Also called: Survey Researcher, Public Opinion Researcher
Designs and runs surveys to measure what voters think and how an election might go.
Pollsters write questions carefully so they don't bias answers, then reach voters by phone, text, and online. They weight results to represent the whole population and present findings to campaigns or news outlets. Famous polls get quoted on TV every night.
Firm owners and well-known pollsters earn far more.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor's in statistics or social science; many have a master's.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Statistics, Political Science, Sociology, Psychology, Mathematics.
Shrinking (about -1% over 10 years). BLS survey researchers 2024-34 (approx.).
Medium risk for 10 years. AI helps write questions and analyze results, and some test fake "synthetic" respondents; good sampling and trust stay human.
Classes: AP Statistics, AP U.S. Government, Psychology, AP Calculus.
Official data: O*NET occupation 19-3022.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.