---
title: "Intelligence Analyst"
description: "Gather, analyze, or evaluate information from a variety of sources, such as law enforcement databases, surveillance, intelligence networks or geographic…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/intelligence-analyst"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Intelligence Analyst

**Category:** Protective Service · **SOC code:** 33-3021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 33-3021.06

Gather, analyze, or evaluate information from a variety of sources, such as law enforcement databases, surveillance, intelligence networks or geographic information systems. Use intelligence data to anticipate and prevent organized crime activities, such as terrorism.

Also advertised as: Anti-Terrorist Analyst; Crime Analyst (Criminal Analyst); Crime and Intelligence Analyst (Criminal and Intelligence Analyst); Crime Intelligence Analyst (Criminal Intelligence Analyst); Crime Research Specialist (Criminal Research Specialist); Intel Analyst (Intelligence Analyst); Intel Research Specialist (Intelligence Research Specialist); Investigative Intel Analysts (Investigative Intelligence Analysts).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $93,790 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $45.09/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $55,390 to $160,540, with the middle half between $69,330 and $120,520
- **Total US employment:** 114,430
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -0.7% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 7,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 15/100 — 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 114,430 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $55,390 |
| 25th | $69,330 |
| 50th (median) | $93,790 |
| 75th | $120,520 |
| 90th | $160,540 |
| Mean (average) | $99,430 |

### 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 | $160,760 | $146,277 | 2,980 |
| MD | $126,730 | $120,742 | 1,010 |
| CA | $124,840 | $112,753 | 12,610 |
| DE | $122,050 | $122,285 | 140 |
| NJ | $116,300 | $106,888 | 3,080 |
| WA | $115,790 | $108,202 | 1,850 |
| AK | $114,940 | $112,291 | 140 |
| HI | $113,940 | $103,628 | 440 |
| VA | $112,760 | $111,529 | 3,180 |
| MA | $110,150 | $104,154 | 1,300 |
| OR | $107,450 | $103,956 | 520 |
| VT | $106,330 | $108,547 | 190 |
| CO | $105,480 | $102,356 | 1,930 |
| AZ | $102,340 | $101,652 | 5,250 |
| NY | $101,240 | $93,809 | 9,600 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/intelligence-analyst/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/intelligence-analyst.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 117,900 in the 2024–2034 base year to 117,100 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 800 jobs, or -0.7%. Declining: -0.7% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 7,800 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:** High school diploma or equivalent (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:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-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 | 65.2% |
| Master's Degree | 13.0% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 8.7% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 8.7% |
| Some College Courses | 4.4% |

## What the work involves

- Gather, analyze, correlate, or evaluate information from a variety of resources, such as law enforcement databases.
- Prepare comprehensive written reports, presentations, maps, or charts, based on research, collection, and analysis of intelligence data.
- Collaborate with representatives from other government and intelligence organizations to share information or coordinate intelligence activities.
- Identify gaps in information.
- Study activities relating to narcotics, money laundering, gangs, auto theft rings, terrorism, or other national security threats.
- Validate known intelligence with data from other sources.
- Evaluate records of communications, such as telephone calls, to plot activity and determine the size and location of criminal groups and members.
- Gather intelligence information by field observation, confidential information sources, or public records.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — 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 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 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
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 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

## 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), Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.77 |
| C — Conventional | 5.37 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.84 |
| R — Realistic | 2.33 |
| A — Artistic | 2.11 |
| S — Social | 1.91 |

### 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 |
| ISTJ | 77.7 |
| ESTJ | 67.8 |
| ENTJ | 67.0 |
| ISTP | 62.0 |

Best-fitting types: INTJ, ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Digital Forensics Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/digital-forensics-analyst) — median $116,580
- [Private Detective and Investigator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/private-detective-and-investigator) — median $51,220
- [Detective and Criminal Investigator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/detective-and-criminal-investigator) — median $93,790
- [Information Security Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/information-security-analyst) — median $129,180
- [Data Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-scientist) — median $120,230
- [Fraud Examiner, Investigator and Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fraud-examiner-investigator-and-analyst) — median $81,100
- [Information Security Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/information-security-engineer) — median $116,580
- [Security Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-management-specialist) — median $83,050
- [Business Intelligence Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/business-intelligence-analyst) — median $120,230
- [Forensic Science Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/forensic-science-technician) — median $72,060

## 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/intelligence-analyst