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Biostatisticians: Job Description

Develop and apply biostatistical theory and methods to the study of life sciences.

What Do Biostatisticians Do?

The day-to-day responsibilities of biostatisticians include:

• Draw conclusions or make predictions, based on data summaries or statistical analyses.
• Analyze clinical or survey data, using statistical approaches such as longitudinal analysis, mixed-effect modeling, logistic regression analyses, and model-building techniques.
• Write detailed analysis plans and descriptions of analyses and findings for research protocols or reports.
• Calculate sample size requirements for clinical studies.
• Read current literature, attend meetings or conferences, and talk with colleagues to keep abreast of methodological or conceptual developments in fields such as biostatistics, pharmacology, life sciences, and social sciences.
• Design research studies in collaboration with physicians, life scientists, or other professionals.
• Prepare tables and graphs to present clinical data or results.
• Write program code to analyze data with statistical analysis software.

Skills and Knowledge

Effective biostatisticians combine a mix of skills and domain knowledge.### Top Skills

These are the skills most important for this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:

Top Knowledge Areas

Types of Biostatisticians Jobs

Common job titles for this role include:

• Bioinformatics Scientist
• Biomathematician
• Biometrician
• Biostatistical Consultant
• Biostatistician
• Clinical Biostatistician
• NGS Biostatistician (Next-Generation Sequencing)
• Postdoctoral Fellow

How Many Biostatisticians Are There?

There are roughly 71,672 biostatisticians working in the United States today. Demand is forecast to grow by +7.4% over the projection horizon.

Salary for Biostatisticians

Statistic	Value
Annual median	$121,594
Hourly median	$58.46
10th percentile	$82,986
25th percentile	$102,290
75th percentile	$140,899
90th percentile	$160,203

Compensation varies based on experience, location, and industry.

Biostatisticians Salary by State

State	Annual median salary
New York	$150,240
District of Columbia	$133,680
Maryland	$128,940
New Hampshire	$127,870
California	$127,550
Delaware	$126,640
North Carolina	$122,630
Illinois	$116,860
Indiana	$113,030
Georgia	$108,280
Texas	$104,380
Florida	$104,160
Kentucky	$103,400
Virginia	$101,900
Washington	$101,890
New Jersey	$99,510
Massachusetts	$99,230
Colorado	$97,310
Michigan	$96,780
Connecticut	$95,680
Oregon	$93,620
Kansas	$93,330
Rhode Island	$91,680
Arizona	$91,320
Wisconsin	$88,910
Tennessee	$88,760
Utah	$88,060
New Mexico	$86,310
Iowa	$86,160
Ohio	$84,130
Alaska	$83,780
Pennsylvania	$83,660
Nebraska	$82,770
Oklahoma	$81,180
West Virginia	$80,580
Minnesota	$80,140
Montana	$79,100
North Dakota	$78,800
Hawaii	$76,810
Vermont	$73,320
Louisiana	$72,550
Nevada	$71,250
Alabama	$67,490
Maine	$66,620
South Carolina	$65,850
Missouri	$64,460
Mississippi	$59,980
Puerto Rico	$48,210

Top-Paying U.S. Regions

Pay for biostatisticians vary by region. These regions lead on median pay:

Region	Median annual wage	Share of U.S. jobs	Location quotient
Middle Atlantic	$118,823	27.5%	3.28
Far Western US	$111,951	21.1%	2.05
Southeast	$101,801	17.2%	0.98
Great Lakes	$100,519	6.6%	0.49
Southwest	$98,220	6.8%	0.78
New England	$97,242	8.9%	2.42
Rocky Mountains	$96,371	3.3%	1.59
Plains States	$77,337	7.2%	1.31

Where the Jobs Cluster

Metro area	State	Median annual wage	Employment
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	CA	$177,740	420
Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY	NY	$164,290
Ames, IA	IA	$150,000	30
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	CA	$149,400	830
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	NY	$140,610	1,260
Boulder, CO	CO	$136,670	100
Raleigh-Cary, NC	NC	$136,340	330
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	DC	$133,240	3,490

Which Industries Hire Biostatisticians

Most biostatisticians are concentrated in the following sectors:

Industry	Employment	Median annual wage
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services	9,920	$106,470
Educational Services	3,790	$81,810
Health Care and Social Assistance	2,530	$99,540
Management of Companies and Enterprises	1,430	$117,400
Finance and Insurance	1,270	$100,720
Information	750	$99,380
Manufacturing	730	$140,490
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services	580	$104,000

Tech Stack

• Operating system software: Bash (hot technology)
• Object or component oriented development software: C# (hot technology)
• Object or component oriented development software: C++ (hot technology)
• Enterprise application integration software: Extensible markup language XML (hot technology)
• File versioning software: Git (hot technology)
• Analytical or scientific software: IBM SPSS Statistics (hot technology)
• Web platform development software: JavaScript (hot technology)
• Operating system software: Linux (hot technology)
• Data base user interface and query software: Microsoft Access (hot technology)
• Spreadsheet software: Microsoft Excel (hot technology)
• Office suite software: Microsoft Office software (hot technology)
• Presentation software: Microsoft PowerPoint (hot technology)

The Day-to-Day Environment

Daily working conditions for biostatisticians is shaped by the following characteristics:

• E-Mail
• Spend Time Sitting
• Work With or Contribute to a Work Group or Team
• Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
• Freedom to Make Decisions

How to Become Biostatisticians

Entry-level biostatisticians positions require a doctoral or professional degree as the typical entry-level education. The role falls in Extensive Preparation Needed (Job Zone 5), signaling the level of preparation typically expected.

Other Careers to Consider

Similar Occupations

• Natural Sciences Managers (Supplemental)
• Clinical Research Coordinators (Primary-Long)
• Financial Quantitative Analysts (Supplemental)
• Health Informatics Specialists (Supplemental)
• Mathematicians (Primary-Long)
• Operations Research Analysts (Supplemental)
• Statisticians (Primary-Short)
• Data Scientists (Primary-Short)

About the Data

This profile draws on the following authoritative sources:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for employment and wage data by state and industry.
• BLS Employment Projections for total employment and growth forecasts.
• O*NET (Occupational Information Network) for skills, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, technology, and education-zone data.

SOC code: 15-2041.01 (Statisticians).