LSE at a glance
Take a look at our most informative facts and figures:
Ranking
In the QS World and Subject Rankings 2022, LSE was ranked the top university in London for the 11th year running by the Complete University Guide 2023 and 3rd in the world for social science and management subjects.
People
LSE counts 18 Nobel Prize winners among our staff and former students. We have 219,000 alumni across 212 countries. 37 world leaders have studied or taught at LSE.
Student numbers
LSE received 12.8 applications per undergraduate place and 6.4 applications per taught postgraduate place for the academic year 2020/21.
During that year, LSE had 11,689 full time students: 5,627 undergraduates, 5,505 taught postgraduates and 557 postgraduate researchers. 49 per cent of students were classed as Home/EU and 51 per cent as Overseas.
Careers and employability
The most recent graduation data is for the academic year 2018/19. In that year, 92.8 per cent of graduates entered employment or study within 15 months. The median salary of an LSE graduate is £35,000.
The top ten fields of employment for LSE students are:
- Financial and Professional Services
- Education, Teaching and Research
- Consultancy
- Government, Public Sector and Policy
- Accounting and Auditing
- Information, Digital Technology and Data
- Advertising, Marketing, PR, Media, Entertainment, Publishing and Journalism
- Law and Legal Services
- FMCG, Manufacturing and Retail
- Health and Social Care
Academic facilities
LSE is a specialist social science university with 29 academic departments and institutes, 19 research centres and many more research units and groups. We have seven academic partnerships across the world and are members of CIVICA. In 2021 LSE became the first Carbon Neutral verified university in the UK.
LSE's Library is one of the largest social science libraries in Europe. It has designated status as the British Library of Political and Economic Science from Arts Council England.
Events, clubs and societies
In 2020/21 LSE's world-renowned public events programme, including an annual Festival, hosted over 100 lectures, exhibitions and concerts.
The Students' Union has over 200 societies and 40 sports clubs.
Find out more
Please see LSE's financial statements for 2020/21.