Actuaries
Analyze statistical data, such as mortality, accident, sickness, disability, and retirement rates and construct probability tables to forecast risk and liability for payment of future benefits. May ascertain insurance rates required and cash reserves necessary to ensure payment of future benefits.
- Median pay
- $130,000
- Doing it now
- 31,200
- By 2035
- Up 9.2%
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
a year
across the country
1,500 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Ascertain premium rates required and cash reserves and liabilities necessary to ensure payment of future benefits.
- Analyze statistical information to estimate mortality, accident, sickness, disability, and retirement rates.
- Design, review, and help administer insurance, annuity and pension plans, determining financial soundness and calculating premiums.
- Collaborate with programmers, underwriters, accounts, claims experts, and senior management to help companies develop plans for new lines of business or improvements to existing business.
- Determine, or help determine, company policy, and explain complex technical matters to company executives, government officials, shareholders, policyholders, or the public.
- Testify before public agencies on proposed legislation affecting businesses.
- Provide advice to clients on a contract basis, working as a consultant.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Business Administration, Management and OperationsSee 1,587 colleges that teach it
- Management Sciences and Quantitative MethodsSee 365 colleges that teach it
- Applied MathematicsSee 313 colleges that teach it
- StatisticsSee 217 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Organised and precise
Analytical and curious
Leading and persuading
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $130,000 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.