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The differences between decision support analysts and data analysts can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a decision support analyst, becoming a data analyst takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a decision support analyst has an average salary of $81,227, which is higher than the $74,342 average annual salary of a data analyst.
The top three skills for a decision support analyst include data analysis, SAS and tableau. The most important skills for a data analyst are data analysis, python, and power bi.
| Decision Support Analyst | Data Analyst | |
| Yearly salary | $81,227 | $74,342 |
| Hourly rate | $39.05 | $35.74 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 11% |
| Number of jobs | 96,068 | 167,520 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 73% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Average age | 42 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 4 |
A decision support analyst is a support staff who perform a variety of specialized analyses such as financial analyses and cost-benefit analyses. Your duties typically include documenting analytical findings, designing and developing data reporting systems tailored for business operations, and providing team members with processed data as needed. Additionally, you will be responsible for managing data integrity and accuracy, diagnosing and troubleshooting system errors, and providing recommendations for improvements of the decision support systems. You are also expected to train other team members on how to use the system.
Data analysts are responsible for interpreting the company's statistics and providing sound recommendations to the organization. They manage the organization's data sets, usually related to market performance, finance, or human resources. They are in charge of studying the available data, spotting trends, interpreting what the data and the trends mean, and recommending suggestions that will help the organization perform better. Their recommendations should also be relevant and backed up with strong analyses. Data analysts are expected to have a good grasp of the current market trends in the industry.
Decision support analysts and data analysts have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Decision Support Analyst | Data Analyst | |
| Average salary | $81,227 | $74,342 |
| Salary range | Between $58,000 And $112,000 | Between $53,000 And $103,000 |
| Highest paying City | Mountain View, CA | Richmond, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | Meta | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Finance |
There are a few differences between a decision support analyst and a data analyst in terms of educational background:
| Decision Support Analyst | Data Analyst | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 73% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between decision support analysts' and data analysts' demographics:
| Decision Support Analyst | Data Analyst | |
| Average age | 42 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 49.1% Female, 50.9% | Male, 50.2% Female, 49.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.5% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 13.9% Asian, 12.9% White, 55.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 7.5% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 8.5% Asian, 14.5% White, 64.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 12% |