ABMP completed its biennial school grad census for massage programs, and the results show massage school graduations increased slightly over the past two years.
Between reported answers ABMP gathered, US Department of Education graduate data, and projections for those programs that failed to participate, it is estimated that 23,098 people graduated from 914 massage programs in 2024. This compares to the estimate of 22,183 from 872 programs in 2022. The average number of graduates per program in 2024 was 25.3, compared to 25.4 in 2022.
To get to these numbers, ABMP started with 946 school programs in its database and initiated email requests, followed by 5–6 calls to each school over a period of six weeks. Through diligent efforts by the survey team, 74 percent of programs in ABMP’s system participated. As usual, ABMP’s estimate takes the responses and extrapolates a number for the non-participating programs at a slight discount to the average from the responding programs.
The number of graduates has increased for the second survey in a row—even if slightly. While the total number of graduates reached its low point in 2020 during the pandemic, there have been modest increases since.
Churn in massage therapy programs continues—the number of programs increased 4.8 percent in 2024, from 872 to 914. This was the first time that the total number of programs has increased in the biennial period between surveys since the period from 2006–2008.
