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Actuarial analyst vs data scientist

The differences between actuarial analysts and data scientists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a data scientist has an average salary of $106,104, which is higher than the $75,593 average annual salary of an actuarial analyst.

The top three skills for an actuarial analyst include statistical analysis, SAS and statistical data. The most important skills for a data scientist are python, data science, and visualization.

Actuarial analyst vs data scientist overview

Actuarial AnalystData Scientist
Yearly salary$75,593$106,104
Hourly rate$36.34$51.01
Growth rate21%16%
Number of jobs41,511106,973
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 81%Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Average age3941
Years of experience-4

What does an actuarial analyst do?

Actuarial Analysts use statistical formulas to assess the probability and costs of certain events such as accidents, property damages, injuries, and deaths. They are usually specialized in finance, general insurance, health and care, life insurance, and savings/investment.

What does a data scientist do?

A Data Scientist analyzes information from multiple sources in order to gain maximum insight that can give the company a competitive advantage. They work in different domains, including manufacturing, healthcare, education, and finance.

Actuarial analyst vs data scientist salary

Actuarial analysts and data scientists have different pay scales, as shown below.

Actuarial AnalystData Scientist
Average salary$75,593$106,104
Salary rangeBetween $55,000 And $103,000Between $75,000 And $148,000
Highest paying CitySeattle, WARichmond, CA
Highest paying stateWashingtonCalifornia
Best paying companyNationwide FinancialThe Citadel
Best paying industryFinanceStart-up

Differences between actuarial analyst and data scientist education

There are a few differences between an actuarial analyst and a data scientist in terms of educational background:

Actuarial AnalystData Scientist
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 81%Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Most common majorMathematicsComputer Science
Most common collegeUniversity of Notre DameColumbia University in the City of New York

Actuarial analyst vs data scientist demographics

Here are the differences between actuarial analysts' and data scientists' demographics:

Actuarial AnalystData Scientist
Average age3941
Gender ratioMale, 61.1% Female, 38.9%Male, 79.6% Female, 20.4%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 3.0% Hispanic or Latino, 4.7% Asian, 21.9% White, 67.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.0%Black or African American, 4.2% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 6.9% Asian, 18.8% White, 64.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage18%9%

Differences between actuarial analyst and data scientist duties and responsibilities

Actuarial analyst example responsibilities.

  • Lead an experience study on morbidity assumptions to more accurately identify LTC rider risks.
  • Lead actuarial intern on automating internal reports, help intern write SQL queries and VBA macros.
  • Develop SAS programs to automate analysis correcting extant errors resulting from arduous manual processes.
  • Evaluate capitation agreements between provider groups and manage care plans, including commercial and Medicare populations.
  • Analyze GAAP financial statements including fair value assessment, shadow adjustments, embed derivatives and unlocking.
  • Integrate rating factors and other data used for GLM motor pricing model by SAS, SQL.
  • Show more

Data scientist example responsibilities.

  • Update, maintain, and manage regional CRM database and records for customers, vendors, and suppliers.
  • Configure and manage JobScope ERP system for a make-to-order/make-to-stock design and manufacturing environment.
  • Lead the analysis in SAS for data integration of mortality data using meta-analysis integration methods.
  • Implement a proximal stochastic gradient descent with a line search to fit a regularize logistic regression in Scala
  • Perform cross-validation-test on linear regression model of data using scikit-learn.
  • Develop python base statistical visualization to provide insights of fuzzy social media data.
  • Show more

Actuarial analyst vs data scientist skills

Common actuarial analyst skills
  • Statistical Analysis, 14%
  • SAS, 11%
  • Statistical Data, 11%
  • VBA, 6%
  • Actuarial Models, 5%
  • PowerPoint, 4%
Common data scientist skills
  • Python, 13%
  • Data Science, 10%
  • Visualization, 5%
  • Java, 4%
  • Hadoop, 4%
  • Tableau, 3%

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