2025 Best Economics Associate Degree Schools in California
13
Colleges in California
3,297
Associate Degrees
If you plan on getting your associate degree in
economics, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #42 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 13 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Economics Associate Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 3,297 associate degrees in economics during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great Economics School for Your Associate Degree
The economics associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a associate degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of associate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their associate degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
- Major Focus - How much a school focuses on economics students vs. other majors.
- Major Demand - How many other economics students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
- Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
- Student Debt - How easy is it for economics to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
- Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized economics related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for economics students working on their associate degree.
One Size Does Not Fit All
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Economics Associate Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.