What is a County Extension Agent?

County extension agents work for institutions supported by the federal government. They educate the public about various topics, such as agriculture, community development, natural resources, youth development, consumer sciences, and many more.

Working in this position, you will facilitate discussions and educational programs to meet the needs of the local population. A big part of your job will be building relationships with people, creating local partnerships, and initiating changes on a community level. You will also be responsible for evaluating the programs you have organized and create reports on the results.

Having a bachelor's degree in social sciences, human studies, or a related area is often required. Great communication skills, a dedication to community values, and excellent organizational skills will make you successful in this role. This position can bring great personal satisfaction if you love working with people, and it will earn you around $52,422 on average per year.

What Does a County Extension Agent Do

When it comes to the most important skills required to be a county extension agent, we found that a lot of resumes listed 25.4% of county extension agents included consumer sciences, while 17.3% of resumes included natural resources, and 8.2% of resumes included food safety. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.

Learn more about what a County Extension Agent does

How To Become a County Extension Agent

If you're interested in becoming a county extension agent, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 69.9% of county extension agents have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 20.9% of county extension agents have master's degrees. Even though most county extension agents have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a County Extension Agent

Top County Extension Agent Jobs Near You

County Extension Agent Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of extension agent you might progress to a role such as consultant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title business manager.

Top Careers Before County Extension Agent

Internship (51,064 Jobs)

19.0 %

Substitute Teacher (69,292 Jobs)

7.6 %

Teaching Assistant (59,465 Jobs)

6.7 %

Top Careers After County Extension Agent

Owner/Operator (119,599 Jobs)

8.1 %

Substitute Teacher (69,292 Jobs)

8.1 %

Science Teacher (71,133 Jobs)

7.2 %

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a County Extension Agent

County Extension Agents in America make an average salary of $45,379 per year or $22 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $83,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $24,000 per year.

Average County Extension Agent Salary

$45,379 Yearly

$21.82 hourly

$24,00010%

$45,000Median

$83,00090%

See More Salary Information

What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of County Extension Agent

There are several types of county extension agent, including:

Home Advisor

Role:

A home advisor works in-house for a company and develops their infrastructure, including technology and logistics, in a way that ensures success for their business. Home advisors need excellent technological skills in order to troubleshoot any problems that come up in a business's technological system and make recommendations for improvements, using tools such as SQL to gather information about a system. They also handle logistical aspects of running a business, for example by allocating resources to different departments. Besides having excellent technological knowledge and organizational skills, home advisors are patient communicators as they often need to help colleagues master new solutions, especially new technologies.

There are several different ways to become a home advisor. Some earn a bachelor's degree in business or a related subject. Others do just fine with only a high school diploma. Some have experience working in customer service, others in providing technical support.

No matter the paths they take to get there, home advisors earn an average salary of $95,747 a year once they are hired.

Average Salary: $71,251
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Extension Educator

Role:

An extension educator plays an important role in educating other people. They simplify educational programs for a specific audience. They educate people or communities outside the school campus so that these people can apply their knowledge to their everyday lives.

An extension educator interprets research findings, develops educational materials suited for the audience, and oversees the whole program from development to execution.

Even though most extension educators have college degrees, a person with a high school degree or GED can take on this position. What you need is passion and the desire to help educate other people beyond the school walls. You should also be knowledgeable in program development and implementation.

An extension educator can earn an average salary of $51,111 and can also become an executive director in the long run. Although more than half of the working population is comprised of female extension educators, other genders are welcome to apply in this position.

Average Salary: $44,053
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most County Extension Agent Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active county extension agent jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where county extension agents earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of County Extension Agent Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	California	2,534	$43,334
2	Texas	1,550	$32,486
3	Florida	1,520	$29,857
4	Pennsylvania	1,404	$56,901
5	Ohio	1,257	$44,233
6	New York	1,111	$43,958
7	Illinois	959	$43,391
8	Massachusetts	899	$42,780
9	Michigan	891	$46,291
10	Arizona	807	$39,846
11	Missouri	800	$35,679
12	Georgia	738	$48,033
13	Colorado	585	$37,989
14	Virginia	568	$49,114
15	Tennessee	553	$36,708
16	Indiana	547	$38,381
17	New Jersey	544	$42,961
18	Washington	542	$33,166
19	North Carolina	513	$34,788
20	Oregon	505	$26,990
21	Minnesota	494	$40,105
22	Wisconsin	473	$38,947
23	Alabama	458	$42,630
24	Maryland	438	$48,484
25	Louisiana	387	$31,276
26	South Carolina	381	$35,323
27	Utah	377	$31,207
28	Oklahoma	313	$21,574
29	Nebraska	290	$40,166
30	Arkansas	276	$34,399
31	Mississippi	259	$34,486
32	Nevada	257	$37,226
33	Kansas	245	$33,878
34	Connecticut	229	$36,779
35	New Hampshire	180	$40,177
36	Idaho	171	$28,435
37	New Mexico	156	$32,804
38	Montana	155	$29,592
39	Delaware	146	$44,418
40	Rhode Island	129	$49,571
41	South Dakota	100	$31,917
42	West Virginia	98	$48,732
43	Maine	96	$41,157
44	Vermont	95	$44,782
45	North Dakota	88	$38,594
46	Wyoming	78	$39,166
47	Hawaii	72	$35,341
48	Kentucky	8	$40,034
49	Alaska	2	$51,646
50	Iowa	2	$40,306

County Extension Agent Education

County Extension Agent Majors

General Education, Specific Areas

16.4 %

Agriculture

14.5 %

Family And Consumer Sciences

10.5 %

County Extension Agent Degrees

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Business

Agricultural Operation And Science

Animal Science

Agricultural Business

Education

Top Skills For a County Extension Agent

Consumer Sciences, 25.4%

Natural Resources, 17.3%

Food Safety, 8.2%

County Government, 7.4%

Community Development, 6.9%

Other Skills, 34.8%

Choose From 10+ Customizable County Extension Agent Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use County Extension Agent templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your County Extension Agent resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

County Extension Agent Demographics

County Extension Agent Gender Distribution

Female

62%

Male

39%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among county extension agents, 61.5% of them are women, while 38.5% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among county extension agents is White, which makes up 61.8% of all county extension agents.

The most common foreign language among county extension agents is Spanish at 60.0%.

Online Courses For County Extension Agent That You May Like

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Best States For a County Extension Agent

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a county extension agent. The best states for people in this position are Pennsylvania, Alaska, Rhode Island, and Virginia. County extension agents make the most in Pennsylvania with an average salary of $56,901. Whereas in Alaska and Rhode Island, they would average $51,646 and $49,571, respectively. While county extension agents would only make an average of $49,114 in Virginia, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Pennsylvania

Total County Extension Agent Jobs: 1,404

Highest 10% Earn:

$105,000

Location Quotient:

1.36

$56,901

Avg. Salary

View 1,404 County Extension Agent Jobs In PA

2. Rhode Island

Total County Extension Agent Jobs: 129

Highest 10% Earn:

$91,000

Location Quotient:

1.2

$49,571

Avg. Salary

View 129 County Extension Agent Jobs In RI

3. Michigan

Total County Extension Agent Jobs: 891

Highest 10% Earn:

$80,000

Location Quotient:

1.29

$46,291

Avg. Salary

View 891 County Extension Agent Jobs In MI

Full List Of Best States For County Extension Agents

How Do County Extension Agent Rate Their Jobs?

Top County Extension Agent Employers

Most Common Employers For County Extension Agent

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	Oregon State University	$62,327	$29.96	3
2	Johnson County	$53,863	$25.90	1
3	University of Georgia Small Business Development Center	$53,712	$25.82	4
4	Clemson University	$52,906	$25.44	7
5	Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi	$52,067	$25.03	1
6	University of Kentucky	$47,434	$22.80	11
7	Texas	$43,847	$21.08	1
8	The Ohio State University	$43,145	$20.74	1
9	Fort Valley State University	$41,556	$19.98	2
10	Auburn University	$41,293	$19.85	1

Updated February 6, 2023

What is a County Extension Agent?

What Does a County Extension Agent Do

How To Become a County Extension Agent

County Extension Agent Career Paths

Top Careers Before County Extension Agent

Top Careers After County Extension Agent

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a County Extension Agent

Roles and Types of County Extension Agent

Home Advisor

Extension Educator

States With The Most County Extension Agent Jobs

Number Of County Extension Agent Jobs By State

County Extension Agent Education

County Extension Agent Majors

County Extension Agent Degrees

Top Colleges for County Extension Agents

1. Cornell University

2. University of Wisconsin - Madison

3. University of Georgia

4. Purdue University

5. University of Maryland - College Park

6. North Carolina State University

7. Ohio State University

8. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

9. University of Nebraska - Lincoln

10. California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo

Top Skills For a County Extension Agent

Choose From 10+ Customizable County Extension Agent Resume templates

County Extension Agent Demographics

County Extension Agent Gender Distribution

Online Courses For County Extension Agent That You May Like

Best States For a County Extension Agent

How Do County Extension Agent Rate Their Jobs?

Top County Extension Agent Employers

Most Common Employers For County Extension Agent

County Extension Agent Related Careers

County Extension Agent Related Jobs

What Similar Roles Do

Resume For Related Jobs