---
title: "Actuary"
description: "Analyze statistical data, such as mortality, accident, sickness, disability, and retirement rates and construct probability tables to forecast risk and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/actuary"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Actuary

**Category:** Computer and Mathematical · **SOC code:** 15-2011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 15-2011.00

Analyze statistical data, such as mortality, accident, sickness, disability, and retirement rates and construct probability tables to forecast risk and liability for payment of future benefits. May ascertain insurance rates required and cash reserves necessary to ensure payment of future benefits.

Also advertised as: Actuarial Analyst; Actuarial Associate; Actuarial Consultant; Actuary; Consulting Actuary; Corporate Actuary; Health Actuary; Pricing Actuary.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $130,000 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $62.50/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $78,570 to $215,100, with the middle half between $97,680 and $170,650
- **Total US employment:** 26,670
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +21.8% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 2,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 8/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 26,670 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $78,570 |
| 25th | $97,680 |
| 50th (median) | $130,000 |
| 75th | $170,650 |
| 90th | $215,100 |
| Mean (average) | $141,480 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CT | $166,800 | $160,988 | 1,380 |
| DC | $166,230 | $151,254 | 160 |
| NY | $156,480 | $144,995 | 2,630 |
| NJ | $142,800 | $131,244 | 1,260 |
| AL | $136,950 | $154,183 | 190 |
| AZ | $135,870 | $134,956 | 200 |
| WA | $134,720 | $125,891 | 360 |
| UT | $132,720 | $134,245 | 180 |
| NV | $132,370 | $132,398 | 120 |
| FL | $132,110 | $127,749 | 1,300 |
| VA | $131,900 | $130,460 | 440 |
| WI | $131,640 | $139,901 | 890 |
| CA | $130,510 | $117,874 | 1,280 |
| OR | $130,380 | $126,140 | 210 |
| MO | $129,220 | $142,286 | 390 |

22 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 37 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/actuary/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/actuary.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 33,600 in the 2024–2034 base year to 40,900 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 7,300 jobs, or +21.8%. Much faster than average: 21.8% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 78.6% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 10.7% |
| First Professional Degree | 10.7% |

## What the work involves

- Ascertain premium rates required and cash reserves and liabilities necessary to ensure payment of future benefits.
- Collaborate with programmers, underwriters, accounts, claims experts, and senior management to help companies develop plans for new lines of business or improvements to existing business.
- Determine, or help determine, company policy, and explain complex technical matters to company executives, government officials, shareholders, policyholders, or the public.
- Analyze statistical information to estimate mortality, accident, sickness, disability, and retirement rates.
- Negotiate terms and conditions of reinsurance with other companies.
- Design, review, and help administer insurance, annuity and pension plans, determining financial soundness and calculating premiums.
- Provide advice to clients on a contract basis, working as a consultant.
- Construct probability tables for events such as fires, natural disasters, and unemployment, based on analysis of statistical data and other pertinent information.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mathematics — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Economics and Accounting — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Mathematical Reasoning — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Number Facility — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Investigative (I), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.29 |
| I — Investigative | 4.45 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.33 |
| S — Social | 2.49 |
| R — Realistic | 1.78 |
| A — Artistic | 1.13 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 78.8 |
| ESTJ | 75.8 |
| ISFJ | 70.3 |
| INTJ | 64.6 |
| ESFJ | 62.4 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ESTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Financial Advisor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-advisor) — median $105,070
- [Financial Risk Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-risk-specialist) — median $117,330
- [Financial and Investment Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-and-investment-analyst) — median $102,740
- [Compensation, Benefit, and Job Analysis Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compensation-benefit-and-job-analysis-specialist) — median $78,210
- [Accountant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/accountant) — median $83,680
- [Economist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/economist) — median $124,720
- [Insurance Underwriter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/insurance-underwriter) — median $81,370
- [Statistical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/statistical-assistant) — median $50,330
- [Financial Examiner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-examiner) — median $94,160
- [Financial Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-manager) — median $166,570

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/actuary