---
title: "Sociologist"
description: "Study human society and social behavior by examining the groups and social institutions that people form, as well as various social, religious…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/sociologist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Sociologist

**Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-3041 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-3041.00

Study human society and social behavior by examining the groups and social institutions that people form, as well as various social, religious, political, and business organizations. May study the behavior and interaction of groups, trace their origin and growth, and analyze the influence of group activities on individual members.

Also advertised as: Demographer; Evaluation Specialist; Medical Sociologist; Policy Analyst; Research Associate; Research Coordinator; Research Scientist; Research Specialist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $106,030 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $50.98/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $65,160 to $172,550, with the middle half between $82,300 and $137,420
- **Total US employment:** 2,260
- **Typical entry education:** Master's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.8% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 18/100 — 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 2,260 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $65,160 |
| 25th | $82,300 |
| 50th (median) | $106,030 |
| 75th | $137,420 |
| 90th | $172,550 |
| Mean (average) | $114,920 |

### Pay by state

The 11 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IL | $140,770 | $140,829 | Not published by BLS |
| KY | $136,870 | $151,810 | 30 |
| NC | $126,760 | $134,385 | 170 |
| CA | $125,770 | $113,593 | 590 |
| AK | $108,170 | $105,677 | 40 |
| MA | $106,530 | $100,731 | 250 |
| MD | $100,660 | $95,904 | 50 |
| WA | $97,170 | $90,802 | 130 |
| MI | $88,040 | $91,502 | 90 |
| OH | $78,850 | $84,991 | 130 |
| FL | $46,950 | $45,400 | 160 |

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 2,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 2,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 100 jobs, or +3.8%. About as fast as average: 3.8% 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:** Master's 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:** None.

### 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 | 50.0% |
| Master's Degree | 30.0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 10.0% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 10.0% |

## What the work involves

- Analyze and interpret data to increase the understanding of human social behavior.
- Prepare publications and reports containing research findings.
- Develop, implement, and evaluate methods of data collection, such as questionnaires or interviews.
- Teach sociology.
- Plan and conduct research to develop and test theories about societal issues such as crime, group relations, poverty, and aging.
- Present research findings at professional meetings.
- Explain sociological research to the general public.
- Develop problem intervention procedures, using techniques such as interviews, consultations, role playing, and participant observation of group interactions.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — 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
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — 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
- Instructing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 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
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Sociology and Anthropology — importance 5.0 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 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- History and Archeology — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — 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
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — 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), Social (S), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.50 |
| S — Social | 4.36 |
| A — Artistic | 3.99 |
| C — Conventional | 3.60 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.08 |
| R — Realistic | 1.56 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| INFP | 71.9 |
| INFJ | 71.4 |
| INTP | 71.3 |
| INTJ | 67.3 |
| ENTP | 65.7 |

Best-fitting types: INFP, INFJ, INTP, INTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Sociology Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sociology-teacher-postsecondary) — median $84,290
- [Anthropologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anthropologist) — median $70,770
- [Political Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/political-scientist) — median $142,080
- [Social Work Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-work-teacher-postsecondary) — median $77,570
- [Survey Researcher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/survey-researcher) — median $69,460
- [Political Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/political-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $98,070
- [Social Science Research Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-science-research-assistant) — median $61,990
- [Data Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-scientist) — median $120,230
- [Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/area-ethnic-and-cultural-studies-teacher-postsecondary) — median $85,020
- [Psychology Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/psychology-teacher-postsecondary) — median $80,340

## 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

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