---
title: "Ophthalmologist, Except Pediatric"
description: "Diagnose and perform surgery to treat and help prevent disorders and diseases of the eye. May also provide vision services for treatment including…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmologist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Ophthalmologist, Except Pediatric

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1241 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1241.00

Diagnose and perform surgery to treat and help prevent disorders and diseases of the eye. May also provide vision services for treatment including glasses and contacts.

Also advertised as: Clinical Ophthalmologist; Cornea Specialist; Glaucoma Specialist; Oculoplastic Specialist; Ophthalmic Surgeon; Ophthalmologist; Ophthalmologist Specialist; Physician.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $300,080 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $144.27/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $100,180 to $489,710, with the middle half between $173,650 and $421,530
- **Total US employment:** 8,950
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 47/100 — 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 8,950 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $100,180 |
| 25th | $173,650 |
| 50th (median) | $300,080 |
| 75th | $421,530 |
| 90th | $489,710 |
| Mean (average) | $304,650 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| RI | $450,370 | $440,330 | 180 |
| NH | $404,330 | $388,163 | 50 |
| CA | $400,150 | $361,407 | 820 |
| FL | $399,440 | $386,253 | 580 |
| IA | $394,900 | $449,967 | 90 |
| GA | $382,920 | $397,661 | 120 |
| MN | $372,200 | $377,404 | 180 |
| NY | $360,050 | $333,624 | 960 |
| NV | $345,600 | $345,673 | Not published by BLS |
| ME | $337,850 | $348,120 | 90 |
| OR | $334,450 | $323,575 | 210 |
| MA | $325,200 | $307,497 | 450 |
| TX | $323,010 | $332,804 | Not published by BLS |
| AL | $305,200 | $343,605 | Not published by BLS |
| WA | $304,830 | $284,853 | 180 |

19 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 34 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmologist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/ophthalmologist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 9,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 10,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 400 jobs, or +4.5%. Faster than average: 4.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 200 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:** Internship/residency.

### 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 42.1% |
| Doctoral Degree | 20.0% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 14.0% |
| First Professional Degree | 14.0% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 9.9% |

## What the work involves

- Perform comprehensive examinations of the visual system to determine the nature or extent of ocular disorders.
- Diagnose or treat injuries, disorders, or diseases of the eye and eye structures including the cornea, sclera, conjunctiva, or eyelids.
- Provide or direct the provision of postoperative care.
- Prescribe or administer topical or systemic medications to treat ophthalmic conditions and to manage pain.
- Educate patients about maintenance and promotion of healthy vision.
- Document or evaluate patients' medical histories.
- Perform, order, or interpret the results of diagnostic or clinical tests.
- Refer patients for more specialized treatments when conditions exceed the experience, expertise, or scope of practice of practitioner.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — 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 4.1 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
- Active Learning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.9 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.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 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), Social (S), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.24 |
| S — Social | 5.46 |
| R — Realistic | 4.40 |
| C — Conventional | 3.72 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.98 |
| A — Artistic | 1.70 |

### 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 | 63.9 |
| ISFJ | 62.1 |
| INTJ | 58.6 |
| ISTP | 56.9 |
| ESTJ | 56.0 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Pediatric Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatric-surgeon) — median $559,030
- [Orthopedic Surgeon, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthopedic-surgeon) — median $358,550
- [Cardiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cardiologist) — median $496,010
- [Dermatologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dermatologist) — median $328,730
- [Optometrist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/optometrist) — median $136,570
- [Urologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/urologist) — median $265,930
- [General Internal Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-internal-medicine-physician) — median $256,560
- [Allergist and Immunologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/allergist-and-immunologist) — median $265,930
- [Neurologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/neurologist) — median $248,560
- [Ophthalmic Medical Technologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmic-medical-technologist) — median $50,290

## 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/ophthalmologist