---
title: "Preventive Medicine Physician"
description: "Apply knowledge of general preventive medicine and public health issues to promote health care to groups or individuals, and aid in the prevention or…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/preventive-medicine-physician"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Preventive Medicine Physician

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1229 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1229.05

Apply knowledge of general preventive medicine and public health issues to promote health care to groups or individuals, and aid in the prevention or reduction of risk of disease, injury, disability, or death. May practice population-based medicine or diagnose and treat patients in the context of clinical health promotion and disease prevention.

Also advertised as: Occupational Medicine Physician; Occupational Physician; Physician; Preventive Medicine Physician; Primary Clinician; Public Health Officer; Public Health Physician.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $265,930 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $127.85/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $69,170 to $452,360, with the middle half between $102,930 and $378,770
- **Total US employment:** 342,720
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.5% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 9,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 37/100 — 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 342,720 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $69,170 |
| 25th | $102,930 |
| 50th (median) | $265,930 |
| 75th | $378,770 |
| 90th | $452,360 |
| Mean (average) | $262,040 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ND | $454,550 | $510,966 | 740 |
| MT | $438,850 | $463,680 | 580 |
| ME | $419,410 | $432,159 | 1,340 |
| WI | $391,740 | $416,324 | 6,350 |
| MN | $367,320 | $372,456 | 5,350 |
| IN | $366,190 | $392,365 | 6,760 |
| NH | $361,300 | $346,854 | 1,000 |
| AK | $355,100 | $346,916 | 270 |
| LA | $350,920 | $397,837 | 4,740 |
| OR | $347,180 | $335,891 | 4,130 |
| VT | $343,050 | $350,201 | 440 |
| WY | $342,800 | $369,831 | 440 |
| HI | $339,290 | $308,583 | 1,830 |
| NM | $327,670 | $355,344 | 1,930 |
| KY | $327,390 | $363,125 | 3,340 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 340,700 in the 2024–2034 base year to 349,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 8,600 jobs, or +2.5%. About as fast as average: 2.5% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 9,600 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:** 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 | 73.7% |
| Doctoral Degree | 26.3% |

## What the work involves

- Identify groups at risk for specific preventable diseases or injuries.
- Perform epidemiological investigations of acute and chronic diseases.
- Supervise or coordinate the work of physicians, nurses, statisticians, or other professional staff members.
- Design or use surveillance tools, such as screening, lab reports, and vital records, to identify health risks.
- Provide information about potential health hazards and possible interventions to the media, the public, other health care professionals, or local, state, and federal health authorities.
- Teach or train medical staff regarding preventive medicine issues.
- Design, implement, or evaluate health service delivery systems to improve the health of targeted populations.
- Develop or implement interventions to address behavioral causes of diseases.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.8 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 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.3 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

## 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), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.70 |
| S — Social | 5.43 |
| C — Conventional | 3.39 |
| R — Realistic | 3.37 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.37 |
| A — Artistic | 1.88 |

### 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 | 59.3 |
| INFJ | 58.7 |
| INTP | 57.2 |
| INFP | 55.8 |
| ISTP | 55.2 |

Best-fitting types: not scored.

## Related occupations

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

- [Emergency Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medicine-physician) — median $335,550
- [General Internal Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-internal-medicine-physician) — median $256,560
- [Family Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/family-medicine-physician) — median $244,180
- [Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-medicine-and-rehabilitation-physician) — median $265,930
- [Pediatrician, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatrician-general) — median $210,040
- [Obstetrician and Gynecologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/obstetrician-and-gynecologist) — median $292,910
- [Cardiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cardiologist) — median $496,010
- [Allergist and Immunologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/allergist-and-immunologist) — median $265,930
- [Epidemiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/epidemiologist) — median $87,220
- [Naturopathic Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/naturopathic-physician) — median $115,210

## 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/preventive-medicine-physician