---
title: "Podiatrist"
description: "Diagnose and treat diseases and deformities of the human foot."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/podiatrist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Podiatrist

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1081 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1081.00

Diagnose and treat diseases and deformities of the human foot.

Also advertised as: Attending Physician; Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM); Doctor of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery (DPM and Surgery); Doctor Podiatric Medicine (DPM); Foot and Ankle Surgeon; Physician; Podiatric Physician; Podiatric Surgeon.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $160,300 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $77.07/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $66,010 to $309,670, with the middle half between $103,730 and $225,910
- **Total US employment:** 9,680
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 42/100 — 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 9,680 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $66,010 |
| 25th | $103,730 |
| 50th (median) | $160,300 |
| 75th | $225,910 |
| 90th | $309,670 |
| Mean (average) | $175,480 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $265,740 | $241,799 | Not published by BLS |
| MN | $261,180 | $264,832 | 130 |
| OK | $253,380 | $288,446 | 60 |
| NH | $250,070 | $240,071 | 70 |
| WA | $232,970 | $217,703 | 140 |
| MA | $217,700 | $205,849 | 170 |
| NC | $215,420 | $228,378 | 240 |
| CT | $212,760 | $205,347 | 170 |
| TN | $212,470 | $231,272 | 70 |
| OR | $207,430 | $200,685 | 170 |
| WV | $207,000 | $231,293 | 50 |
| NV | $204,990 | $205,033 | 70 |
| NM | $202,690 | $219,809 | 60 |
| MD | $201,940 | $192,399 | 330 |
| CA | $201,300 | $181,810 | 1,000 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 10,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 10,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 200 jobs, or +2.0%. Slower than average: 2.0% 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Doctoral Degree | 52.9% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 32.4% |
| First Professional Degree | 14.1% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 0.7% |

## What the work involves

- Treat bone, muscle, and joint disorders affecting the feet and ankles.
- Diagnose diseases and deformities of the foot using medical histories, physical examinations, x-rays, and laboratory test results.
- Advise patients about treatments and foot care techniques necessary for prevention of future problems.
- Prescribe medications, corrective devices, physical therapy, or surgery.
- Surgically treat conditions such as corns, calluses, ingrown nails, tumors, shortened tendons, bunions, cysts, or abscesses.
- Refer patients to physicians when symptoms indicative of systemic disorders, such as arthritis or diabetes, are observed in feet and legs.
- Correct deformities by means of plaster casts and strapping.
- Educate the public about the benefits of foot care through techniques such as speaking engagements, advertising, and other forums.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- 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
- 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 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — 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.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

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

## 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), Realistic (R), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.77 |
| R — Realistic | 5.29 |
| S — Social | 4.94 |
| C — Conventional | 3.27 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.14 |
| A — Artistic | 1.72 |

### 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 | 71.0 |
| ISTP | 66.0 |
| ISFJ | 65.1 |
| INTJ | 62.8 |
| ISFP | 59.1 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISTP.

## Related occupations

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

- [Orthopedic Surgeon, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthopedic-surgeon) — median $358,550
- [Pediatric Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatric-surgeon) — median $559,030
- [Dermatologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dermatologist) — median $328,730
- [Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-medicine-and-rehabilitation-physician) — median $265,930
- [Ophthalmologist, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmologist) — median $300,080
- [Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeon) — median $352,220
- [Urologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/urologist) — median $265,930
- [General Internal Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-internal-medicine-physician) — median $256,560
- [Cardiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cardiologist) — median $496,010
- [Neurologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/neurologist) — median $248,560

## 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/podiatrist