How to Become a Statistician in 2021

Statisticians apply statistical theories and methods to collect, analyze and interpret quantitative data. They may work for companies involved in market research and public opinion, for industries concerned with areas such as quality control and product development, and for local, state and federal governments. Theoretical statisticians usually find themselves in research and academia.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Statistician

Depending on their level of experience, statisticians may be asked to:

• Tackle data-related challenges assigned by management
• Decide upon an appropriate strategy to collect data
• Extract data from existing sources or instigate new procedures (e.g. customer surveys, science experiments, opinion polls)
• Analyze and interpret data using statistical tools, algorithms, models and software
• Design new statistical models and data collection tools if needed
• Identify patterns, trends and relationships within data
• Present statistical reports and data visualizations for diverse audiences
• Provide strategic recommendations/predictions and highlight any data limitations
• Develop and maintain statistical tools, databases and programs
• Regularly monitor data quality
• Work closely with key team members and subject experts (e.g. computer engineers, scientists, IT support)

Responsibilities are typically dictated by job titles. Low-level statistical analysts are usually tasked with standard data analyses and supervised by higher-ups. Experienced applied statisticians may be able to propose projects to management, develop new products and processes, oversee statistical teams and work on their own research.

Here are five steps you may want to consider if you’re interested in pursuing a career as a statistician:

1. Earn a bachelor’s degree in a quantitative field such as mathematics, economics or computer science. 
2. Take courses in linear algebra, calculus, statistics, probability and survey. methodology. Take related courses in an industry of interest such as  manufacturing or healthcare.
3. Take computer programming classes to get familiar with data analysis software.
4. Get your first entry-level statistician job.
5. Earn a master’s degree.

What Kind of Person Makes the Best Statistician?

To be the most effective in their job, a statistician may be required to complete tasks including:

• Identifying the relevance and representativeness of data
• Determining whether the underlying model assumptions are valid for the data at hand
• Preparing data for processing by adjusting and weighting the raw data, organizing information and checking for inaccuracies
• Interpreting and communicating the results of a statistical analysis so non-statisticians can understand the findings

“The best statisticians don’t just throw their data into a black box (e.g., neural network) and rely on machine learning algorithms to do their work for them. Instead, they develop an understanding and intuition for the data they’re analyzing. The best statisticians are also great communicators. They can talk to their clients and collaborators through all the stages of an experiment or study. Those people may not be as well-versed in statistics but are usually experts in the subject matter, so it is crucial to work with them in unison. The best statisticians poke and prod at assumptions and aren’t afraid of being wrong. To see what I mean, play around with this interactive puzzle from The New York Times.”

— Mikhail Popov a data analyst at the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), home of Wikipedia

What Are the Top Pros and Cons of Being a Statistician?

Popov shared these insights about his profession:

Pros

As a statistician, you will likely be asked to provide your expertise to teams working in a wide variety of fields and sub-fields, so you will get to become a mini-expert in each problem you’re involved in. You engage the creative, analytical and social parts of your brain simultaneously on a daily basis. You translate boring numbers into interesting stories. You quantify uncertainty, and when you find patterns and relationships, you are able to say, “This is real, this isn’t just random noise.” Human beings are super good at seeing patterns where there are none, and your role is to guard leaders and decision-makers against that.

Cons

Nobody knows what exactly you do (not their fault). The most popular response you’ll hear is “Ugh, I hated the stats course I had to take in college.” Your peers in computer science are constantly inventing methods that have already been invented and published by your fellow statisticians 50 years ago.

What Is a Statistician?

Statisticians use theories and tactics like statistical modeling and data manipulation to solve problems. They often work alongside other industries from manufacturing to healthcare to agriculture to assist with research and product development. Many statisticians also work in the fields of research and academia. 

What Does a Statistician Do?

Statisticians design experiments, surveys and questionnaires to collect data. They can conduct surveys on the phone, through mailings, online or in person. They may use a random sampling method or poll entire populations of people. Once data is collected, statisticians analyze the results using software. They look for trends within their data sets. Software helps crunch large data sets and may even help find relationships or patterns. Some statisticians work on the development of new software to make crunching data easier. Once they’ve analyzed data, statisticians present their findings, accounting for anomalies or misleading data. Presentations can be written, charts, verbal or visual such as tables. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics offers more information about what a statistician does. 

Skills Needed to Become a Statistician

What Kind of Degree Will I Need?

At minimum, data/statistical analysts will need a bachelor’s degree in statistics, applied math, computer science or a related field. Since you will be working with complex statistical software programs, a healthy balance between hard-core math and IT courses is recommended.

Plan for a graduate degree. Companies looking for statisticians typically prefer applicants to hold a master’s degree in applied statistics or math and have a strong background in their chosen industry (e.g. finance, biochemistry, computer engineering). Conveniently, we profile Master’s in Applied Statistics Programs.

What Kind of Skills Will I Need?

Technical Skills

Some common technical skill include:

• Statistics (e.g. hypothesis testing and summary statistics)
• Math (e.g. linear algebra, calculus and probability)
• Machine learning tools and techniques
• Software engineering skills (e.g. distributed computing, algorithms and data structures)
• Data mining
• Data cleaning and munging
• Data visualization and reporting techniques
• Unstructured data techniques
• R and/or SAS languages
• SQL databases and database querying languages
• Python (most common), C/C++ Java, Perl
• Big data platforms like Hadoop, Hive & Pig
• Cloud tools like Amazon S3

You’ll notice that we’ve echoed the list from our Data Scientist profile. Advanced programming skills may help prepare you for “hybrid” stats/data science jobs now appearing on employment sites.

Business Skills

Some common business skills include:

• Analytical Problem-Solving: Identifying complex challenges, employing the right mathematical approach/methods to make the maximum use of time and human resources.
• Logic and Reasoning: Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of data and statistical methods, understanding the implications of new developments in technology and data mining.
• Effective Communication: Explaining your mathematical techniques and discoveries to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Industry Knowledge: Understanding the way your chosen industry functions and how data are collected, analyzed and utilized.

What About Certifications?

Professional certifications may be good additions to your résumé. Ask your mentors for advice and check job listing requirements to determine which acronyms employers will recognize and respect.

Accredited Professional Statistician (PStat®)

The American Statistical Association (ASA) has two levels of accreditation. Candidates should attain the entry-level Graduate Statistician (GStat) certification before applying for the full PStat® accreditation.

PStat® certification is based on a professional portfolio, not an exam. Applicants must provide proof of educational credentials (typically a graduate degree in statistics or a related quantitative field), work experience and their commitment to professional development. Work samples and supporting letters from references are also required.

SAS Certified Statistical Business Analyst Using SAS 9

Run by SAS, this accreditation is explicitly aimed at professionals who use SAS/STAT software to conduct and interpret complex statistical data analyses (i.e. statisticians). In the certification exam, candidates must prove their knowledge of areas like ANOVA, regression, predictive modeling and logistic regression.

Note: For more useful big data qualifications, check out the certifications section in our Data Scientist profile.

Which Skills or Programming Languages Do Statisticians Most Frequently Use in Their Work and Why?

“The primary language/environment I work in is R. We’re also huge fans of RStudio’s Shiny (a web application framework for R) and use it for our dashboards to give the teams easy access to daily metrics and KPIs. My enthusiasm for R is no secret as I am a co-host and producer of the R Talk podcast. A lot of my work at NRP and a good chunk of my work at WMF also requires me to write file/text processing pipelines, so scripting is key to my work. ”

“Data visualization is a tremendously useful skill to learn and maintain. The best plot tells a story and guides the viewer/reader to a conclusion that otherwise takes at least one paragraph to reach with text. And I want to emphasize how important it is to be able to interpret results to non-statisticians. Telling a biologist what the hazard ratio is from your survival analysis is useless if you don’t interpret it. … raw parameter estimates are useless without an accessible narrative (and an accompanying data visualization).”

— Mikhail Popov a data analyst at the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), home of Wikipedia

Jobs Similar to Statistician

Statistician vs. Data Scientist vs. Data Analyst

You may find crossover between job descriptions for statistical analysts and data analysts, statisticians and data scientists. Is data science just statistics on another level? This is a subject of some debate. While all of these fields deal with data, there are some subtle nuances as to how. 

Data Scientists

Data scientists think outside the structured box. They create their own questions/projects and use a wide range of tools — only some of which are statistical — in order to establish unique connections between big data. Accounting for the surge of technology, those who wish to call themselves data scientists may now have formidable software engineering, machine learning and predictive analytics skills. A Master’s in Data Science program covers all of the basics one would need to launch a career as a data scientist.

Statisticians

Using theories and methods, statisticians collect, analyze and report on large sets of data. A statistician deals with more theoretical aspects of data including mathematics and statistical modelling.

Data Analysts

Data analysts are primarily concerned with set tasks from analyzing migration patterns to calculating average conversation times for call center agents. They are given parameters and do their best to collect and analyze information from conventional sources. With the rise of relational database systems like SQL, data analysts have more control over data sets and large quantities of data.

Statistician Job Outlook

The future looks good for statisticians. The BLS is forecasting employment to grow 35% from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations. Businesses, financial firms, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and research groups need qualified statistical experts to make sense of the big data tsunami.

2021 Statistician Median Salaries

While 2020 data has not yet been released, according to the BLS, the median pay for statisticians was $91,160 in May 2019. There is quite a range for this career, with the lowest 10% earning less than $52,690 and the highest 10% earning $146,770. Median salaries for statisticians will vary by level of education, experience, location and industry.

Professional Organizations for Statisticians

• American Statistical Association (ASA)
• Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
• International Statistical Institute (ISI)
• Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD)

Other Related Careers

Similar career options to statisticians include data scientist, data analyst and web developer. These industries are generally data-heavy and require a knowledge of STEM concepts. If you’re interested in getting started in one of these careers, consider taking an online course to boost your skills.

Last updated: February 2021