Data Scientists
US occupation · SOC 15-2051
Pay and outlook
- Median annual wage, May 2025
- $120,230
- Half earn more, half earn less
- Middle half earn
- $85,660 – $158,880
- 25th to 75th percentile
- People employed, May 2025
- 262,440
- Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
- Projected change, 2025–35
- +34.6%
- Growing at twice the all-jobs rate or more (7%+)
- Openings a year (projected)
- 24,800
- New jobs plus replacing people who leave
- Typical education to enter
- Bachelor's degree
- BLS
- All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
- Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
- Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.
What the work involves
Develop and implement a set of techniques or analytics applications to transform raw data into meaningful information using data-oriented programming languages and visualization software. Apply data mining, data modeling, natural language processing, and machine learning to extract and analyze information from large structured and unstructured datasets. Visualize, interpret, and report data findings. May create dynamic data reports.
Main tasks
- Analyze, manipulate, or process large sets of data using statistical software.
- Create graphs, charts, or other visualizations to convey the results of data analysis using specialized software.
- Test, validate, and reformulate models to ensure accurate prediction of outcomes of interest.
- Deliver oral or written presentations of the results of mathematical modeling and data analysis to management or other end users.
- Recommend data-driven solutions to key stakeholders.
- Identify business problems or management objectives that can be addressed through data analysis.
- Compare models using statistical performance metrics, such as loss functions or proportion of explained variance.
- Clean and manipulate raw data using statistical software.
More specific O*NET® occupations under this one: Business Intelligence Analysts, Clinical Data Managers.
Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.
Getting in
- Typical education to enter (BLS)
- Bachelor's degree
- O*NET Job Zone 4
- Considerable preparation
- Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Interests it suits
The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.
- Investigative: research, analysis and solving problems with ideas
- Conventional: organising information, records and procedures
- Artistic: creating, designing and self-expression
Fields of study that lead here
From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 35 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.
Business
- Management Science
- Business Statistics
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Business at the Major step.
Where many students take business
- Southern New Hampshire UniversityManchester, NH · 35% of degrees · 163,164 undergraduates
- Western Governors UniversitySalt Lake City, UT · 28% of degrees · 155,088 undergraduates
- Arizona State University Campus ImmersionTempe, AZ · 26% of degrees · 64,674 undergraduates
- Grand Canyon UniversityPhoenix, AZ · 22% of degrees · 73,371 undergraduates
- University of Maryland Global CampusAdelphi, MD · 25% of degrees · 49,664 undergraduates
- University of the PeoplePasadena, CA · 53% of degrees · 22,688 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Computer Science
- Artificial Intelligence
- Information Technology
- Computer Science
- Data Modeling/Warehousing and Database Administration
- Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Computer Science at the Major step.
Where many students take computer science
- Western Governors UniversitySalt Lake City, UT · 23% of degrees · 155,088 undergraduates
- Southern New Hampshire UniversityManchester, NH · 14% of degrees · 163,164 undergraduates
- University of Maryland Global CampusAdelphi, MD · 25% of degrees · 49,664 undergraduates
- University of Maryland-College ParkCollege Park, MD · 25% of degrees · 30,760 undergraduates
- University of the PeoplePasadena, CA · 33% of degrees · 22,688 undergraduates
- University of California-BerkeleyBerkeley, CA · 19% of degrees · 33,068 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Biology & Life Sciences
- Bioinformatics
- Computational Biology
- Biomathematics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology, Other
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Biology & Life Sciences at the Major step.
Where many students take biology & life sciences
- University of California-San DiegoLa Jolla, CA · 20% of degrees · 34,948 undergraduates
- Arizona State University Campus ImmersionTempe, AZ · 10% of degrees · 64,674 undergraduates
- Texas A&M University-College StationCollege Station, TX · 10% of degrees · 59,615 undergraduates
- University of California-DavisDavis, CA · 18% of degrees · 32,253 undergraduates
- University of California-Los AngelesLos Angeles, CA · 17% of degrees · 33,475 undergraduates
- Michigan State UniversityEast Lansing, MI · 13% of degrees · 40,922 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Social Sciences
- Econometrics and Quantitative Economics
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Social Sciences at the Major step.
Where many students take social sciences
- University of California-Los AngelesLos Angeles, CA · 25% of degrees · 33,475 undergraduates
- University of California-Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, CA · 27% of degrees · 23,113 undergraduates
- University of California-BerkeleyBerkeley, CA · 17% of degrees · 33,068 undergraduates
- University of California-IrvineIrvine, CA · 15% of degrees · 30,197 undergraduates
- Arizona State University Digital ImmersionScottsdale, AZ · 8% of degrees · 53,782 undergraduates
- University of California-DavisDavis, CA · 13% of degrees · 32,253 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Mathematics & Statistics
- Mathematics, General
- Applied Mathematics, General
- Computational Mathematics
- Computational and Applied Mathematics
- Financial Mathematics
- Mathematical Biology
- Applied Mathematics, Other
- Statistics, General
4 more programmes
- Mathematical Statistics and Probability
- Mathematics and Statistics
- Applied Statistics, General
- Mathematics and Statistics, Other
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Mathematics & Statistics at the Major step.
Where many students take mathematics & statistics
- University of California-Los AngelesLos Angeles, CA · 7% of degrees · 33,475 undergraduates
- University of California-Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, CA · 10% of degrees · 23,113 undergraduates
- University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignChampaign, IL · 5% of degrees · 36,258 undergraduates
- The University of Texas at AustinAustin, TX · 4% of degrees · 42,855 undergraduates
- University of California-BerkeleyBerkeley, CA · 4% of degrees · 33,068 undergraduates
- University of California-DavisDavis, CA · 4% of degrees · 32,253 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Physics & Chemistry
- Cheminformatics/Chemistry Informatics
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Physics & Chemistry at the Major step.
Where many students take physics & chemistry
- University of California-BerkeleyBerkeley, CA · 3% of degrees · 33,068 undergraduates
- Pennsylvania State University-Main CampusUniversity Park, PA · 2% of degrees · 42,284 undergraduates
- University of FloridaGainesville, FL · 3% of degrees · 35,629 undergraduates
- The University of Texas at AustinAustin, TX · 2% of degrees · 42,855 undergraduates
- University of Washington-Seattle CampusSeattle, WA · 3% of degrees · 31,942 undergraduates
- Texas A&M University-College StationCollege Station, TX · 2% of degrees · 59,615 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Other fields
Our college matcher doesn't offer this field as a major, so we can't suggest colleges for it here.
Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies
- Mathematics and Computer Science
- Computational Science
- Economics and Computer Science
- Linguistics and Computer Science
- Data Science, General
- Data Science, Other
- Data Analytics, General
- Business Analytics
3 more programmes
- Data Visualization
- Financial Analytics
- Data Analytics, Other
Related careers
Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.
- Statisticians
$105,650 median · +11% projected
- Statistical Assistants
$50,330 median · -1.8% projected
- Operations Research Analysts
$88,940 median · +11.9% projected
- Mathematicians
$126,710 median · +0.6% projected
- Computer and Information Research Scientists
$140,300 median · +21.8% projected
- Database Architects
$139,500 median · +9.4% projected
Sources
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0
Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.
Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk