The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025 highlight the top global universities to pursue anthropology. With Oxford, Cambridge, and ANU leading the way, this year’s list features over 170 universities, with English-speaking countries dominating the top positions. These rankings provide students with insights into institutions where they can receive world-class education in understanding human cultures, societies, and histories.
The following table lists over 60 top-ranked universities worldwide for anthropology, along with their employability score, entrepreneurship and alumni outcomes score, return on investment score, diversity score, and overall score for some institutions.
| 2025 | 2024 | Institution | Country / Territory | Academic | AR rank | Employer | ER Rank |
| 1 | 2 | Harvard University | United States of America | 99.2 | 2 | 100.0 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 99.1 | 3 | 94.3 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 100.0 | 1 | 93.9 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | UCL | United Kingdom | 97.8 | 4 | 75.3 | 42 |
| 5 | 5 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States of America | 97.2 | 6 | 85.2 | 13 |
| =6 | =7 | Stanford University | United States of America | 95.3 | 8 | 89.9 | 8 |
| =6 | 6 | University of Chicago | United States of America | 97.1 | 7 | 78.9 | 28= |
| 8 | =7 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States of America | 93.3 | 10 | 79.9 | 25 |
| 9 | 9 | The Australian National University | Australia | 94.5 | 9 | 89.6 | 9 |
| 10 | 12 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | United States of America | 93.2 | 11 | 70.1 | 51+ |
| 11 | 11 | The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | United Kingdom | 92.6 | 12 | 79.2 | 27 |
| 12 | 16 | University of Toronto | Canada | 89.6 | 18 | 84.3 | 15 |
| =13 | 26 | New York University (NYU) | United States of America | 89.2 | 19 | 87.9 | 11 |
| =13 | 17 | Yale University | United States of America | 91.9 | 13 | 80.6 | 24 |
| 15 | 10 | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Mexico | 97.6 | 5 | 81.1 | 20 |
| 16 | 13 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 91.5 | 14 | 91.5 | 7 |
| 17 | 15 | The University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 90.9 | 16 | 76.8 | 38 |
| 18 | 19 | SOAS University of London | United Kingdom | 91.3 | 15 | 82.8 | 18 |
| 19 | 21 | Columbia University | United States of America | 88.0 | 26 | 74.6 | 45= |
| 20 | 22 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 86.8 | 28 | 72.2 | 51+ |
| 21 | 29 | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 88.3 | 23= | 73.6 | 51+ |
| 22 | 14 | University of British Columbia | Canada | 88.3 | 23= | 68.4 | 51+ |
| 23 | 20 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 86.2 | 30 | 84.7 | 14 |
| 24 | 32 | Princeton University | United States of America | 87.1 | 27 | 76.0 | 41 |
| =25 | 41 | The University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong SAR, China | 88.6 | 22 | 83.1 | 17 |
| =25 | 23 | Universidade de São Paulo | Brazil | 90.4 | 17 | 74.1 | 49= |
| 27 | 18 | Leiden University | Netherlands | 88.2 | 25 | 74.1 | 49= |
| 28 | 36 | The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | Hong Kong SAR, China | 89.0 | 20= | 74.2 | 47= |
| 29 | 28 | Durham University | United Kingdom | 85.4 | 34 | 72.7 | 51+ |
| =30 | 25 | McGill University | Canada | 85.0 | 36 | 83.4 | 16 |
| =30 | 34 | University of Pennsylvania | United States of America | 84.9 | 37 | 74.6 | 45= |
| 32 | 33 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 89.0 | 20= | 77.3 | 35 |
| 33 | 27 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 82.8 | 45 | 87.2 | 12 |
| 34 | 30 | Duke University | United States of America | 81.6 | 48 | 77.1 | 36 |
| 35 | 35 | Aarhus University | Denmark | 81.4 | 49 | 76.5 | 39 |
| =36 | 38 | Arizona State University | United States of America | 84.1 | 38= | 52.7 | 51+ |
| =36 | 31 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark | 82.2 | 46= | 70.6 | 51+ |
| =36 | =48 | University of Texas at Austin | United States of America | 80.9 | 51+ | 72.3 | 51+ |
| 39 | =43 | Kyoto University | Japan | 86.0 | 31 | 67.5 | 51+ |
| 40 | 24 | Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) | Argentina | 86.4 | 29 | 78.9 | 28= |
| 41 | =48 | Cornell University | United States of America | 79.7 | 51+ | 70.2 | 51+ |
| 42 | 40 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States of America | 82.9 | 44 | 60.7 | 51+ |
| 43 | 39 | The University of Arizona | United States of America | 84.0 | 40 | 46.4 | 51+ |
| 44 | =43 | University of Vienna | Austria | 85.1 | 35 | 52.6 | 51+ |
| 45 | 51-100 | University of Oslo | Norway | 80.9 | 51+ | 67.8 | 51+ |
| 46 | =45 | Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne | France | 84.1 | 38= | 71.0 | 51+ |
| =47 | =45 | Brown University | United States of America | 80.7 | 51+ | 73.7 | 51+ |
| =47 | 51-100 | Peking University | China (Mainland) | 83.6 | 42 | 81.8 | 19 |
| =49 | 37 | Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) | France | 85.8 | 32 | 50.3 | 51+ |
| =49 | 51-100 | Freie Universitaet Berlin | Germany | 85.5 | 33 | 62.0 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna | Italy | 77.7 | 51+ | 74.8 | 44 |
| 51-100 | 101-150 | Boston University | United States of America | 67.6 | 51+ | 77.6 | 31= |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | City University of New York | United States of America | 73.6 | 51+ | 68.3 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Complutense University of Madrid | Spain | 75.6 | 51+ | 69.6 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen | Germany | 78.0 | 51+ | 49.8 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 101-150 | Emory University | United States of America | 70.8 | 51+ | 60.8 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Goldsmiths, University of London | United Kingdom | 76.7 | 51+ | 68.6 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | =45 | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Germany | 82.2 | 46= | 64.0 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 101-150 | Indiana University Bloomington | United States of America | 71.0 | 51+ | 63.3 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Johns Hopkins University | United States of America | 77.6 | 51+ | 76.3 | 40 |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Germany | 80.4 | 51+ | 55.5 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States of America | 78.6 | 51+ | 93.1 | 5 |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Michigan State University | United States of America | 77.1 | 51+ | 59.6 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Monash University | Australia | 72.7 | 51+ | 79.5 | 26 |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | National Taiwan University (NTU) | Taiwan | 80.8 | 51+ | 73.5 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Northwestern University | United States of America | 72.7 | 51+ | 71.7 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Pennsylvania State University | United States of America | 75.5 | 51+ | 63.9 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) | Chile | 79.6 | 51+ | 77.6 | 31= |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg | Germany | 78.8 | 51+ | 64.9 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Sapienza University of Rome | Italy | 77.8 | 51+ | 69.0 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Seoul National University | Republic of Korea | 83.7 | 41 | 78.2 | 30 |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Stockholm University | Sweden | 76.8 | 51+ | 57.4 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | =48 | The University of Auckland | New Zealand | 77.9 | 51+ | 72.5 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) | Australia | 72.8 | 51+ | 91.7 | 6 |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | The University of Queensland | Australia | 73.9 | 51+ | 77.0 | 37 |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid | Spain | 77.7 | 51+ | 61.1 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 51-100 | Universidad de Chile | Chile | 77.2 | 51+ | 80.7 | 23 |
| 51-100 | =48 | Universidad de los Andes | Colombia | 83.2 | 43 | 72.5 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | 42 | Universidad Nacional de Colombia | Colombia | 80.8 | 51+ | 80.8 | 22 |
The above-mentioned institutions are among the top choices for aspiring anthropologists who want to study and understand the world’s cultures and communities.
