💡 Why it matters: Companies, banks and hospitals collect huge amounts of information but need people who can turn it into clear answers that help them decide what to do next.
🌍 Around the world
- United States: Jobs are projected to grow 12% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).
💰 What it can pay
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Starting out
- ₦1.5M – ₦3.5M
- Mid-career
- ₦4M – ₦9M
- Senior
- ₦9M – ₦20M
≈ ₦333k – ₦750k a month mid-career. Indicative estimate by Incusim.
🇺🇸 United States
Closest US category: Operations research analysts. Median pay; low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles.. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
🇨🇦 Canada
Closest Job Bank occupation: Data analyst (informatics and systems). 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
- Clean and organise messy data
- Build charts and dashboards
- Answer business questions using numbers
- Spot trends and unusual patterns
- Explain findings to non-technical colleagues
⚡ Skills you'll need
- Maths and statistics
- Spreadsheets and SQL
- Curiosity
- Clear communication
- Attention to detail
Get ready at school
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Data analytics bootcamp or online certificate (Excel, SQL, Power BI)
- Moving over from an office or finance job after self-study
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Data analyst apprenticeship
- Online certificates in Excel, SQL and Power BI, then a junior role
🇺🇸 United States
- Data analytics bootcamp or online certificate
- Moving over from an office or finance job after self-study
🇨🇦 Canada
- College co-op programs with paid placements
- Moving over from an office or finance job after self-study
🗺️ Your path to this career
- 1Get strong at Maths and learn Excel
- 2Learn SQL and a charting tool like Power BI
- 3Study a numbers-based degree or take a bootcamp
- 4Build projects using real public data
- 5Apply for junior analyst roles or internships
⏰ A day in the life
A sales manager asks why customers stopped buying last month. You pull the data, clean it, find that one region's deliveries were late, and present a simple chart that helps the team fix it.