The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026 lists 699 institutions worldwide in Economics & Econometrics, spanning 75 countries and regions. Harvard University holds the top position. For prospective students choosing a program by subject, the distribution of ranked institutions across countries—and the score gaps between the highest-ranked programs—offers a clear picture of where the field’s centers of gravity lie.
Global Scale and Country Concentration
The 699 ranked institutions in Economics & Econometrics are not evenly distributed. The United States leads with 110 ranked programs, followed by the United Kingdom with 59 and China (Mainland) with 52. Germany contributes 32, while France and India each place 27. Italy has 23, Australia 22, Spain 20, and Canada 18. Together, these ten countries account for the majority of ranked programs globally.
A median rank cannot be computed for the 699 listed institutions: the institution at the median position has only a published rank range (351–400), and QS rank ranges must not be used for medians. The list nonetheless reflects a long tail: while the top of the list is densely packed with high-scoring institutions, the lower portion extends far down the ranking table.
The Top Tier: Where the Highest Scores Cluster
The score distribution reveals a steep drop-off after the very top. Ten institutions score between 90 and 99, and all of them are within the top 10 ranks. The 80–89 band contains 20 institutions. The 70–79 band is the largest high-scoring group, with 99 institutions. Both bands cover only institutions whose overall score was published.
Notably, the score bands show an uneven pattern: 73 institutions fall in the 60–69 band, while 202 institutions have a published overall score of 60 or higher. The published score bands stop at 60–69; no band below 60 is published. This means that a published overall score is available only for a leading subset of ranked institutions: 202 institutions have a published overall score and 497 do not. A missing overall score does not mean the institution scored below any threshold or was dropped from the ranking—it is still ranked.
The rank bands confirm this structure. The top 10 ranks hold 10 institutions, ranks 11–20 hold 10 more, ranks 21–30 another 10, and ranks 31–50 contain 20. Ranks 51–100 hold 51 institutions, ranks 101–150 hold 49, and ranks 151–200 hold 52. Outside the top 300 sit 400 institutions.
What the Top 10 Looks Like
The ten institutions ranked 1–10 in Economics & Econometrics all achieve overall scores of 90 or above. Their individual scores range from 90.4 to 99.1, with the top-ranked institution reaching 99.1 and the tenth-ranked scoring 90.4. The gap between the #1 and #10 positions is therefore substantial, even though all ten sit in the same score band.
These top programs are concentrated in a small number of countries. The United States, with 110 ranked institutions overall, also dominates the very top of the list. The United Kingdom’s 59 ranked programs include several in the highest ranks as well, though the exact country breakdown of the top 10 is not provided in the ranking’s country-level data.
Score Gaps and What They Mean for Applicants
For students comparing programs, the score bands offer a practical way to understand competitiveness. A program with a score in the 90–99 band is in a different league from one in the 70–79 band, even if both appear in the same broad ranking. The 70–79 band, with 99 institutions, is where the majority of well-regarded but not top-tier programs cluster.
The 60–69 band contains 73 institutions, and 202 institutions have a published overall score of 60 or higher. For many applicants these programs represent realistic options with solid reputations. Outside the top 300 sit 400 institutions, and a published overall score is not available for every ranked institution: 202 institutions have a published overall score and 497 do not.
Data Notes
The data in this article comes from the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, published by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), with a data reference date of 2026-04-03. The rankings cover 60 subject-specific tables and include component scores for Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, Citations, H-index, and International Research Network. The official page is QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026
The figures cited here are based on parsing the Economics & Econometrics subject table and filtering by country. Ranks are reported as the lower-bound integer. The ranking lists 699 institutions globally across 75 countries, but the country-level breakdown provided in this article covers only the ten countries with the most ranked institutions. The score bands published by QS cover only institutions with a published overall score, so 497 ranked institutions have no associated score. A median rank cannot be calculated across all 699 listed institutions, because the institution at the median position has only a published rank range (351–400).
| Subject Rank | Institution | Country/Region | Academic Reputation | Employer Reputation | Citations | Overall Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvard University | United States of America | 100 | 100 | 95.6 | 99.1 |
| 2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States of America | 98.7 | 95.6 | 99.8 | 97.8 |
| 3 | Stanford University | United States of America | 96.2 | 95.8 | 97.4 | 96.6 |
| 4 | University of Chicago | United States of America | 95.8 | 79.4 | 100 | 94 |
| 5 | Princeton University | United States of America | 97.8 | 82.3 | 96.8 | 93.8 |
| 6 | The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | United Kingdom | 97 | 85.5 | 90.4 | 93.1 |
| 7 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States of America | 93.9 | 86.6 | 94 | 93 |
| 8 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 93.5 | 97 | 86.3 | 92.3 |
| 9 | Yale University | United States of America | 92.1 | 90.2 | 95 | 92.1 |
| 10 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 91.7 | 96.4 | 85.3 | 90.4 |
| 11 | Columbia University | United States of America | 88.6 | 85.1 | 92 | 89.5 |
| 12 | New York University (NYU) | United States of America | 86.3 | 81.8 | 89 | 86.9 |
| 12 | University of Pennsylvania | United States of America | 85.9 | 83.1 | 90.4 | 86.9 |
| 14 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States of America | 84.9 | 82.9 | 91.3 | 86.6 |
| 14 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 88.1 | 87.6 | 83.9 | 86.6 |
| 16 | Northwestern University | United States of America | 86.6 | 72.6 | 93.7 | 86.2 |
| 17 | UCL | United Kingdom | 86.8 | 80.8 | 86.4 | 85.9 |
| 18 | Bocconi University | Italy | 86.3 | 78.8 | 88.7 | 85.8 |
| 19 | Peking University | China (Mainland) | 82.2 | 84.5 | 84.1 | 84.2 |
| 20 | Tsinghua University | China (Mainland) | 80 | 84.7 | 86.7 | 83.9 |
| Country/Region | Ranked Institutions |
|---|---|
| United States of America | 110 |
| United Kingdom | 59 |
| China (Mainland) | 52 |
| Germany | 32 |
| France | 27 |
| India | 27 |
| Italy | 23 |
| Australia | 22 |
| Spain | 20 |
| Canada | 18 |