Statistician

• ·Decide how a study should be designed before any data is collected — which is where most of the value is, and where they are most often consulted too late.
• ·Work out how many subjects, samples or respondents are needed for the result to mean anything.
• ·Choose and justify the analytical method, then check whether its assumptions actually hold rather than assuming they do.
• ·Clean and weight raw data, including deciding how to handle the parts that are missing and why they are missing.
• ·Quantify uncertainty honestly, and resist the pressure to present a range as a point.
• ·Write up results for people who will act on them — regulators, clinicians, ministers, editors.
• ·Review other people's analyses and say when a conclusion is not supported, which is the least popular and most valuable part of the job.
• ·In clinical work, hold the blind: the statistician is frequently the only person who can see the unblinded data and is trusted not to reveal it.

If any of those systems is unfamiliar — or you have not chosen between them yet — the exams and qualifications section covers what each one is, which subject inside it opens which degree, and when to sit what.

Moderately competitive and much less crowded than data science, largely because the name is unfashionable and the master's requirement filters people out early. Biostatistics in particular reports persistent shortages: pharmaceutical companies, contract research organisations and health systems compete for a small pool. Getting in is mostly a matter of doing the postgraduate degree well.

Provenance for this sectionestimatedestimatedInferred by reasoning, not measured. The basis is given below.Reasoned from the absence of licensing requirements, the published structure of national statistical and health research institutions, and the scarcity of postgraduate-qualified quantitative graduates in the region. No occupational employment or wage statistic for statisticians in Saudi Arabia was obtainable.

1. Junior or assistant statisticianyears 0–3reportedreportedConsistently reported across multiple independent credible accounts. Not a measured statistic.Based on 3 independent accounts.Early work is consistently described as programming and validating analyses designed by someone more senior.
2. Statisticianyears 2–7reportedreportedConsistently reported across multiple independent credible accounts. Not a measured statistic.Based on 3 independent accounts.Independent responsibility for a study's analysis is consistently described as arriving in this window.
3. Senior or principal statisticianyears 6–14reportedreportedConsistently reported across multiple independent credible accounts. Not a measured statistic.Based on 3 independent accounts.Senior level is consistently described as designing studies and defending methodology rather than executing analyses.
4. Head of methodology, statistical lead or academic postyears 12–25estimatedestimatedInferred by reasoning, not measured. The basis is given below.Inferred from the standard structure of statistical careers in government, pharmaceutical and academic settings, where senior methodological authority accumulates over a long horizon rather than through promotion steps.

Biostatistics

Clinical trials, epidemiology and health research. The largest employer of statisticians and the one with the most persistent shortage.

Official statistics

Census, labour force and national accounts. Public, consequential, and methodologically demanding in ways nobody outside notices.

Industrial and quality statistics

Manufacturing, reliability and experimental design. Older than most of this field and still in demand wherever things are made.

Survey methodology

How to ask, whom to ask, and how to weight the answers. Underpins almost every published social statistic.

Statistical genetics and bioinformatics

Where the data volumes are enormous and the multiple-testing problem is the whole game.

Demand: growingestimatedestimatedInferred by reasoning, not measured. The basis is given below.Inferred from recorded employment combined with consistently reported hiring difficulty in biostatistics. No published occupational projection was obtainable, so the direction is reasoned rather than measured.

A small occupation — 29,030 in the US — with a median of $105,650 and consistently reported shortages in biostatistics specifically. Demand is driven by clinical research volume and by regulatory requirements that cannot be satisfied without qualified statisticians, which is an unusually durable source of demand.

If you like this, consider

• EpidemiologistThe same methods applied to disease in populations, with more fieldwork and more public health.
• ActuaryStatistics with a protected professional qualification, better pay and a narrower domain.
• Data ScientistThe same mathematics in a faster, better-paid and much more crowded market.
• Quantitative AnalystThe most mathematically demanding and best-paid destination for these skills, at a very different pace.
• EconomistQuantitative analysis pointed at markets and policy, with more writing and more argument.

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