Career comparison
Actuary vs. Data Scientist
Side-by-side pay, training, growth and day-to-day duties to help you choose between two related careers.
Actuaries earn more at the median ($130,000 vs. $120,230), while data scientists usually get to work faster (4–6 years of training). Actuaries use math and statistics to measure risk and price insurance. Data scientists turn data into insights and predictions that guide decisions.
Pay data: BLS OEWS, May 2025 · Outlook: BLS 2025–35 · Checked October 15, 2026
| Actuary | Data Scientist | |
|---|---|---|
| Median pay | $130,000 ($62.50/hr) | $120,230 ($57.80/hr) |
| Pay range (10th–90th) | $78,570 – $215,100 | $67,240 – $199,130 |
| Job growth, 2025–35 | +9.2% (much faster than average) | +34.6% (much faster than average) |
| Openings per year | 1,500 | 24,800 |
| Typical entry education | Bachelor's degree | Bachelor's degree |
| Training time | Several years of exams while working | 4–6 years |
| Key credential | ASA or FSA | Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate |
| Work setting | Actuaries work in offices, and many work remotely.. | Data scientists work in offices or remotely at computers, collaborating with engineers, analysts and business teams.. |
What each job does
Actuary
- Analyze risk data
- Price insurance products
- Set reserves
- Value pension plans
- Build models
Data Scientist
- Gather and clean data from many sources
- Explore data with statistics and visualizations
- Build predictive and machine learning models
- Design and analyze experiments
- Deploy and monitor models
How they’re similar
Both careers involve working with information, high-pay, in-demand, and remote-friendly work. They sit in different fields, business & office and technology, but share transferable skills such as persistence and curiosity.
Which should you choose?
Choose actuary if…
- I love math
- I’m persistent
- I like predicting outcomes
Choose data scientist if…
- I love working with numbers and data
- I enjoy statistics and coding
- I like finding patterns
Still torn? Take the Actuary fit quiz and the Data Scientist fit quiz, or the full Career Match Quiz.
Quick comparisons
Which pays more, actuary or data scientist?
Actuaries earn more at the median: $130,000 versus $120,230 for data scientists, based on BLS May 2025 data.
Which takes less time to train for?
Data Scientists typically train faster (4–6 years) than actuaries (Several years of exams while working).
Which career has better job growth?
BLS projects data scientists to grow +34.6% from 2025–35, compared with +9.2% for actuaries.