Data Scientists: Career Overview
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.
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What Tasks Do Data Scientists Perform?
The day-to-day responsibilities of data scientists include:
- Analyze, manipulate, or process large sets of data using statistical software.
- Apply feature selection algorithms to models predicting outcomes of interest, such as sales, attrition, and healthcare use.
- Apply sampling techniques to determine groups to be surveyed or use complete enumeration methods.
- Clean and manipulate raw data using statistical software.
- Compare models using statistical performance metrics, such as loss functions or proportion of explained variance.
- Create graphs, charts, or other visualizations to convey the results of data analysis using specialized software.
- Deliver oral or written presentations of the results of mathematical modeling and data analysis to management or other end users.
- Design surveys, opinion polls, or other instruments to collect data.
Other Data Scientists Job Titles
Common job titles for this role include:
- Analytics Consultant
- Applied Scientist
- Data Analyst
- Data Analytic Scientist
- Data Analytics Manager
- Data Analytics Scientist
- Data Analytics Specialist
- Data Architect
How Many Data Scientists Are There?
There are about 469,589 data scientists working in the United States today. Demand is forecast to grow by +8.1% over the projection horizon.
Data Scientists Pay
| Statistic | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual median | $106,295 |
| Hourly median | $51.10 |
| 10th percentile | $60,273 |
| 25th percentile | $83,284 |
| 75th percentile | $129,306 |
| 90th percentile | $152,317 |
Pay can vary substantially based on experience, location, and industry.
Pay by State
| State | Annual median salary |
|---|---|
| Washington | $158,760 |
| District of Columbia | $137,120 |
| California | $136,800 |
| Massachusetts | $132,250 |
| New Jersey | $130,370 |
| Virginia | $126,070 |
| New York | $125,400 |
| Maryland | $124,340 |
| Hawaii | $123,880 |
| Vermont | $120,670 |
| Minnesota | $117,840 |
| Utah | $116,420 |
| North Carolina | $115,380 |
| Rhode Island | $114,390 |
| Illinois | $113,490 |
| Kansas | $110,320 |
| Connecticut | $109,960 |
| Idaho | $109,340 |
| Montana | $106,860 |
| Texas | $106,540 |
| Colorado | $106,500 |
| Oregon | $106,100 |
| Arizona | $106,080 |
| Florida | $105,820 |
| Alabama | $105,410 |
| Tennessee | $104,700 |
| Arkansas | $104,320 |
| Georgia | $102,630 |
| Pennsylvania | $100,320 |
| Wisconsin | $100,020 |
| Michigan | $99,470 |
| New Hampshire | $98,970 |
| Ohio | $98,620 |
| Iowa | $97,980 |
| Nebraska | $96,470 |
| North Dakota | $96,230 |
| Wyoming | $95,840 |
| West Virginia | $95,760 |
| Maine | $94,350 |
| Kentucky | $93,490 |
| Nevada | $93,310 |
| South Dakota | $92,000 |
| South Carolina | $90,660 |
| Missouri | $85,570 |
| New Mexico | $85,040 |
| Indiana | $84,050 |
| Oklahoma | $80,380 |
| Alaska | $77,400 |
| Puerto Rico | $70,690 |
| Louisiana | $70,530 |
| Mississippi | $69,430 |
Pay by U.S. Region
Pay for data scientists vary by region. Top regions by median wage:
| Region | Median annual wage | Share of U.S. jobs | Location quotient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Far Western US | $137,283 | 21.0% | 1.32 |
| New England | $123,650 | 6.4% | 1.54 |
| Middle Atlantic | $119,433 | 18.7% | 1.38 |
| Rocky Mountains | $110,478 | 5.4% | 1.58 |
| Southeast | $107,591 | 18.9% | 0.91 |
| Southwest | $104,241 | 12.9% | 1.05 |
| Great Lakes | $101,492 | 11.1% | 0.80 |
| Plains States | $99,118 | 5.5% | 0.92 |
Highest-Paying Metro Areas for Data Scientists
| Metro area | State | Median annual wage | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | CA | $173,160 | 6,570 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | CA | $166,300 | 9,350 |
| Idaho Falls, ID | ID | $164,030 | 220 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | WA | $157,290 | 6,100 |
| Naples-Marco Island, FL | FL | $145,030 | 50 |
| Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT | CT | $139,660 | 370 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | DC | $135,190 | 8,530 |
| Bellingham, WA | WA | $134,530 | 40 |
Industry Breakdown
Most data scientists are found across these industries:
| Industry | Employment | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services | 69,410 | $117,020 |
| Finance and Insurance | 41,020 | $123,570 |
| Information | 26,840 | $137,600 |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises | 26,100 | $126,940 |
| Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services | 14,390 | $100,780 |
| Health Care and Social Assistance | 13,070 | $87,870 |
| Manufacturing | 9,240 | $118,080 |
| Educational Services | 8,700 | $79,310 |
Data Scientists work in the following industries:
Tech Stack
- Business intelligence and data analysis software: Alteryx software (hot technology)
- Data base user interface and query software: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2 (hot technology)
- Data base user interface and query software: Amazon Redshift (hot technology)
- Data base user interface and query software: Amazon Web Services AWS software (hot technology)
- Procedure management software: Apache Airflow (hot technology)
- Data base management system software: Apache Cassandra (hot technology)
- Data base management system software: Apache Hadoop (hot technology)
- Data base management system software: Apache Hive (hot technology)
- Development environment software: Apache Kafka (hot technology)
- Business intelligence and data analysis software: Apache Spark (hot technology)
- Project management software: Atlassian Confluence (hot technology)
- Content workflow software: Atlassian JIRA (hot technology)
Getting Started in This Career
This career aligns with Considerable Preparation Needed (Job Zone 4), reflecting the level of preparation typically expected.
Related Careers
Similar Occupations
- Management Analysts (Supplemental)
- Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists (Supplemental)
- Financial Quantitative Analysts (Primary-Short)
- Computer Systems Analysts (Supplemental)
- Computer and Information Research Scientists (Primary-Long)
- Database Architects (Supplemental)
- Data Warehousing Specialists (Supplemental)
- Geographic Information Systems Technologists and Technicians (Supplemental)
Where to Study
Aspiring data scientists commonly pursue programs in:
Mathematics and Statistics
12 programs across 5 majors
Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies
11 programs across 6 majors
- Data Analytics
- Data Science
- Computational Science
- Mathematics & Computer Science
- Economics and Computer Science
- Linguistics and Computer Science
Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services
5 programs across 3 majors
Biological and Biomedical Sciences
3 programs across 1 majors
Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services
2 programs across 1 majors
Social Sciences
1 programs across 1 majors
Sources
Statistics shown above are sourced from the following authoritative sources:
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for employment and wage data by state and industry.
- BLS Employment Projections for total employment and growth forecasts.
- O*NET (Occupational Information Network) for skills, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, technology, and education-zone data.
SOC code: 15-2051.00 (Data Scientists).
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