How to Become a Statistician: Job Description and Salary Information

Who Is a Statistician?

A statistician is a professional who uses applied statistics to solve real-world business problems. They collect accurate data, process the raw data, and analyze data sets with specialized software to help in critical business decision-making. Statisticians are highly sought after as employees across various industries, including business, health and medicine, government, physical sciences, and environmental sciences. 

This career path is multiplying because of the proliferation of data collection from increasing sources in all industries. As data availability increases, organizations are looking to hire more statisticians to interpret the data's meaning. 

How to Become a Statistician?

To become a statistician, candidates must have:

• A bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in an applicable subject like statistics, mathematics, computer science, economics
• Relevant experience. Many hiring organizations prefer a candidate with some hands-on experience. 
• Professional certifications to prove your skills

The Required Skills for a Statistician

Statisticians must possess a unique combination of technical, analytical, and leadership skills. Significant statistician skills to develop are predictive modeling, data mining, probability factors to predict outcomes, and parametric estimation. To succeed in the field, you must build a sound understanding of various other estimation methods and apply your statistical knowledge to multiple applications.

Key Technical skills that statisticians should possess are:

• Strong mathematical abilities, including linear algebra, calculus, probability
• Expertise in applied and theoretical statistics
• Excellent computer skills
• Machine learning skills
• Proficiency in R, C, C++, and Python, etc.
• Knowledge of cloud computing, data mining, visualization, and cleaning

Soft statistician skills include:

• Ability to communicate findings to others with a non-statistical background
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Industry knowledge
• Ability to work in a team 
• Collaborative skills
• Leadership skills
• Decent speaking and writing skills
• Critical thinking skills

Education for Statisticians: What You Need to Study?

Educational qualifications for aspiring statisticians include a bachelor’s or master’s degree from a recognized university with a good foundation in mathematics, statistics, computer science, economics, econometrics, or material sciences.  

However, candidates must exhibit proficiency in statistical analysis and other subject domains like economics, econometrics, computer science, material science, or biology to enjoy a distinct competitive advantage while seeking top statistician jobs. 

Statistician Roles and Responsibilities

A statistician's specific roles and responsibilities depend on and vary according to the industry and organization they work in. Statistician roles in the private sector involve interpreting data in ways that can impact organizational and business strategies, for example, by understanding changes in consumer behavior and market trends. In the public sector, on the other hand, statisticians often collect and analyze environmental, demographic, and health data, focusing on furthering benefits to the public. 

Irrespective of the sector they are working in, statisticians are required to perform some everyday tasks regularly, including:

• Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data
• Identifying trends and inter-relations in data
• Designing data collection tools
• Communicating findings to stakeholders
• Shaping organizational and business strategy
• Helping in decision making

Career Path: Professions Similar to Statisticians

Are you someone who enjoys working with data and possesses most statistician skills but doesn’t want to become a statistician? Well, there are alternative career paths that you can choose, which will still allow you to utilize your skills and passions. The two most popular career paths similar to statisticians include becoming a Data Analyst or a Data Scientist. The earning potential for all these roles is promising. 

 Let us delve deep into a comparison between the different career roles:

Statistics vs. Data Analytics

Like statisticians, Data Analysts extract data to summarize and communicate data-driven insights that help to make better-informed business decisions. Nearly all industries need skilled data analysts, but the ones with the highest demand for this role are sales, marketing, healthcare, and the various sciences. 

Significant differences between the Data Analyst and Statistician jobs are:

• Statisticians focus on data's mathematical and computational aspects, while data analysts focus on cleaning, formatting, and integrating data to extract information from it. 
• Statisticians must be able to solve complex mathematical equations, while analysts must be proficient in using complex software to extract meaningful insights from data.
• While statistics lets you use test data to infer what is beyond it, analytics help form hypotheses by quickly exploring messy datasets. 

Statistics vs. Data Science

The fields of data science and statistics are pretty similar; hence, a role in data science can be an alternative to a career in statistics. Both focus on data extraction to analyze and solve real-world problems. Still, while statisticians use mathematical analysis to do that, data scientists take a multi-disciplinary approach, focusing more on computational techniques to make decisions. Since data scientists use statistical analysis, professionals with a background in statistics can pursue a career in data science.   

• Data Scientists design processes for data modeling; so, they are more focused on machine learning and computer science than statisticians. 
• Data scientists are involved in designing data systems, while statisticians focus on mathematical equations and models that they need for analysis. 
• Advanced coding skills are essential for a data scientist job. 

Industry for Statistician

Statisticians are in high demand in today’s global job market as organizations have realized the value of data-driven decision-making. Statisticians are required to help design and manufacture products, deliver services for customer satisfaction, product quality control and quality assurance, sales data analyzing, software design and development, drug development, disease prevention, develop statistical models for education, government regulations, survey methods, etc.

Statistics professionals can find employment in sectors like: 

• Business and Industry – Manufacturing, Marketing, Engineering, Statistical Computing
• Health and Medicine - Public Health, Pharmacology, Genetics, Epidemiology
• Learning – Education, Science Writing and Journalism
• Research – Government and Survey Methods
• Social Sciences – Consulting and Law
• Natural Resources – Agriculture, Ecology

Statistician Salary (US, India, and UK)

The national average Statistician salary in the US is $97626 per year. According to Glassdoor, the highest annual Statistician salary in the United States is $130,702. 

In India, the national average Statistician salary is ₹4,47,205 per year. The highest annual Statistician salary in India can draw is ₹19,01,642. 

The average Statistician salary in London, United Kingdom, is £39,376 per year. The highest annual salary for a statistician in the United Kingdom is £62,219. 

Choose the Right Program

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Program Name	DS Master's	Post Graduate Program In Data Science	Post Graduate Program In Data Science
Geo	All Geos	All Geos	IN/ROW
University	Simplilearn	Purdue	Caltech
Course Duration	11 Months	11 Months	11 Months
Coding Experience Required	Basic	Basic	No
Skills You Will Learn	10+ skills including data structure, data manipulation, NumPy, Scikit-Learn, Tableau and more	8+ skills including Exploratory Data Analysis, Descriptive Statistics, Inferential Statistics, and more	8+ skills including Supervised & Unsupervised Learning Deep Learning Data Visualization, and more
Additional Benefits	Applied Learning via Capstone and 25+ Data Science Projects	Purdue Alumni Association Membership Free IIMJobs Pro-Membership of 6 months Resume Building Assistance	Upto 14 CEU Credits Caltech CTME Circle Membership
Cost	$$	$$$$	$$$$
	Explore Program	Explore Program	Explore Program

Pros of Becoming a Statistician

Some of the best things about being a statistician are:

• Statistician salary is one of the highest in the field
• Can work indoors, with almost no fieldwork  
• Can develop excellent analytical skills
• Great job security
• Technical advancement can result in increased efficiency
• Can translate boring numbers into interesting stories
• Decent future job prospects
• Low-stress job
• Varied areas of focus, hence more scope
• Can afford paid holidays, health insurance, and retirement contributions
• Can work for multiple organizations

Final Thoughts

If you’re considering how to become a statistician, you must choose the certification that will best prepare you with top statistician skills. Consider Simplilearn’s Data Science Bootcamp for a successful statistics or data analytics career. On the other hand, if you want to pursue a data science career, consider getting hands-on learning and skills with Data Mining and Statistics program or our top machine learning tutorial.