How Much Do Data Analysts Make?

The average salary for a Data Analyst in the U.S. is $75,456; this rises to $96,852 among Senior Data Analysts. Making the eventual transition from Data Analyst to Data Scientist can boost this number even further: across the data science field as a whole, annual compensation averages $100,000.

But in some fields, even Junior Data Analysts can achieve that same benchmark; according to a recent study by Springboard, Data Analysts in natural resources and mining can expect salaries north of $100,000, while those working in professional, scientific, and technical services earn an average $90,000. Those employed in the finance and insurance sector average around $90,000 as well—which tallies to roughly 400,000 jobs.

There’s evidence that, for people already working in the field, boosting your skill set in specific areas could give your salary another significant bump. According to IBM’s report, data analytics professionals with MapReduce expertise pull in an average annual income above $115,000, and professionals with experience using Apache Pig, Hive, and Hadoop are all in the market for jobs that average over $110,000 per year.

According to IBM, the right certification could open a lot of doors. Their report noted that if its forecast supply of 2.8 million “analytically savvy” workers turns out to be correct, nearly every one of those workers would have to change jobs annually to fill the required data analytics and data science positions—which makes achieving rapid upward mobility that much more possible.