CCollegeMatcher

Dietitians and Nutritionists

US occupation · SOC 29-1031

Job titles people report: Clinical Dietician, Clinical Dietitian, Clinical Nutritionist, Dietitian, Nutritionist, Oncology Dietitian, Outpatient Dietitian, Registered Dietician, Registered Dietitian, Renal Dietitian

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025
$76,400
Half earn more, half earn less
Middle half earn
$63,080 – $89,340
25th to 75th percentile
People employed, May 2025
77,570
Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
Projected change, 2025–35
+7.7%
Growing at twice the all-jobs rate or more (7%+)
Openings a year (projected)
5,700
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

Plan and conduct food service or nutritional programs to assist in the promotion of health and control of disease. May supervise activities of a department providing quantity food services, counsel individuals, or conduct nutritional research.

Main tasks

  • Assess nutritional needs, diet restrictions, and current health plans to develop and implement dietary-care plans and provide nutritional counseling.
  • Evaluate laboratory tests in preparing nutrition recommendations.
  • Counsel individuals and groups on basic rules of good nutrition, healthy eating habits, and nutrition monitoring to improve their quality of life.
  • Advise patients and their families on nutritional principles, dietary plans, diet modifications, and food selection and preparation.
  • Incorporate patient cultural, ethnic, or religious preferences and needs in the development of nutrition plans.
  • Consult with physicians and health care personnel to determine nutritional needs and diet restrictions of patient or client.
  • Record and evaluate patient and family health and food history, including symptoms, environmental toxic exposure, allergies, medication factors, and preventive health-care measures.
  • Develop recipes and menus to address special nutrition needs, such as low glycemic, low histamine, or gluten- or allergen-free.

Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)
Bachelor's degree
Training once hired: internship/residency
O*NET Job Zone 5
Extensive preparation
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Interests it suits

The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.

  • Social: helping, teaching and caring for people
  • Investigative: research, analysis and solving problems with ideas
  • Enterprising: leading, persuading and making business decisions

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 8 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.

Health & Nursing

  • Dietetics/Dietitian
  • Clinical Nutrition/Nutritionist
  • Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Services, Other

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Health & Nursing at the Major step.

Where many students take health & nursing

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 these fields as a major, so we can't suggest colleges for them here.

Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences

  • Foods, Nutrition, and Wellness Studies, General
  • Human Nutrition
  • Foodservice Systems Administration/Management
  • Foods, Nutrition, and Related Services, Other

Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies

  • Nutrition Sciences

Related careers

Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.

← All careers

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