Geographers

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025

$102,040

Half earn more, half earn less

Middle half earn

$80,290 – $121,870

25th to 75th percentile

People employed, May 2025

1,400

Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)

Projected change, 2025–35

-2.1%

Shrinking (below 0%)

Openings a year (projected)

100

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

Study the nature and use of areas of the Earth's surface, relating and interpreting interactions of physical and cultural phenomena. Conduct research on physical aspects of a region, including land forms, climates, soils, plants, and animals, and conduct research on the spatial implications of human activities within a given area, including social characteristics, economic activities, and political organization, as well as researching interdependence between regions at scales ranging from local to global.

Main tasks

• Create and modify maps, graphs, or diagrams, using geographical information software and related equipment, and principles of cartography, such as coordinate systems, longitude, latitude, elevation, topography, and map scales.
• Gather and compile geographic data from sources such as censuses, field observations, satellite imagery, aerial photographs, and existing maps.
• Teach geography.
• Write and present reports of research findings.
• Provide geographical information systems support to the private and public sectors.
• Study the economic, political, and cultural characteristics of a specific region's population.
• Analyze geographic distributions of physical and cultural phenomena on local, regional, continental, or global scales.
• Develop, operate, and maintain geographical information computer systems, including hardware, software, plotters, digitizers, printers, and video cameras.

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.

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 10 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.

Related careers

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

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