Occupation / job
Radiologists
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
The $420,860 midpoint is $30,903 a month above the $50,020 typical American job, which puts Radiologists near the ceiling of published federal wage data. Everything at this level is gated, and the gate is usually years long.
26,770 people do this work nationally. That is the size at which Radiologists becomes a career rather than a post — enough employers in a normal city that leaving one of them is a decision rather than a crisis.
This work suits people prepared to spend years qualifying for a scope of practice they then hold for the rest of a career, with the accountability that comes attached to it.
We carry no verified training length for Radiologists — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
$289,210 between $216,800 and $506,010, a ratio of 2.3x. In a spread this wide the median is a fact about the population and not a forecast about you, and the two get confused constantly.
Even at the 25th percentile Radiologists pays $216,800, $166,780 clear of the $50,020 national midpoint. Almost the entire distribution sits above the typical American wage, which is rare and worth weighing against the entry cost.
Avoid it if the length and cost of the training would be unbearable if you changed your mind halfway.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 26,770 is a headcount of the employed, which is a numerator without a denominator — everyone who qualified and never got hired is missing from it, and we will not estimate them to complete a percentage.
What the spread tells you
A 2.3x ratio between $216,800 and $506,010 means this label covers several distinct jobs. Treat $420,860 as arithmetic about a mixed population rather than as a description of any of them.
In cash terms the middle half of Radiologists runs $216,800 to $506,010 — $289,210 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $420,860.
Getting to $506,010, the 75th percentile, is worth $85,150 a year more than the $420,860 midpoint and $289,210 more than the $216,800 a quarter of Radiologists settle for.
The midpoint sits high inside its own range: $204,060 above the $216,800 bottom quarter but only $85,150 below the $506,010 top quarter. Most of the distance in Radiologists is spent climbing out of the bottom, and once you are past the middle there is not much further to go.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $202.33 at the midpoint for Radiologists, $104.23 at the 25th percentile and $243.27 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
This is payroll data: it comes from employers, about people they employ. Anyone doing the work of Radiologists for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $420,860 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Radiologists, the hourly figure is $420,860 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else