In order to qualify for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings® -Sociology 2016, universities must offer a course or the option to specialize in these disciplines, and meet the discipline specific threshold for papers published.
| 2016 | 2015 | Institution | Country | Academic | Employer | Citations | H | Score |
| 1 | 1 | Harvard University | United States | 100.0 | 98.6 | 97.7 | 100.0 | 99.7 |
| 2 | 2 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 98.6 | 87.3 | 95.2 | 92.5 | 96.4 |
| 3 | 4 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 95.5 | 100.0 | 92.9 | 93.8 | 95.6 |
| 4 | 5 | London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | United Kingdom | 96.7 | 91.6 | 90.7 | 85.9 | 94.3 |
| 5 | 3 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States | 96.7 | 77.4 | 93.2 | 88.6 | 93.4 |
| 6 | 7 | Stanford University | United States | 91.9 | 90.4 | 96.8 | 94.3 | 92.4 |
| 7 | 8 | University of Chicago | United States | 94.8 | 80.4 | 93.8 | 87.0 | 92.1 |
| 8 | 9 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 94.0 | 99.1 | 84.5 | 78.6 | 91.7 |
| 9 | 6 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 91.4 | 86.2 | 93.1 | 89.1 | 90.6 |
| 10 | 10 | Princeton University | United States | 90.1 | 84.2 | 97.1 | 92.1 | 90.2 |
| 11 | 11 | Columbia University | United States | 89.4 | 84.9 | 92.8 | 93.0 | 89.7 |
| 12 | 12= | Yale University | United States | 87.4 | 82.9 | 98.2 | 95.9 | 88.8 |
| 13 | 12= | University of Michigan | United States | 86.6 | 75.6 | 93.6 | 93.4 | 86.9 |
| 14 | 14= | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 86.8 | 80.8 | 90.8 | 85.9 | 86.3 |
| 15 | 17 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 88.8 | 82.6 | 83.6 | 74.6 | 85.8 |
| 16 | 16 | Australian National University (ANU) | Australia | 87.2 | 84.9 | 84.7 | 78.6 | 85.6 |
| 17 | 19 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 86.3 | 73.3 | 85.0 | 74.6 | 83.2 |
| 18 | 14= | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 83.1 | 72.5 | 92.8 | 85.9 | 82.9 |
| 19 | 18 | University of Toronto | Canada | 83.4 | 76.1 | 86.6 | 80.8 | 82.4 |
| 20= | 22 | New York University (NYU) | United States | 79.9 | 82.6 | 91.2 | 88.1 | 82.0 |
| 20= | 20 | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | United States | 82.6 | 61.0 | 93.4 | 89.1 | 82.0 |
| 22 | 30= | Freie Universität Berlin | Germany | 83.7 | 67.9 | 86.2 | 69.8 | 80.2 |
| 23 | 24 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 85.4 | 87.2 | 69.2 | 52.9 | 79.9 |
| 24 | 33= | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 75.1 | 90.5 | 100.0 | 85.9 | 79.5 |
| 25 | 30= | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Germany | 84.2 | 72.7 | 77.6 | 58.2 | 78.8 |
| 26 | 28 | Cornell University | United States | 77.0 | 74.0 | 93.2 | 84.7 | 78.7 |
| 27 | 36 | University of Essex | United Kingdom | 77.4 | 62.0 | 97.5 | 87.0 | 78.3 |
| 28 | 37 | University of Hong Kong (HKU) | Hong Kong | 79.5 | 88.8 | 80.9 | 62.6 | 78.0 |
| 29 | 44 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 77.7 | 79.4 | 83.2 | 72.7 | 77.4 |
| 30 | 29 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 77.5 | 77.2 | 83.4 | 73.7 | 77.2 |
| 31 | 33= | Peking University | China | 79.5 | 87.2 | 78.8 | 58.2 | 77.0 |
| 32 | 25 | The University of Queensland (UQ) | Australia | 78.1 | 66.7 | 84.7 | 74.6 | 76.8 |
| 33 | 23 | The University of Warwick | United Kingdom | 76.9 | 74.8 | 83.4 | 74.6 | 76.7 |
| 34 | 21 | Monash University | Australia | 76.8 | 78.0 | 80.5 | 70.8 | 76.2 |
| 35 | 45 | Goldsmiths, University of London | United Kingdom | 80.3 | 61.7 | 77.6 | 62.6 | 75.7 |
| 36 | 39 | University of British Columbia | Canada | 72.9 | 79.3 | 89.9 | 80.8 | 75.6 |
| 37 | 41 | Duke University | United States | 72.1 | 78.3 | 92.6 | 82.2 | 75.3 |
| 38 | 27 | Lancaster University | United Kingdom | 74.7 | 63.6 | 92.8 | 79.4 | 75.2 |
| 39 | 26 | The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | Hong Kong | 75.9 | 79.0 | 83.6 | 64.0 | 74.8 |
| 40 | 32 | Seoul National University (SNU) | South Korea | 77.1 | 88.2 | 73.6 | 52.9 | 74.4 |
| 41= | 50 | Northwestern University | United States | 70.4 | 64.0 | 98.6 | 90.6 | 74.2 |
| 41= | 40 | Utrecht University | Netherlands | 72.8 | 65.6 | 89.4 | 81.5 | 74.2 |
| 43= | 51-100 | McGill University | Canada | 73.0 | 74.2 | 85.7 | 73.7 | 73.9 |
| 43= | 43 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 70.1 | 79.8 | 90.4 | 82.2 | 73.9 |
| 45= | 51-100 | City University of New York | United States | 72.4 | 66.3 | 86.0 | 80.1 | 73.6 |
| 45= | 48 | University of Texas at Austin | United States | 68.3 | 79.5 | 93.1 | 87.6 | 73.6 |
| 47= | 46 | Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) | France | 79.5 | 71.7 | 65.2 | 48.7 | 73.4 |
| 47= | 38 | University of ss="xl68" style="border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none">University of Copenhagen | Denmark | 71.9 | 85.5 | 85.2 | 68.7 | 73.4 |
| 49 | 35 | Stockholm University | Sweden | 75.4 | 43.9 | 87.7 | 74.6 | 72.7 |
| 50 | 51-100 | Sciences Po Paris | France | 75.1 | 64.9 | 80.8 | 62.6 | 72.5 |
