---
title: "Geography Teacher, Postsecondary"
description: "Teach courses in geography. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/geography-teacher-postsecondary"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Geography Teacher, Postsecondary

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-1064 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-1064.00

Teach courses in geography. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

Also advertised as: Assistant Professor; Associate Professor; Geography Instructor; Geography Professor; Human Geography Instructor; Human Geography Professor; Instructor; Lecturer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $97,590 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $52,550 to $165,460, with the middle half between $74,690 and $123,900
- **Total US employment:** 3,330
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 27/100 — 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 3,330 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $52,550 |
| 25th | $74,690 |
| 50th (median) | $97,590 |
| 75th | $123,900 |
| 90th | $165,460 |
| Mean (average) | $102,350 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $146,040 | $131,900 | 280 |
| OR | $113,500 | $109,809 | 180 |
| VT | $107,790 | $110,037 | 40 |
| CT | $105,470 | $101,795 | 40 |
| MD | $103,430 | $98,543 | 110 |
| MA | $101,870 | $96,325 | 60 |
| IL | $100,790 | $100,832 | 140 |
| NY | $100,420 | $93,050 | 200 |
| TX | $99,510 | $102,527 | 180 |
| PA | $97,120 | $99,537 | 220 |
| MN | $95,890 | $97,231 | 120 |
| WA | $90,550 | $84,616 | 100 |
| NM | $89,060 | $96,582 | 30 |
| KY | $86,790 | $96,263 | 50 |
| SC | $85,810 | $91,532 | 80 |

13 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 28 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/geography-teacher-postsecondary/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/geography-teacher-postsecondary.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 4,100 in the 2025–2035 base year to 4,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 100 jobs, or +2.7%. About as fast as average: 2.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 300 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:** Doctoral or professional 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 | 80.3% |
| Post-Master's Certificate | 9.8% |
| Master's Degree | 9.5% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 0.5% |

## What the work involves

- Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
- Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
- Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
- Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
- Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
- Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as urbanization, environmental systems, and cultural geography.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Writing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — 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
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — 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.

- Instructing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Geography — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- History and Archeology — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — 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
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 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 Social (S), Investigative (I), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 6.76 |
| I — Investigative | 5.65 |
| A — Artistic | 3.69 |
| C — Conventional | 3.67 |
| R — Realistic | 3.24 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.61 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| INFJ | 67.9 |
| INFP | 63.7 |
| ENFJ | 61.4 |
| ENFP | 61.0 |
| ISFP | 58.9 |

Best-fitting types: INFJ, INFP.

## Related occupations

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

- [Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/atmospheric-earth-marine-and-space-sciences-teacher-postsecondary) — median $103,170
- [Anthropology and Archeology Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anthropology-and-archeology-teacher-postsecondary) — median $99,650
- [Sociology Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sociology-teacher-postsecondary) — median $84,290
- [History Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/history-teacher-postsecondary) — median $83,820
- [Geographer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geographer) — median $102,040
- [Environmental Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $94,980
- [Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/area-ethnic-and-cultural-studies-teacher-postsecondary) — median $85,020
- [Forestry and Conservation Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/forestry-and-conservation-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $101,420
- [Political Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/political-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $98,070
- [Mathematical Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mathematical-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $79,940

## 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/geography-teacher-postsecondary