Occupation / job
Survey Researchers
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
A midpoint of $69,460 against $50,020 means Survey Researchers pays $1,620 a month more than the typical American job. At that distance the entry requirement is the real subject, because it is what the premium is buying.
Employment as Survey Researchers is 8,290 nationally. At that size a large city holds a working market and a small one holds almost none, so where you live changes the number of employers available to you by an order of magnitude.
Social science suits people who can study human behaviour without needing the answer to be flattering, and who can defend a method to people who dislike the conclusion.
We carry no verified training length for Survey Researchers — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
$48,490 separates the bottom quarter of Survey Researchers at $51,270 from the top quarter at $99,760. At a 1.9x ratio the midpoint is a weak guide to your own first year — find out which end you would be entering at.
The 25th percentile is $51,270, $1,250 above the $50,020 typical American job. A floor above the national midpoint is rare, and it is worth more than an equivalent amount of upside.
Avoid it if you would find it hard to publish a finding that a funder, a discipline or the public did not want.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 8,290 people employed as Survey Researchers; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
From $51,270 to $99,760 at a ratio of 1.9x is wide enough that two people with the same job title have materially different jobs. $69,460 sits in the middle of that and describes neither of them especially well.
In cash terms the middle half of Survey Researchers runs $51,270 to $99,760 — $48,490 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $69,460.
The 75th percentile is $99,760. Reaching it from the $69,460 midpoint is $30,300 a year; reaching it from the $51,270 that the bottom quarter of Survey Researchers earn is $48,490.
The distance from the midpoint up to $99,760 is $30,300 — well over the $18,190 down to $51,270. Distributions leaning this way mean the median understates what the upper half of Survey Researchers earns, and half the field is in that upper half.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $33.39 at the midpoint for Survey Researchers, $24.64 at the 25th percentile and $47.96 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $69,460 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
The hourly number on this page is $69,460 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Survey Researchers, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else