How To Become A City Planner: What It Is and Career Path

What is a city planner and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Nancy Fischer

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a city planner. For example, did you know that they make an average of $31.04 an hour? That's $64,562 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 1,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a city planner?

Nancy Fischer

Professor of Sociology, Augsburg University

I imagine that the skills that will become important over the next 3-5 years are probably both new and old skills. New skills in the sense that urban planners and those who work with urban-oriented non-profits are trying to figure out whether there are ways Artificial Intelligence can make their work lives better in terms of helping with repetitive, less engaging aspects of the job that are rather formulaic. Second, in Urban Studies it's also really important to be able to communicate data-driven and complex arguments to lay people. So, studying things like data visualization could be helpful. But in terms of skills that always pay off, I hear from our alumni that cultivating excellent social skills and storytelling are really important - to be able to tell a story around why a change (or no change) is needed in the urban realm and communicate that to people whether political leaders or the general public compellingly can take you a long way.

ScoreCity PlannerUS Average

Salary

5.0

Avg. Salary $64,562

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.1

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.88%

Asian 9.53%

Black or African American 4.84%

Hispanic or Latino 12.68%

Unknown 4.97%

White 67.10%

Gender

female 35.25%

male 64.75%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.3

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a city planner

Explore city planner education requirements

Most common city planner degrees

Bachelor's

62.0 %

Master's

30.3 %

Associate

5.4 %

Start to develop specific city planner skills

Skills	Percentages
Planning Commission	9.31%
GIS	7.17%
Regional Planning	6.33%
City Planning	6.32%
Community Development	4.81%

Research city planner duties and responsibilities

Guide production planning activities ranging from developing and revising production schedules, forecasting trends and customer demand, and managing logistics.
Utilize planning relate software and GIS applications; and basic statistics and mathematical calculations.
Direct inbound or outbound logistics operations, such as transportation or warehouse activities, safety performance, or logistics quality management.
Construct engaging PowerPoint presentations for clients.

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