Professional surveyor vs mapper

The differences between professional surveyors and mappers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a mapper has an average salary of $75,560, which is higher than the $51,224 average annual salary of a professional surveyor.

The top three skills for a professional surveyor include survey data, legal descriptions and GPS. The most important skills for a mapper are GIS, cad software, and pipeline project.

Professional surveyor vs mapper overview

	Professional Surveyor	Mapper
Yearly salary	$51,224	$75,560
Hourly rate	$24.63	$36.33
Growth rate	1%	3%
Number of jobs	45,097	3,196
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 47%	Bachelor's Degree, 49%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	6	-

Professional surveyor vs mapper salary

Professional surveyors and mappers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Professional Surveyor	Mapper
Average salary	$51,224	$75,560
Salary range	Between $34,000 And $76,000	Between $47,000 And $119,000
Highest paying City	-	-
Highest paying state	-	-
Best paying company	-	-
Best paying industry	-	-

Differences between professional surveyor and mapper education

There are a few differences between a professional surveyor and a mapper in terms of educational background:

	Professional Surveyor	Mapper
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 47%	Bachelor's Degree, 49%
Most common major	Surveying, Mapping, And Hydraulic Technologies	Drafting And Design
Most common college	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor	Ferris State University

Professional surveyor vs mapper demographics

Here are the differences between professional surveyors' and mappers' demographics:

	Professional Surveyor	Mapper
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 73.5% Female, 26.5%	Male, 59.7% Female, 40.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.3% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 4.9% White, 75.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 11.0% Asian, 5.0% White, 75.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between professional surveyor and mapper duties and responsibilities

Professional surveyor example responsibilities.

Implement the use of GPS into the day to day survey operations.
Create and utilize geographic information systems (GIS) for various clients.
Adjust and operate surveying instruments such as prisms, theodolites, and electronicdistance-measuring equipment.
Interface with multiple legal, financial and governmental entities to meet requirements of approvals processes and finalize complex ALTA surveys.
Develop new data from photogrammetric records.

Mapper example responsibilities.

Create UNIX and LINUX shell scripts to automate data migration process.
Deploy maps onto Unix platform.
Work with a small team to map and program a product call OnPar GPS.
Map out utilities (water meters and manhole covers) with a professional GPS unit.
Prepare any HDD's, wetland area details and other drawings as required by project.
Work with all types of 3D file types and computers systems including UNIX, PC and MACINTOSH.

Professional surveyor vs mapper skills

Common professional surveyor skills

Survey Data, 25%
Legal Descriptions, 22%
GPS, 21%
Civil 3D, 12%
CAD, 4%
As-Built, 4%

Common mapper skills

GIS, 28%
CAD Software, 16%
Pipeline Project, 10%
As-Built, 8%
GPS, 7%
Profile Drawings, 4%