STEM

Statistician

Design studies and analyze numbers to answer questions in health, government, sports, and business

Open interactive guide

What does a Statistician do?

Statisticians work for government agencies, drug companies, universities, and tech firms. They plan how to collect data fairly, test whether patterns are real, and explain how sure they are. Careful thinkers who enjoy math and clear writing do well.

A day in the life

9:00 AMPlan a survey so it reaches a fair mix of people
10:30 AMCheck data for missing answers and odd entries
11:30 AMRun a test to see if a new treatment made a difference
1:30 PMBuild charts that show results without misleading anyone
3:00 PMExplain to scientists what the numbers can and cannot say
4:30 PMWrite the methods section of a report

What's great

  • Answers questions with real evidence
  • Work in health, sports, government, and more
  • Calm office work with flexible options
  • Math skills carry across many fields

The hard parts

  • Many jobs want a master's degree
  • Messy data takes much cleanup
  • Others may misuse your results
  • Explaining uncertainty can be hard

What is a Statistician's salary and outlook?

$57k – $143k
Salary Range
Master's degree
Typical Education
High demand / Rapid growth

Typical pay in this guide runs from about $57,000 to $142,500 a year, with a midpoint around $95,000. These are planning figures for students, not a job offer or an official wage.

CareerLens rates the outlook as High demand / Rapid growth.

For the official national outlook, see BLS Occupational Data.

How do you become a Statistician?

A common path is Master's degree in statistics or biostatistics. The ladder often runs from Statistical Analyst to Statistician, then Senior Statistician, and Director of Biostatistics. Other routes: Bachelor's in statistics or math, then an analyst job; PhD for research and university jobs; Data science master's with a statistics focus; Trainee programs at government statistical agencies.

  • Bachelor's in statistics or math, then an analyst job
  • PhD for research and university jobs
  • Data science master's with a statistics focus
  • Trainee programs at government statistical agencies

Career path

Entry level
Statistical Analyst
Mid career
Statistician
Senior
Senior Statistician
Executive
Director of Biostatistics

Will AI replace a Statistician?

How much will AI change this job?

A lot

AI will change many everyday tasks in this job. The work shifts toward judgment, checking, and people.

AI handles data crunching, statisticians focus on smart interpretation.

AI tools can now clean data, run calculations, and spot patterns faster than ever. This means statisticians spend less time on repetitive number-crunching and more time deciding what the numbers actually mean. Judgment, context, and clear communication become even more important skills for this career.

AI can help with

  • Cleaning and organizing large messy datasets
  • Running standard statistical tests and calculations
  • Creating first drafts of charts and reports

What stays human

  • Deciding which questions are worth studying
  • Checking if AI results actually make sense
  • Explaining findings clearly to non-expert decision makers

Skills to build now

  • Practice math and probability through puzzles or games
  • Learn basic coding using free sites like Scratch or Python
  • Join a science fair or data project to ask real questions

Based on public research from Anthropic and OpenAI, drafted with AI, checked automatically, and read by a person. How we know

This describes how the work may change. It is not a prediction that the job will disappear.