2017 Data Science Salary Survey

Chapter 3. Salary

THE DISTRIBUTION OF SALARIES SKEWS TO THE RIGHT; that is, compared to a symmetric distribution, there are more people making extreme amounts on the high end of the scale. To compensate for that skew, we use median income as the best overall salary measure. For the 2017 survey, we find a median of $90,000, which is up $5,000 compared to last year’s median income of $85,000.

By World Region

It is no surprise that the US has the highest median salaries of any region, coming in at $112,000 (up 6.7% over last year), with 57% of respondents. That salary is nearly double that of the Western European average of $57,000. This phenomenon might be due to several factors; for instance, the value of the UK pound has nosedived compared to the dollar this year, the value of the Euro has also declined, and some respondents might report their salary in local currency rather than converting to US dollars.

Australia and New Zealand have a healthy data culture; the two countries are second highest in pay, with a $100,000 median salary. Eastern Europe shows the lowest median salary, $27,000, but only 5.8% respondents.

Note

Australia and New Zealand have a healthy data culture; the two countries are second highest in pay, with a $100,000 median salary

By State

When we break down the US respondents by regions, we see California with the highest median salary, $134,000, and the ...