CCollegeMatcher

Pediatricians, General

US occupation · SOC 29-1221

Job titles people report: Developmental Pediatrician, Emergency Room Pediatrician (ER Pediatrician), General Pediatrician, Group Practice Pediatrician, Medical Doctor (MD), Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician, Pediatric Physician, Physician, Primary Care Pediatrician

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025
$210,040
Half earn more, half earn less
Middle half earn
$138,290 – $273,700
25th to 75th percentile
People employed, May 2025
39,390
Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
Projected change, 2025–35
+1.5%
Growing slower than all jobs (0% to under 3.5%)
Openings a year (projected)
1,000
New jobs plus replacing people who leave
Typical education to enter
Doctoral or professional 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

Diagnose, treat, and help prevent diseases and injuries in children. May refer patients to specialists for further diagnosis or treatment, as needed.

Main tasks

  • Prescribe or administer treatment, therapy, medication, vaccination, and other specialized medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease, or injury in infants and children.
  • Examine children regularly to assess their growth and development.
  • Treat children who have minor illnesses, acute and chronic health problems, and growth and development concerns.
  • Examine patients or order, perform, and interpret diagnostic tests to obtain information on medical condition and determine diagnosis.
  • Advise patients, parents or guardians, and community members concerning diet, activity, hygiene, and disease prevention.
  • Explain procedures and discuss test results or prescribed treatments with patients and parents or guardians.
  • Collect, record, and maintain patient information, such as medical history, reports, or examination results.
  • Monitor patients' conditions and progress and reevaluate treatments as necessary.

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

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)
Doctoral or professional 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
  • Realistic: hands-on work with tools, machines, plants or animals

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 28 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

  • Medicine
  • Osteopathic Medicine/Osteopathy

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 this field as a major, so we can't suggest colleges for it here.

Medical Residency/Fellowship Programs

  • Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Combined Specialty Program
  • Pediatrics/Anesthesiology Combined Specialty Program
  • Pediatrics/Emergency Medicine Combined Specialty Program
  • Pediatrics/Medical Genetics and Genomics Combined Specialty Program
  • Pediatrics/Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Combined Specialty Program
  • Pediatrics/Psychology/Child-Adolescent Psychology Combined Specialty Program
  • Pediatric Otolaryngology Fellowship Program
  • Pediatrics Residency Program
18 more programmes
  • Adolescent Medicine Fellowship Program
  • Child Abuse Pediatrics Fellowship Program
  • Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship Program
  • Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Transplant Hepatology Fellowship Program
  • Pediatrics Residency/Fellowship Programs, Other
  • Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Fellowship Program
  • Pediatric Radiology Fellowship Program

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