💡 Why it matters: Businesses make better decisions when they understand customers and competitors, so they pay for good research. Analysts who can handle data and explain it clearly are valued worldwide.
🌍 Around the world
- United States: Jobs are projected to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).
💰 What it can pay
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Starting out
- ₦1M – ₦2.5M
- Mid-career
- ₦3M – ₦8M
- Senior
- ₦8M – ₦20M
≈ ₦250k – ₦667k a month mid-career. Indicative estimate by Incusim.
🇺🇸 United States
Median pay; low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
🇨🇦 Canada
Closest Job Bank category: Marketing researchers. 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
- Design surveys, interviews and focus groups
- Collect and clean data from customers and public sources
- Spot trends and patterns in the numbers
- Compare competitors, prices and products
- Present findings in clear reports and charts
⚡ Skills you'll need
- Analysing data
- Curiosity
- Communication
- Statistics
- Presentation skills
Get ready at school
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Data skills from online courses
- Start as a research assistant at a research or marketing company
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Marketing or data analyst apprenticeship
- Start as a research assistant at an agency
🇺🇸 United States
- Junior analyst jobs at agencies or companies
- Courses in Excel, SQL and survey tools
🇨🇦 Canada
- Research assistant or junior analyst jobs
- Courses in Excel, SQL and survey tools
🗺️ Your path to this career
- 1Learn statistics and practise spreadsheets
- 2Study marketing, economics, statistics or business
- 3Start as a research assistant or junior analyst at an agency or company
- 4Learn data tools such as Excel, SQL and survey software
- 5Become a senior analyst or insight manager
⏰ A day in the life
You open the results of a survey on teenage snack habits for a drinks company and clean the data. You build charts that show which flavour is most popular with 14 to 16 year olds. Then you explain the findings to the marketing team in a short presentation.