Data Scientist Career Guide for 2027
- Median annual pay
- $120,230
- BLS OEWS, May 2025
- Projected growth, 2025-35
- 34.6%
- BLS Employment Projections
- Typical entry education
- Bachelor’s
- BLS Employment Projections
Key takeaways
- Data scientists use statistics, programming and modeling to answer questions with data, then explain the answer to people who will act on it. BLS counts 262,440 of them, earning a median of $120,230 in May 2025, less than software developers’ $135,980.
- It is the fastest-growing of the occupations compared in this guide: a projected 34.6% from 2025 to 2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 24,800 openings a year. BLS ties the growth to the amount of data organizations collect.
- BLS lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry education, but graduate degrees are common. In O*NET’s survey, 48% of workers said a new hire needs a bachelor’s and 44% said a master’s. If you start with a bachelor’s, plan for graduate study as a likely next step.
- Software engineering is one route in, not the main one. Statistics, mathematics and computer science are the usual majors. An SE degree brings the programming and data-pipeline skills; you will need to add serious statistics and machine learning, through electives or a graduate program. Compare SE master’s programs.
- The career moves from analysis under supervision toward owning models and setting a team’s data direction. BLS publishes no pay by level, so this guide shows the full pay range instead of a salary for each step. The 10th and 90th percentiles, $67,240 and $199,130, show how wide it runs.
What data scientists do
Counted by BLS as data scientists.
Data scientists find the question in a business problem, gather and prepare the data to answer it, build and test statistical or machine learning models, and explain what the results mean. The job sits between statistics, programming and the business it serves, and most of the value is in the judgment, not the code.
BLS counts 262,440 data scientists in May 2025, in the mathematical science occupations rather than with software developers. O*NET’s task list, quoted below, puts analysis, visualization, model testing and presenting results at the center.
The core 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.
Task statements for data scientists, quoted from O*NET OnLine, in O*NET’s order of importance.
Where data scientists work
The largest employers of data scientists among the 24 industries we checked, BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Because every kind of organization now collects data, data scientists are spread more widely than most computer occupations. In the industries we checked, management of companies and enterprises employs the most; the median differs by industry, so the field you choose shapes both the problems and the pay.
Data Scientists, national industry-specific estimates, BLS OEWS, May 2025. A candidate list of industries, ranked by employment; not BLS’s complete industry ranking. Share is the industry’s employment divided by the occupation’s national employment, 262,440.
Ways to become a data scientist
BLS lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry education. Lengths are NCES’s definitions of each degree.
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A bachelor’s in computer scienceusually at least four years of full-time study · median 120 credits
Take more math and statistics than the degree requires: calculus, linear algebra, probability and inference. Without them, models become recipes you cannot check.
Compare computer science bachelor’s programs → -
A bachelor’s in software engineeringusually at least four years of full-time study · median 121 credits
A workable route if you add statistics and machine learning electives; check each program’s course list before you choose.
Compare software engineering bachelor’s programs → -
A bachelor’s in statistics or mathematicsusually at least four years of full-time study
The other usual majors. Add programming, SQL and a portfolio of analyses on public data, written up in plain language.
Compare online computer science bachelor’s programs → -
A master’s in computer science or data sciencegenerally one or two years of full-time study beyond the bachelor’s · median 30 credits
44% of workers O*NET surveyed said a new hire needs a master’s, so a graduate degree is a common step, especially for career changers.
Compare computer science master’s programs →
Degree lengths: NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2022, Appendix B: Definitions. Credits: the median of the programs in each ranking that state a credit total on their own page.
What employers expect
BLS’s typical entry requirements for data scientists, BLS Employment Projections, occupation tables 1.2, 1.10 and 1.12, 2025-35.
- Typical entry education
- Bachelor’s degree
- Work experience in a related occupation
- None
- Typical on-the-job training
- None
What workers say a new hire needs
Share of surveyed workers in the occupation giving each answer, O*NET OnLine. Not a hiring requirement.
Programs to start with
The top two programs in each of our rankings, with the score and rank they carry there.
- California State University-Long Beach #1 in our Computer Science Degrees for Software Engineers Score 94.1 of 100
- California State University-Fullerton #2 in our Computer Science Degrees for Software Engineers Score 93.0 of 100
- North Carolina State University at Raleigh #1 in our Master’s in Computer Science for Software Engineers Score 96.6 of 100
- Texas A&M University #2 in our Master’s in Computer Science for Software Engineers Score 93.7 of 100
- San Jose State University #1 in our Bachelor’s in Software Engineering Score 87.0 of 100
- Florida Gulf Coast University #2 in our Bachelor’s in Software Engineering Score 85.2 of 100
What the degree costs
IPEDS tuition, 2023–24, at the programs in our rankings: in-state undergraduate for bachelor’s, the school’s average graduate rate for master’s.
Tuition is before fees, housing and financial aid, and it is the school-wide IPEDS figure, so the price a student pays can differ widely from the sticker. Public schools charging in-state rates sit at the low end of the bachelor’s range.
For what the job pays by state, metro and industry, see the data scientist salary report.
Data scientist pay and job outlook
Data Scientists, BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2025-35.
Top-paying factors
Where the highest medians are, against the national median of $120,230. Each is a published median from the same release, not an estimate for any one person.
Data Scientists, BLS OEWS, May 2025: state, metropolitan area and national industry-specific medians.
Half of data scientists earned more than $120,230 in May 2025 and half earned less; the middle half fell between $85,660 and $158,880. Washington has the highest state median, $163,350. BLS publishes no pay by years of experience, so this guide gives the range, not a ladder of salaries. The data scientist salary report breaks pay down by state, metro and industry.
How the career moves
Typical stages. Titles and scope change by employer; BLS publishes no stages or pay by level.
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Junior data scientist or analyst
Data Analyst · Associate Data Scientist
Clean data, run analyses others have scoped and build charts and reports. Learning the organization’s data, and its quirks, is most of the first stretch.
-
Data scientist
Data Scientist · Machine Learning Engineer
Frame a business question as a data problem, build and validate a model and present the results to the people who will use them.
-
Senior data scientist
Senior Data Scientist · Lead Data Scientist
Own the modeling for a product or business area, decide which methods fit, review others’ work and keep models accurate once they are in use.
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Principal or manager
Principal Data Scientist · Data Science Manager
Set a team’s data strategy, choose which problems are worth solving, or manage the scientists and engineers who solve them.
Pros and cons
What people like about being a data scientist, and what wears on them.
What draws people in
- Pro: High pay: a median of $120,230 in May 2025.
- Pro: Fast projected growth: 34.6% over 2025 to 2035, against 3.5% for all occupations.
- Pro: Work in almost any field: BLS expects businesses in all industries to hire data scientists as they collect more data.
- Pro: Visible impact: a good analysis can change what an organization decides to do.
What to weigh first
- Con: Graduate degrees are common, so the education can take longer: 44% of surveyed workers said a new hire needs a master’s.
- Con: Much of the time goes to finding and cleaning data, not to modeling.
- Con: Results can be ignored, or misread, by the people who asked for them.
- Con: The field’s tools and methods shift quickly, and entry-level roles draw many applicants.
A day in the job
Illustrative: a composite day built from the job’s core tasks, not a record of one person’s day. Real days vary by team and employer.
- MorningMeeting a product manager to turn a vague question about customer churn into something the data can answer.
- Late morningPulling and cleaning the records needed, and finding out why one month of data is missing.
- AfternoonFitting and testing a model, checking whether its predictions hold up on data it has not seen.
- Late afternoonBuilding charts that show the result clearly to people who will not read the code.
- End of dayWriting up the method and its limits, and recommending what the team should try next.
Five questions before you commit
If most of these get a yes, the job is likely a good match.
- Do you enjoy statistics, not just programming?The job rests on knowing which method fits the question and how far a result can be trusted.
- Are you patient with messy data?Cleaning and checking data takes much of the time before any model is built.
- Can you explain a result to someone without your training?O*NET lists presenting results to management and recommending solutions among the core tasks.
- Are you prepared for graduate study?A master’s is common in the field and can be the difference for a first data scientist role.
- Do you like questions without a single right answer?Business problems rarely come well defined; part of the job is deciding what to measure.
Frequently asked questions
What does a data scientist do?
Data scientists collect and clean data, analyze it with statistical software, build and test predictive models, and present what they find. O*NET’s top task for the occupation is to “Analyze, manipulate, or process large sets of data using statistical software.”
How much do data scientists make?
Data scientists earned a median of $120,230 in May 2025, according to BLS. The 10th percentile was $67,240 and the 90th was $199,130.
Do you need a master’s degree to be a data scientist?
Not always. BLS lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry education. In practice graduate degrees are common: in O*NET’s survey, 44% of workers said a new hire needs a master’s, close to the 48% who said a bachelor’s.
Can a software engineering degree lead to data science?
Yes, though it is not the most direct route. A software engineering degree gives strong programming, databases and system design, which matter for production machine learning and data engineering. Statistics, probability and modeling are the gap to fill, through electives, a minor or a graduate degree in data science, statistics or computer science.
What should I major in to become a data scientist?
Statistics, mathematics, computer science and data science are the usual majors. Software engineering, economics and the physical sciences also lead into the field when paired with strong statistics and programming.
Is data science a good career?
On BLS’s figures it pays well and is growing fast: a median of $120,230 and projected growth of 34.6% from 2025 to 2035, roughly 10 times the rate for all occupations. Entry-level competition is real, so a portfolio of real analyses helps.
How long does it take to become a data scientist?
The usual route is a bachelor’s degree, which NCES defines as usually at least four years of full-time study; the computer science bachelor’s programs we rank require a median of 120 credits. BLS lists no work experience in a related occupation as typical for entry, so the degree is the main clock. A master’s takes generally one or two years of full-time study beyond the bachelor’s.
How much does a software engineering degree cost?
At the 75 bachelor’s programs in our ranking with a figure, median in-state tuition for 2023–24 was $20,696 a year; at the 44 master’s programs, the median graduate rate was $17,549. Those IPEDS figures are before fees, housing and aid.
References
Every figure on this page comes from one of these, read by the site’s data scripts and computed at build time, never typed in.
- 1 Data Scientists, O*NET OnLine Task statements and reported job titles, quoted verbatim, and the education survey of workers in the occupation. O*NET OnLine, read 2026-10-06.
- 2 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: national, industry Data scientists: employment, median and percentiles nationally, and employment and median in the 24 industries we checked. Read .
- 3 BLS Employment Projections, 2025-35 Projected employment change and annual openings, 2025 to 2035, for data scientists and the related occupations.
- 4 BLS Employment Projections, occupation tables 1.2, 1.10 and 1.12, 2025-35 Table 1.2: BLS’s typical entry education, work experience and on-the-job training.
- 5 NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2022, Appendix B: Definitions Definitions of the bachelor’s and master’s degree, including their usual length in full-time study.
- 6 NCES IPEDS IC2023_AY, 2023-24: undergraduate tuition for bachelor’s programs; for master’s, the school-wide average graduate tuition, which excludes program fees Tuition for the 75 ranked bachelor’s and 44 ranked master’s programs, the same figures the ranking pages show.
- 7 BLS Employment Projections, occupation tables 1.2, 1.10 and 1.12, 2025-35 Table 1.12: BLS’s stated factor behind the projected growth for data scientists, paraphrased in the outlook copy.