health degrees has changed little, highlighting the need for stronger pathways into public health agencies and continued workforce training.

“Public health has always benefited from professionals with a wide range of educational backgrounds,” said the author team, comprising researchers at SPH’s Center for Public Health Systems. “It’s encouraging to see that younger professionals in the workforce have more formal public health training than previous generations. But those gains aren’t yet translating into a workforce where most employees have public health degrees, which reinforces the importance of investing in onboarding, professional development, and stronger connections between schools of public health and public health agencies.”

Study authors note that their findings suggest that while the next generation of public health professionals is entering the workforce with more formal training, strengthening the pipeline from schools of public health to governmental agencies remains a challenge. As veteran workers retire and new graduates enter the field, continued investment in workforce development will be critical to ensuring public health agencies are prepared to meet the nation’s future health needs.