---
title: "Radiologist"
description: "Diagnose and treat diseases and injuries using medical imaging techniques, such as x rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/radiologist"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Radiologist

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1224 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1224.00

Diagnose and treat diseases and injuries using medical imaging techniques, such as x rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, and ultrasounds. May perform minimally invasive medical procedures and tests.

Also advertised as: Attending Physician; Diagnostic Radiologist; Interventional Neuroradiologist; Interventional Radiologist; Musculoskeletal Specialty Radiologist (MSK Specialty Radiologist); Neuroradiologist; Nuclear Medicine Physician; Nuclear Medicine Specialist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $420,860 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $202.34/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $89,010 to $594,410, with the middle half between $216,800 and $506,010
- **Total US employment:** 26,770
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.7% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 38/100 — 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 26,770 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $89,010 |
| 25th | $216,800 |
| 50th (median) | $420,860 |
| 75th | $506,010 |
| 90th | $594,410 |
| Mean (average) | $381,530 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MN | $708,340 | $718,245 | 440 |
| SD | $586,010 | $661,515 | 70 |
| MD | $581,510 | $554,035 | Not published by BLS |
| ME | $555,750 | $572,643 | Not published by BLS |
| ND | $553,140 | $621,792 | 120 |
| NH | $506,010 | $485,777 | 210 |
| MI | $485,920 | $505,025 | 360 |
| NJ | $482,700 | $443,638 | Not published by BLS |
| WV | $471,650 | $527,001 | 360 |
| AZ | $470,640 | $467,475 | Not published by BLS |
| PA | $455,380 | $466,712 | 1,360 |
| NY | $441,580 | $409,170 | 2,010 |
| IN | $430,640 | $461,421 | 680 |
| MA | $426,560 | $403,340 | Not published by BLS |
| FL | $417,690 | $403,901 | 1,680 |

24 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 39 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/radiologist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/radiologist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 28,200 in the 2024–2034 base year to 29,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 800 jobs, or +2.7%. About as fast as average: 2.7% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 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:** 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 | 57.9% |
| Doctoral Degree | 28.0% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 11.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 3.0% |

## What the work involves

- Obtain patients' histories from electronic records, patient interviews, dictated reports, or by communicating with referring clinicians.
- Confer with medical professionals regarding image-based diagnoses.
- Participate in continuing education activities to maintain and develop expertise.
- Review or transmit images and information using picture archiving or communications systems.
- Perform or interpret the outcomes of diagnostic imaging procedures including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computer tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), nuclear cardiology treadmill studies, mammography, or ultrasound.
- Communicate examination results or diagnostic information to referring physicians, patients, or families.
- Develop or monitor procedures to ensure adequate quality control of images.
- Instruct radiologic staff in desired techniques, positions, or projections.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.3 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
- Writing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 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.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- 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
- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.1 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 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- 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

## 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), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.62 |
| R — Realistic | 4.89 |
| C — Conventional | 4.47 |
| S — Social | 3.85 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.17 |
| A — Artistic | 1.37 |

### 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 | 79.8 |
| INTJ | 72.9 |
| ISTP | 72.4 |
| ISFJ | 65.9 |
| ESTJ | 61.0 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Cardiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cardiologist) — median $496,010
- [Pediatric Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatric-surgeon) — median $559,030
- [Orthopedic Surgeon, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthopedic-surgeon) — median $358,550
- [Radiologic Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/radiologic-technologist-and-technician) — median $80,110
- [Pathologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pathologist) — median $312,400
- [Radiation Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/radiation-therapist) — median $105,310
- [General Internal Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-internal-medicine-physician) — median $256,560
- [Emergency Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medicine-physician) — median $335,550
- [Urologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/urologist) — median $265,930
- [Neurologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/neurologist) — median $248,560

## 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/radiologist