💡 Why it matters: Space missions and giant telescopes keep growing, and astrophysicists also build data and maths skills that many industries want.
🌍 Around the world
- United States: Jobs are projected to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). (for physicists and astronomers).
💰 What it can pay
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Starting out
- ₦2M – ₦4.5M
- Mid-career
- ₦4.5M – ₦11M
- Senior
- ₦11M – ₦24M
≈ ₦375k – ₦917k a month mid-career. Indicative estimate by Incusim.
🇺🇸 United States
Astronomers. Median pay; low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
🇨🇦 Canada
Hourly wage low/median/high x 2,080 hours. Job Bank (Government of Canada), 2023-2024
Yearly pay before tax. UK, US and Canada figures come from the official sources named on each card. Nigeria has no official salary survey, so those are our indicative estimates. Real pay depends on the employer, the place, your skills and experience.
🛠️ What you actually do
- Study light from stars and galaxies
- Use computer models of the universe
- Analyse large amounts of telescope data
- Write research papers
- Teach and inspire students
⚡ Skills you'll need
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Coding
- Curiosity
- Persistence
Get ready at school
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Research programmes with African space agencies
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Research assistant or technician jobs at universities and observatories
- Space industry and data science graduate schemes
🇺🇸 United States
- Undergraduate research programmes at universities and observatories
- Work in data science or software with a physics degree
🇨🇦 Canada
- Co-op and summer research placements at universities and observatories
- Work in data science or software with a physics degree
🗺️ Your path to this career
- 1Study Physics and Mathematics in school
- 2Take a Physics degree
- 3Learn to code in Python
- 4Do a Master's and PhD in astrophysics
- 5Work in a university, observatory or space agency
⏰ A day in the life
You write code that sorts through a night's telescope images to find a faint, moving dot. You compare it to known data, discuss it with your supervisor and then prepare a short talk for students.