Highest-paying degrees and careers: what the official data shows

Which careers pay the most?

Across many countries, a similar group of careers appears near the top of official pay data. It includes doctors and dentists, lawyers, actuaries, senior managers, software developers, and scientists and economists in specialist roles.

These careers share a few features. Entry is limited by long training, licensing or rare skills. The work carries responsibility for people's health, large sums of money or important systems. And the skills are valuable to many employers, so people can move between organisations. An actuary, for example, needs strong mathematics and several years of professional exams, a physicist usually needs a PhD for research roles, and many economist jobs ask for a master's degree or higher.

Technology is a partial exception to the licensing pattern. Software development is open to anyone with the right skills, yet it pays well in many countries because demand for good developers comes from almost every sector of the economy.

The table below lists the careers on this site with the highest median pay in the United States, from official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. Pay in the United States is higher than in most countries, so use the table to compare careers with each other rather than to predict your own salary elsewhere.

Which degree subjects lead to the highest earnings?

Subjects that lead directly into well-paid professions, or that teach advanced quantitative skills, usually show the highest graduate earnings. Medicine and dentistry lead into licensed health careers. Economics, mathematics and computer science build skills that employers in finance, technology, consulting and government value highly. Engineering and some physical sciences also tend to do well.

Subject is only one factor. Graduate earnings are also shaped by the university attended, school results before entry, the region where graduates work, the sector they choose and whether they work full-time. A subject near the top of a ranking like this is not a guarantee, and one lower down is not a dead end.

Postgraduate study adds to earnings in some fields more than others. Specialist roles for economists, data scientists and physicists often ask for a master's degree or PhD, while in business and technology, experience usually counts for more than a second degree.

The table below shows the UK subjects with the highest median earnings five years after graduation, from the Department for Education's Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data, which links education records with tax records. The UK is used because it publishes detailed official data of this kind; some other countries publish similar figures from graduate surveys.

Which types of jobs pay most around the world?

To compare countries, statisticians group jobs using the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), maintained by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Its major groups range from managers and professionals to technicians, clerical and sales workers, skilled trades, machine operators and elementary occupations.

The professionals group includes doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers and software developers. Technicians and associate professionals include roles such as IT support technicians and paralegals, many of which can be entered with a diploma or vocational training rather than a degree.

In most countries, managers and professionals earn more than other groups, and most jobs that need a degree belong to these two groups. The size of the gap varies. In some countries, skilled technical and trade jobs pay close to professional salaries; in others, the difference is large.

The table below compares median earnings for the main ISCO occupation groups across several countries, using official ILO data.

Why does the same job pay differently in different countries?

A doctor, engineer or software developer can earn very different amounts depending on the country. When you compare countries, compare each job with the typical income in that country rather than comparing raw salaries. A career that is well paid compared with local incomes may be a better choice than one with a higher salary in a much more expensive place.

Several factors explain the differences:

• Average income: pay in every job tends to follow the general income level of the country.
• Cost of living: higher salaries in expensive cities are partly used up by rent and other costs.
• Employer: in many countries, doctors, teachers and engineers in the public sector are paid on national pay scales, while private-sector pay depends more on the market.
• Supply of graduates: where many people train in a field, starting pay can be lower.
• Taxes and benefits: take-home pay, pensions, health cover and holidays differ widely.
• Currency: exchange rates change, so comparisons in a single currency can mislead.

What are the trade-offs behind high pay?

High average pay usually comes with costs that are easy to overlook. This does not mean you should avoid well-paid careers, but you should choose them because the work suits you, as well as for the pay.

Before you choose a career for its salary, look at:

• Length of training: doctors typically study for five to six years, then spend several more years in supervised and specialist training.
• Competition: places in medicine and dentistry, and entry-level jobs in the best-paid law firms, are highly competitive in many countries.
• Exams while working: actuaries and accountants often take professional exams over several years while working full-time.
• Hours and stress: many top-paid roles involve long hours, night shifts or high-pressure deadlines.
• Mobility: licensed careers can be harder to move between countries, because each country sets its own rules.
• Pay spread: the typical salary is lower than the headline salaries in the media, and early-career pay can be modest.

Are there well-paid careers people overlook?

The best-known high earners, such as doctors and lawyers, attract large numbers of applicants. Some other well-paid careers are less familiar to school leavers but use similar skills. Pay for these careers varies by country and employer, so check official data for the place where you want to work.

Depending on your strengths, careers worth researching include:

• If you are strong in mathematics: actuary, statistician or data scientist.
• If you like science and engineering: chemical engineer, electrical engineer or geologist.
• If you like technology: cybersecurity specialist, network engineer or database administrator.
• If you are interested in construction and business: quantity surveyor or construction manager.

How to use pay data when choosing a degree

Pay data is a useful guide if you read it carefully. Each career page on this site includes official pay data where it is available, alongside the degrees and skills you need.

Keep these points in mind when you compare figures:

• Use official sources, such as national statistics offices, the ILO and government graduate outcome data, rather than job adverts or social media.
• Look at medians, which show the middle earner, rather than averages that a few very high earners can pull up.
• Compare early-career and mid-career earnings, because some fields start slowly and grow later.
• Look at the whole career: the highest pay in most professions comes after many years of experience, not in the first job.
• Check data for the country where you expect to work.
• Consider your chances of getting in, as well as the pay once you are in.
• Remember that pay data describes the past. Demand for skills changes, and AI and automation are already changing some well-paid jobs.