💡 Why it matters: Physics gave us electricity, phones and medical scans, and physicists keep inventing the ideas behind the next technologies.
🌍 Around the world
- United States: Jobs for physicists and astronomers 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
- ₦2M – ₦4.5M
- Mid-career
- ₦4.5M – ₦11M
- Senior
- ₦11M – ₦24M
≈ ₦375k – ₦917k a month mid-career. Indicative estimate by Incusim.
🇺🇸 United States
Physicists. Median pay; low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
🇨🇦 Canada
Physicists. Hourly wage low/median/high x 2,080 hours; the median shown on Job Bank is the same for the related astrophysicist page. 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 experiments to test ideas
- Use mathematics to model how things work
- Build or use special instruments
- Analyse data with computers
- Publish findings and teach
⚡ Skills you'll need
- Mathematics
- Problem solving
- Curiosity
- Experimental skill
- Coding
Get ready at school
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Master's and PhD in physics
- Industry roles in oil and gas, telecoms or medicine
- Entry is through WAEC or NECO (secondary school exam) results and JAMB (UTME, the national university entrance exam)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Apprenticeships or graduate schemes in research labs and technology companies
- Foundation year or access course if your grades are lower than the degree asks for
🇺🇸 United States
- Summer research programs for undergraduates (REU, Research Experiences for Undergraduates)
- Jobs in industry or government labs with a bachelor's or master's degree
🇨🇦 Canada
- Co-op programs at many universities that mix study with paid work terms
- Research assistant jobs at universities and labs
🗺️ Your path to this career
- 1Study Physics and Mathematics in school
- 2Take a Physics degree
- 3Do a research project in final year
- 4Do a Master's and PhD
- 5Work in a university, lab or industry
⏰ A day in the life
You set up a laser experiment, take measurements and compare them with your model. After lunch you debug the code you wrote to analyse the data, then meet students to explain a tricky idea.