These Are The 10 Highest Dentist Salaries By State

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Without fail, in surveys across basically every demographic, the number one most important aspect of a job for most people is the salary — how much do dentists get paid where I live?

And while there are many things to go into how much you can expect to make, there’s really good data for average salaries for dentists by state across America broken down by seniority level. So while your city may be slightly different than the state average, these averages give you a rough sense of what to expect for your salary.

So to better understand how dentist salaries change across America, we decided to take a look the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on average pay for dentists by state.

Additionally, we wanted to adjust the salary based on the cost of living in a state — because your salary goes further in North Carolina than it does in California.

The state with the best salary for dentists (and future dentists) after this adjustment? That would be North Dakota. Here’s a quick snapshot of the top ten states for dentist salaries:

Let’s take a look at how we got here and a full ranking of all the states.

How we determined dentist pay by state

As we mentioned earlier, we took the average annual salary data for dentists from the 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics — specifically their “Occupational Employment Statistics”.

However, to make the comparison of salaries apples to apples across states, we also took into account the cost of living.

We then created an index by dividing the average wage for a state by the cost of living in that state. As an example, the cost of living in California is $57,315 and the average dentist pay is $170,490, so our index value would be:

$170,490 / $57,315 = 2.97

We then ranked every state on this criteria with the state with the highest salary index ranking as highest average salary for dentists.

Here’s a look at the full ranking for all states.

Detailed List Of Dentist Salaries By State

Rank	State	Adjusted Salary	Average Wage	Cost of Living
1	North Dakota	$231,107	$214,450	$46,814
2	Delaware	$215,775	$227,160	$53,112
3	North Carolina	$215,102	$211,370	$49,575
4	South Carolina	$211,636	$195,350	$46,568
5	Idaho	$210,542	$191,140	$45,801
6	Ohio	$210,447	$191,270	$45,853
7	Alaska	$201,356	$217,120	$54,400
8	Wisconsin	$200,903	$203,570	$51,120
9	New Hampshire	$199,400	$217,790	$55,103
10	Kentucky	$196,242	$168,460	$43,308
11	Mississippi	$195,532	$178,610	$46,084
12	Arkansas	$194,065	$171,450	$44,571
13	Alabama	$192,524	$174,870	$45,824
14	Kansas	$191,432	$182,340	$48,054
15	Iowa	$191,214	$185,270	$48,882
16	Tennessee	$189,874	$176,080	$46,785
17	Oregon	$188,542	$193,960	$51,900
18	Minnesota	$187,144	$193,320	$52,115
19	Nevada	$187,027	$195,360	$52,698
20	Georgia	$186,813	$177,540	$47,946
21	West Virginia	$184,150	$163,610	$44,823
22	Maine	$182,203	$185,290	$51,305
23	Missouri	$181,432	$166,000	$46,159
24	Wyoming	$180,270	$171,340	$47,951
25	Washington	$180,060	$182,990	$51,271
26	Texas	$180,043	$171,870	$48,160
27	New Mexico	$179,090	$170,570	$48,050
28	Vermont	$175,654	$180,970	$51,977
29	Michigan	$174,665	$169,080	$48,837
30	South Dakota	$170,960	$153,880	$45,410
31	Rhode Island	$170,776	$180,220	$53,240
32	Oklahoma	$168,030	$155,250	$46,613
33	Colorado	$167,608	$178,710	$53,792
34	Florida	$164,543	$170,270	$52,206
35	Nebraska	$161,038	$153,460	$48,076
36	Connecticut	$159,892	$188,580	$59,502
37	Indiana	$158,078	$146,760	$46,838
38	Montana	$157,781	$147,250	$47,083
39	Arizona	$153,234	$155,940	$51,341
40	Pennsylvania	$152,238	$150,620	$49,914
41	Massachusetts	$151,952	$179,390	$59,560
42	California	$150,070	$170,490	$57,315
43	New Jersey	$149,888	$166,700	$56,109
44	New York	$148,446	$173,980	$59,128
45	Louisiana	$146,255	$139,080	$47,975
46	Virginia	$145,073	$156,040	$54,264
47	Illinois	$144,105	$149,400	$52,304
48	Maryland	$137,281	$158,310	$58,178
49	Hawaii	$128,727	$154,880	$60,700
50	Utah	$127,741	$121,340	$47,922

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Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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