The growth rate for epidemiologists is expected to be 30 percent between 2020 and 2030, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That's much faster than average. COVID-19 presented new opportunities for epidemiologists to contribute to a global community in crisis. From day one, these public health workers have been investigating the source, tracking the numbers, studying the disease and developing guidelines for action as described by the CDC.
Epidemiologists are responsible for finding alternatives to government shutdowns and identifying disparities in mortality rates. These tasks are on a long list of priorities outlined by The International Network for Epidemiology in Policy (INEP) that are essential to the health of the country and the world. Needless to say, it's an important job.
Which universities are producing the most epidemiologists in the U.S., and who are the top employers for this population?
Top Employers: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, American Cancer Society
High-Paying Skills: Preventative Healthcare, Infectious Disease, Clinical Study Design
Average Salary: $92,062
Top Employers: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Maryland Department of Commerce
High-Paying Skills: Health Economics, Health Policy, Infectious Disease
Average Salary: $97,510
Top Employers: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), State of Michigan, Henry Ford Health System
High-Paying Skills: Infectious Disease, Clinical Study Design, International Health
Average Salary: $92,109
Top Employers: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), State of Washington
High-Paying Skills: Infectious Disease, Public Health, Program Evaluation
Average Salary: $88,245
Top Employers: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, World Health Organization
High-Paying Skills: Infectious Disease, Clinical Study Design, Environmental Health
Average Salary: $89,399
Top Employers: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Cancer Institute
High-Paying Skills: Infectious Disease, Vaccinations, Program Evaluation
Average Salary: $102,959
Top Employers: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Maryland Department of Commerce
High-Paying Skills: Health Policy, Infectious Disease, Nongovernmental Organizations
Average Salary: $88,324
Top Employers: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Caltrans, San Francisco Department of Public Health
High-Paying Skills: Infectious Disease, Clinical Study Design, Molecular Biology
Average Salary: $96,127
Top Employers: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
High-Paying Skills: Medical Research, Cancer, Infectious Disease
Average Salary: $96,902
Top Employers: Harris County Public Health, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
High-Paying Skills: Infectious Disease, Clinical Research, Health Informatics
Average Salary: $83,072
Top Employers: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Houston Health Department, BCFS Health & Human Services
High-Paying Skills: Public Health, Public Speaking, Research
Average Salary: $78,005
To understand how we developed this list you first have to understand our data. To obtain a comprehensive picture of education and workforce outcomes, we collect, organize, classify and analyze demographic, education and employment data from hundreds of sources. Our data then undergoes a rigorous process of validation for quality and veracity to ensure reliable, high-quality information on over 130 million people, over 25 million companies and over 1 billion data points.
To discover the colleges and universities making the greatest impact in any given category, we leverage our technology to explore the desired set of variables to return a list of top schools in seconds. For this analysis, we used employment filters (job title: epidemiologist) to generate a list of universities producing the most epidemiologists in the U.S. Here's a summary of the total population:
Want to see where your institution ranks or to see how we developed these rankings in real time? Get a free consultation for student success, and we’ll show you a lifetime of graduate outcomes data in seconds.
Photo by CDC on Unsplash.