Biostatistician vs data scientist

The differences between biostatisticians and data scientists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a biostatistician, becoming a data scientist takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a data scientist has an average salary of $106,104, which is higher than the $85,645 average annual salary of a biostatistician.

The top three skills for a biostatistician include data analysis, patients and data management. The most important skills for a data scientist are python, data science, and visualization.

Biostatistician vs data scientist overview

	Biostatistician	Data Scientist
Yearly salary	$85,645	$106,104
Hourly rate	$41.18	$51.01
Growth rate	31%	16%
Number of jobs	17,972	106,973
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 47%	Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Average age	37	41
Years of experience	2	4

What does a biostatistician do?

A biostatistician specializes in gathering and analyzing data for medical and biological research. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around devising the ideal questionnaire or survey for significant results, maintaining accurate records of data, developing conclusions and research papers, contributing findings to publications, and even collaborating with other scientists. There are also instances where biostatisticians may train junior statisticians, conduct corrective measures on inconsistencies and data error, and develop new strategies for scientific outcomes. Most importantly, a biostatistician must adhere to the laws and regulations on data gathering processes.

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.

Biostatistician vs data scientist salary

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

	Biostatistician	Data Scientist
Average salary	$85,645	$106,104
Salary range	Between $60,000 And $120,000	Between $75,000 And $148,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Richmond, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Meta	The Citadel
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Start-up

Differences between biostatistician and data scientist education

There are a few differences between a biostatistician and a data scientist in terms of educational background:

	Biostatistician	Data Scientist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 47%	Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Most common major	Statistics	Computer Science
Most common college	Johns Hopkins University	Columbia University in the City of New York

Biostatistician vs data scientist demographics

Here are the differences between biostatisticians' and data scientists' demographics:

	Biostatistician	Data Scientist
Average age	37	41
Gender ratio	Male, 55.8% Female, 44.2%	Male, 79.6% Female, 20.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 5.1% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 7.6% Asian, 22.7% White, 59.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	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 Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between biostatistician and data scientist duties and responsibilities

Biostatistician example responsibilities.

Extract and manage data from different sources, proficient in query language SQL.
Act as project director for managing the preparation of safety and efficacy reports for NDA submission.
Manage Medicaid fraud and abuse portfolios by analyzing medical and pharmacy claims data.
Provide suggestions to clients in classification algorithms, ANOVA, experimental design, and various hypothesis tests.
Design clinical plans, new product or improvement protocols, co-ordinate CRO and clinical site contracts and IRB submissions.
Create views using SQL programming.

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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.

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Biostatistician vs data scientist skills

Common biostatistician skills

Data Analysis, 9%
Patients, 7%
Data Management, 6%
Statistical Analysis, 5%
Study Design, 5%
Data Collection, 4%

Common data scientist skills

Python, 13%
Data Science, 10%
Visualization, 5%
Java, 4%
Hadoop, 4%
Tableau, 3%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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