Data Analyst Salary: $90K a Year Is Not a Limit

A career in data analytics may sound like a cool but hard endeavor. The realm is trendy and promises a high income, but it doesn’t come without its share of doubts. Do analysts earn enough? Will the profession be in demand in the future? Isn’t the competition too tough? Will a junior data analyst salary be enough to make a living? 

In this article, we dive into statistics in the data analysis field and explore what influences its salary. 

If you want to learn more about how to become a data analyst, read our Data Analysis Career Guide for 2023.

Why are data analysts paid so well? 

Simply put, because businesses are increasingly aware that they must unlock the potential of their data to be effective (or just survive) in the market. And to do that, they need someone who can retrieve, process, interpret, and visualize their data, and come up with valuable insights. It applies to all industries and sectors: finance, production, banking, healthcare, hospitality, security etc. Everyone wants to make their products, apps, and campaigns more effective. So, more and more companies will open data analyst positions in the years to come. As per BLS, employment of operations and research analysts (including data analysts) is projected to grow 23% from 2021 to 2031. As of the date of writing this article, there were 15,670 data analyst job postings on Glassdoor.

In this case, high demand means high salary. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the median annual salary for a data analyst as $82,360, while the mean annual salary across all occupations is only $58,260 nationwide.The market echos: latest trends on Payscale, Glassdore, and Indeed show that even entry-level data analyst roles often have better salary than the median U.S. income. Thus, government and private company data are consistent, which means they can be trusted, so you can make your choice based on them.

What influences a data analyst’s salary?

Now, let’s dig into details and have a closer look on how experience, specialization, location, and industry influence a data analyst’s salary. 

Experience

As per Payscale, data analysts with less than a year of experience earn an average annual salary of $59,353. An аnalyst with 1–4 years of experience can earn an average total of $64,142 per year. 

By the way, TripleTen notes a $65,500 median salary and an 85% employment rate for its data analysis alumni. When a data analyst enters his or her mid-career—that is 5–9 years of experience—they tend to have an average salary of $72,216. In addition to base skills, they’ll need to be able to carry out more sophisticated statistical research, use complex coding languages to write algorithms, and work with more complex data sets.

Senior level data analysts (10–19 years of experience) can have an average salary of $73.5 K—and that’s just the starting point. More income typically brings more responsibilities: seniors need to master more complex skills, carry out management tasks, and oversee a company’s overall data strategy.

We gave you some numbers to contemplate, but don’t forget that data analytics is an in-demand trade. So, the salary (including the one on the entry level) will grow in the years to come.

Specialization

Now, let’s check out the average salary of some of the data analyst’s specific roles. In this section, it is also worth noting that many job search websites use the terms ‘data analyst’ and ‘data scientist’ interchangeably, while they represent quite distinct roles. Plus, data analytics jobs don’t always have ‘data’ or ‘analyst’ in their titles, making it hard to find relevant proposals. So, when you search for the analyst’s role, the right approach would be to focus on the job description, not the title. Soon, you’ll start noticing indicative skills and responsibilities and will be able to distinguish between what a data analyst’s role is and isn’t. 

• Financial analysts

They study demographics, microeconomic factors, and market trends to help the company make more informed investments. Financial analysts may advise companies on how to issue their own bonds, split stock, and make decisions in other areas of concern.

The routine tasks of a financial analyst are preparing annual budget and monthly financial forecasts, analyzing forecasts and actual budgets, supporting company’s departments with financial advice.

The average salary of a financial analyst is $64,5K a year.

• Market analysts

They review large amounts of data to understand what product will be in demand in the market, its target audience, and how much the consumers would pay for it. Simply put, market analysts use the company’s data to improve its income. Their average annual salary is about $57K.

• Healthcare consultants

They gather data and conduct research to identify problems and find solutions, make reports, and conduct meetings with stakeholders to present their findings. Usually, healthcare analysts gather data from such sources as electronic health and financial reports, patient surveys, and wearable devices. Their task is to improve patient care and how health organizations are run. Typically, healthcare consultants work for large or private healthcare organizations, and their average salary is about $81K a year.

• Systems analysts

They use data to check out how the organization’s IT infrastructure fits its business needs. Software, hardware, and user data are the targets for their analysis. System analysts aim to improve IT procedures and protocols and write new ones, when needed. On average, system analysts have a salary of about $69K a year.

• Digital marketing managers

They run email and social media campaigns, deal with search engine optimization, create marketing strategies, etc. But how can they be more effective when taking care of these tasks? By using data, of course. Like in many industries, data analytics skills are becoming increasingly required in the marketing realm. Average digital marketing manager’s salary is $71K a year.

From the examples above, you may have noticed that having a background in some industries can be useful when applying data analytics skills. For instance, if you are experienced in marketing or IT, data analytics can take your career to the next level. And possibilities for such growth are abundant: in the near future, more and more companies from every industry will try to use their data to make more informed business decisions.

Location

Sounds a bit outdated in 2023, but yes: location influences your salary as a data analyst. Or, more precisely, the location of the company’s headquarters does. For example, companies from the Silicon Valley offer some of the highest salaries for data analysts. The good thing is that—like with most professions in tech—often, you don’t have to physically move anywhere to get a better pay. Remote work works just fine for the data analyst role. Still, consider the location of your employer when looking for a higher income. 

Zippia places the 10 U.S. cities with the best salary for data analysts in such order:

Industry

Based on the CareerFoundry’s research, the top 10 average data analyst salaries in the U.S. by industry include:

Company

According to Payscale, top tech companies tend to have a higher average salary for data analysts thаn other businesses. The medians are: $79K for Amazon, $90K for Apple, $99K for Facebook, and $109K for Google (A fortuitous occasion when the doubled ‘o’ in ‘Google’ turns into an extra zero in your salary.) Additionally, it’s worth noting that the same source reports Facebook as a company with the best income outlook: $137K of salary per year for the most experienced data analysts.

Needless to say, working at a tech monster almost always means having a beautiful, well-equipped office, and limitless opportunities for learning and growing. But the seamy side could be a more demanding and stressful working environment. Starting in a start-up or a middle-sized company can also be a great choice. How so? Check out our blog article about why choosing a start-up over an IT giant can be worth it.

How to become a data analyst?

We believe everyone can break into tech. To become a data analyst you don’t need a degree or extensive work experience. Sure, a background in mathematics and statistics is an advantage, but not a must: all you need is a love for discovery and persistence.

Nowadays, there are various programs that will equip you with the skills you need to land your first role. TripleTen’s Data Analytics Bootcamp has been voted the best coding bootcamp three years in a row. It is a 7-month part-time bootcamp, during which graduates prepare a 10+ project portfolio. The course will teach you to write in Python, work with SQL databases, familiarize yourself with essential tools like Tableau, and create stories through data visualization.

Join our top-rated bootcamp today to start an exciting career in data analytics.