Actuary

Put a price on risk. A math degree, a long ladder of exams, and a median of $130,000 a year.

Typical pay: $130,000a year
Time to qualify: 7 to 12 yearsafter high school
Demand: Very high
License needed: Nono license to hold

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Quick answers

How much does an actuary make in the United States?

The median pay is about $130,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $78,570 at the lower end to about $215,100 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.

How long does it take to become an actuary in the United States?

7 to 12 years after high school, on the usual route.

What does it cost to become an actuary?

$25,000 to $120,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.

Do you need a license to work as an actuary in the United States?

No. There is no license to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.

What is the job outlook for an actuary in the United States?

Very high demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.

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Actuary salary in the United States

What you earn and what it costs to get there.

What actuaries make

Median

$130,000

Bottom tenth

$78,570

Top tenth

$215,100

The national median is $130,000 a year. The bottom tenth earn $78,570 or less and the top tenth $215,100 or more, in 2025 figures.

The lower end

$78,570 to $97,680

What the bottom tenth to bottom quarter of actuaries earn, 2025

New hires usually start in this part of the range. Employers hire on exams, not grades. Passing one or two of the early exams before you graduate is what gets the first interview, and at many employers each further exam passed comes with a raise.

Where pay is highest

$166,800 a year

The median in Connecticut, the insurance capital, and the highest of any state

The District of Columbia ($166,230) and New York ($156,480) come next. Louisiana is the lowest, at $80,860. Experienced Fellows, the most senior exam level, earn the most wherever they work.

What it costs to get there

Bachelor's degree, in-state at a public university: Roughly $11,000 a year in tuition and fees
Actuarial exams: A few hundred dollars each, and there are many of them
Study manuals and seminars: A few hundred dollars per exam
Employer support: Most employers pay exam fees, buy the manuals and give paid study hours

Roughly, all in

$25,000 to $120,000

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

The low end is a bachelor's degree done cheaply, two years at a community college then two years at an in-state public university, plus the one or two exams you sit before anyone hires you. The high end is four years at out-of-state public tuition. The long list of actuarial exams looks frightening but most of it lands on your employer: once you are hired, firms usually pay the fees, buy the study manuals and give you paid hours to study. That is why this career takes seven to twelve years without costing seven to twelve years of money.

File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) every year for Pell Grant money and federal loans. Once you are hired, the expensive part of this career is paid for by your employer.

What comes with the job

Paid study time
Work time set aside for exam study, on top of your evenings.
A raise per exam
Many employers give a raise or a bonus for each exam you pass.
Retirement savings with a match
A 401(k) plan where the employer adds money on top of yours. Actuaries tend to understand these better than anyone.
Remote and hybrid work
The work is analysis and writing, so it travels well.

How to become an actuary in the United States

The exact path from high school to qualified.

The path to becoming an actuary, step by step

You get hired after four years. You are fully qualified closer to ten.

1
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Calculus and statistics if your school has them, plus any programming course. Strong grades matter for university entry, not for the exams.
2
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Actuarial science, mathematics, statistics or economics. Sit the first one or two exams while you are still a student.
3
Internship and first job
During and after year 4
A summer internship at an insurer or a consulting firm is the normal way in. You are now paid, and studying on the side.
4
Associate level
3 to 4 years of work
Pass the early exams, finish the Validation by Educational Experience requirements in economics, finance and statistics, and take the professionalism course.
5
Fellow level
Up to 4 more years
The advanced exams in your chosen track. Fellowship is the top credential and it is what people mean by fully qualified.

High school courses that help you become an actuary

Calculus
Required for every actuarial degree and assumed by the first exam.
Statistics and probability
This is the actual subject matter of the job.
Computer science
Python and SQL (the language used to pull data out of databases) are everyday tools now.
Economics
Counts toward the Validation by Educational Experience requirements later if you take it again at university.
English
Actuaries spend a lot of time explaining risk to people who do not do math.

Time and money, at a glance

Years to a first job: 4
Years to full qualification: 7 to 12
Total in-state public tuition: About $45,000
Paid while training?: Yes, from year 4 onward, and the exams are usually paid for

No government license, two societies instead

No state licenses actuaries the way it licenses nurses or engineers. Your credential comes from a professional society. The Society of Actuaries covers life insurance, health, retirement and investments. The Casualty Actuarial Society covers property and casualty insurance: cars, homes, storms, liability. Each runs its own ladder of exams to an Associate level and then a Fellow level. Insurance regulators in many states require a credentialed actuary to sign certain filings, which is what gives the credentials their teeth.

What helps you get ahead as an actuary

Things you don't need, but that help.

Which track you pick

Property and casualty
Car, home, storm and liability insurance. Priced through the Casualty Actuarial Society exams.
Life and annuities
How long people live and what that costs an insurer.
Health
Medical costs and insurance plan pricing.
Retirement and pensions
Making sure a pension fund can pay people for 40 years.
Enterprise risk
Everything a company could lose money on, not just insurance.

Nice-to-haves

Programming
Python, R and SQL (the language used to pull data out of databases). The job has moved from spreadsheets to code.
An internship
The single strongest thing on an entry level resume in this field.
Clear writing
Actuarial reports are read by regulators and executives. Being readable is a promotion skill.
Patience
You will study for exams most evenings for years. People who like that thrive here.

The data science crossover

The tools actuaries use now overlap heavily with data science: predictive models, machine learning, large messy datasets. The Casualty Actuarial Society has a whole exam on predictive analytics. That means the skills move sideways easily. Actuaries who leave insurance often go to technology companies, banks or consultancies, and they take the exam credentials with them as proof of rigor.

What being an actuary is really like

Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.

What an actuary does day to day

Morning: pull data, build or update a model, check whether last quarter's assumptions held. Midday: meetings with underwriters, claims staff or a client, translating what the model says into something they can act on. Afternoon: writing. Reports, memos, regulatory filings. Then, for several years of your life, an hour or two of exam study. It is a quiet, desk-based, deeply analytical job.

The honest pros and cons of being an actuary

The good

Paid from your first job while you study
Employers pay for the exams and give you study time
Very stable, and largely recession resistant
Normal hours and lots of remote work

The hard parts

The exams take most of your twenties
Failing an exam is normal and it stings
Small field, so jobs cluster in a few cities
The work itself is abstract and can feel far from real people

Work life

Typical hours: 40 a week, plus exam study for years
Remote work: Very common
Physical demand: Low
Unionized: No

Similar paths

Things nobody tells you about being an actuary

Things people don't tell you.

It is a tiny profession

O*NET OnLine (the Department of Labor's occupation database) counted about 31,200 actuaries in the whole United States in 2025, with about 1,500 openings a year projected from 2025 to 2035. Compare that with about 1.6 million accountants and auditors.

Growth is much faster than average

The Department of Labor projects employment of actuaries to grow 7 percent or more between 2025 and 2035, which it classes as much faster than average. Insurance is getting more complicated, not less.

Failing is part of the route

Actuarial exams are famously hard and people routinely sit the same one twice. Nobody in the field treats a failed exam as a disqualification, because almost everyone has one.

How an actuary compares

Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.

More business and money careers in the US

Money and finance first, then the rest of the field. See every career in business and money.

Where these numbers come from

Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.