---
title: "Environmental Economist"
description: "Conduct economic analysis related to environmental protection and use of the natural environment, such as water, air, land, and renewable energy…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-economist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Environmental Economist

**Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-3011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-3011.01

Conduct economic analysis related to environmental protection and use of the natural environment, such as water, air, land, and renewable energy resources. Evaluate and quantify benefits, costs, incentives, and impacts of alternative options using economic principles and statistical techniques.

Also advertised as: Environmental Economist; Natural Resource Economist; Research Economist; Resource Economist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $124,720 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $59.96/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $67,360 to $238,060, with the middle half between $89,330 and $174,720
- **Total US employment:** 17,790
- **Typical entry education:** Master's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,100 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 17,790 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $67,360 |
| 25th | $89,330 |
| 50th (median) | $124,720 |
| 75th | $174,720 |
| 90th | $238,060 |
| Mean (average) | $142,130 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $167,590 | $152,492 | 3,000 |
| NJ | $167,550 | $153,991 | 280 |
| DE | $159,120 | $159,426 | 70 |
| MD | $144,680 | $137,844 | 1,130 |
| KS | $138,790 | $154,095 | 80 |
| VA | $137,590 | $136,088 | 950 |
| NY | $136,660 | $126,630 | 910 |
| NC | $136,150 | $144,340 | 290 |
| ID | $131,270 | $137,464 | 130 |
| AL | $129,960 | $146,313 | 40 |
| GA | $122,570 | $127,289 | 260 |
| OR | $122,120 | $118,149 | 320 |
| TX | $121,420 | $125,102 | 560 |
| CO | $121,410 | $117,814 | 240 |
| OH | $120,000 | $129,347 | 140 |

26 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 41 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-economist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/environmental-economist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 18,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 19,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 900 jobs, or +4.7%. Faster than average: 4.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

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

### 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Doctoral Degree | 44.4% |
| Master's Degree | 40.7% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 11.1% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 3.7% |

## What the work involves

- Write technical documents or academic articles to communicate study results or economic forecasts.
- Conduct research on economic and environmental topics, such as alternative fuel use, public and private land use, soil conservation, air and water pollution control, and endangered species protection.
- Collect and analyze data to compare the environmental implications of economic policy or practice alternatives.
- Assess the costs and benefits of various activities, policies, or regulations that affect the environment or natural resource stocks.
- Prepare and deliver presentations to communicate economic and environmental study results, to present policy recommendations, or to raise awareness of environmental consequences.
- Develop programs or policy recommendations to achieve environmental goals in cost-effective ways.
- Develop economic models, forecasts, or scenarios to predict future economic and environmental outcomes.
- Conduct research to study the relationships among environmental problems and patterns of economic production and consumption.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Writing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.5 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.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Financial Resources — importance 3.1 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

### Knowledge areas

- Mathematics — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Economics and Accounting — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematical Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral 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
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 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 Investigative (I), Enterprising (E), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 7.00 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.11 |
| C — Conventional | 4.08 |
| R — Realistic | 2.74 |
| A — Artistic | 2.53 |
| S — Social | 2.28 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| INTJ | 78.2 |
| INTP | 70.0 |
| ISTP | 67.9 |
| ISTJ | 66.9 |
| ENTJ | 63.8 |

Best-fitting types: INTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Economist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/economist) — median $124,720
- [Climate Change Policy Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/climate-change-policy-analyst) — median $82,220
- [Industrial Ecologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-ecologist) — median $82,220
- [Data Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-scientist) — median $120,230
- [Economics Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/economics-teacher-postsecondary) — median $123,920
- [Chief Sustainability Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chief-sustainability-officer) — median $213,990
- [Environmental Scientist and Specialist, Including Health](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-scientist-and-specialist) — median $82,220
- [Geoscientist, Except Hydrologists and Geographers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geoscientist) — median $101,920
- [Statistician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/statistician) — median $105,650
- [Environmental Restoration Planner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-restoration-planner) — median $82,220

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 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, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 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 31.0 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/environmental-economist