---
title: "Veterinarian"
description: "Diagnose, treat, or research diseases and injuries of animals. Includes veterinarians who conduct research and development, inspect livestock, or care…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/veterinarian"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Veterinarian

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1131 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1131.00

Diagnose, treat, or research diseases and injuries of animals. Includes veterinarians who conduct research and development, inspect livestock, or care for pets and companion animals.

Also advertised as: Companion Animal Practitioner; Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM); Emergency Veterinarian (Emergency Vet); Large Animal Veterinarian (Large Animal Vet); Mixed Animal Veterinarian (Mixed Animal Vet); Small Animal Veterinarian (Small Animal Vet); Veterinary Medicine Doctor (DVM); Veterinary Surgeon (Vet Surgeon).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $130,100 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $62.55/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $73,920 to $215,700, with the middle half between $101,460 and $166,120
- **Total US employment:** 83,900
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +9.6% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 3,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 48/100 — 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 83,900 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $73,920 |
| 25th | $101,460 |
| 50th (median) | $130,100 |
| 75th | $166,120 |
| 90th | $215,700 |
| Mean (average) | $142,680 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $163,920 | $148,049 | 9,170 |
| MD | $163,170 | $155,461 | 1,430 |
| WA | $160,510 | $149,991 | 2,390 |
| NJ | $160,140 | $147,181 | 1,910 |
| AZ | $152,020 | $150,998 | 2,080 |
| MA | $140,260 | $132,625 | 1,920 |
| DC | $134,530 | $122,410 | 190 |
| IL | $133,580 | $133,636 | 2,330 |
| PA | $133,520 | $136,843 | 3,490 |
| MN | $133,110 | $134,971 | 2,140 |
| NY | $131,830 | $122,154 | 3,390 |
| VT | $131,820 | $134,568 | 280 |
| FL | $131,660 | $127,314 | 5,360 |
| TX | $131,330 | $135,312 | 6,270 |
| CO | $130,840 | $126,965 | 2,340 |

35 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 50 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/veterinarian/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/veterinarian.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 86,400 in the 2024–2034 base year to 94,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 8,300 jobs, or +9.6%. Much faster than average: 9.6% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 3,000 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:** 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 | 79.2% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 11.7% |
| First Professional Degree | 9.1% |

## What the work involves

- Treat sick or injured animals by prescribing medication, setting bones, dressing wounds, or performing surgery.
- Examine animals to detect and determine the nature of diseases or injuries.
- Collect body tissue, feces, blood, urine, or other body fluids for examination and analysis.
- Educate the public about diseases that can be spread from animals to humans.
- Euthanize animals.
- Attend lectures, conferences, or continuing education courses.
- Inoculate animals against various diseases, such as rabies or distemper.
- Operate diagnostic equipment, such as radiographic or ultrasound equipment, and interpret the resulting images.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 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 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
- Service Orientation — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Biology — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written 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
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive 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 Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.98 |
| I — Investigative | 5.98 |
| C — Conventional | 3.47 |
| S — Social | 3.45 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.70 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### 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 | 81.0 |
| ISTP | 78.3 |
| INTJ | 72.2 |
| ISFJ | 64.2 |
| INTP | 60.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISTP.

## Related occupations

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

- [Veterinary Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/veterinary-technician) — median $47,380
- [Veterinary Assistant and Laboratory Animal Caretaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/veterinary-assistant-and-laboratory-animal-caretaker) — median $38,150
- [Allergist and Immunologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/allergist-and-immunologist) — median $265,930
- [Pathologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pathologist) — median $312,400
- [Emergency Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medicine-physician) — median $335,550
- [Dermatologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dermatologist) — median $328,730
- [General Internal Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-internal-medicine-physician) — median $256,560
- [Urologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/urologist) — median $265,930
- [Pediatrician, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatrician-general) — median $210,040
- [Preventive Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/preventive-medicine-physician) — median $265,930

## 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/veterinarian