Data Analyst Salary in Durham-Chapel Hill (May 2025 BLS)

Data Analyst Jobs and Salaries in Durham-Chapel Hill (May 2025 BLS Data)

Dan Patiño

· AI Strategy & Innovation at Coderhouse

If you are weighing a move into analytics from Durham-Chapel Hill, the two numbers that matter are how many of these jobs exist locally and what they pay at the bottom of the range, not the headline average. In the Durham-Chapel Hill metro area there are about 1,320 data scientist roles, the median sits at $106,500, and the lowest decile, which is the realistic reference for a first job, is $60,060. Everything below comes from the BLS OEWS May 2025 release.

Median salary

$106,500

Entry level (10th pct)

$60,060

Concentration (LQ)

2.28

How big is the data job market in Durham-Chapel Hill?

The Durham-Chapel Hill, NC metro area employs roughly 1,320 people under the BLS data scientist code, the 23th largest of the 25 metros tracked here. Nationally the occupation totals about 275,600, so this metro holds 0.5% of it. BLS projects 35% growth nationally, among the fastest rates it publishes.

What do data analysts earn in Durham-Chapel Hill?

The median data scientist wage in Durham-Chapel Hill is $106,500 a year, 11% below the national median of $120,230. The middle half earns between $75,470 and $157,290, and the 90th percentile reaches $182,020. The mean is $119,660; where the mean sits above the median, a long upper tail is pulling the average up.

What can you expect to earn starting out in Durham-Chapel Hill?

The 10th percentile in Durham-Chapel Hill is $60,060. That matters more than the median for anyone entering the field, because it approximates what the least experienced quarter of the market earns. Nationally the same percentile is $67,240. Treat the distance from $60,060 to $106,500 as ground you cover over years, not a starting range.

Is Durham-Chapel Hill actually a data hub?

The location quotient for data scientists in Durham-Chapel Hill is 2.28, meaning the occupation is far more concentrated here than nationally. In practice, this is one of the densest markets in the country for this kind of work. This is the number most salary sites leave out, and it is often more decisive than pay: a metro can post a high median while employing very few people in the role, which means strong salaries and a thin job market.

What about AI engineering roles in Durham-Chapel Hill?

The BLS has no occupation code for AI engineer. The closest published proxy is Software Developers (15-1252), which in Durham-Chapel Hill employs about 9,790 people at a median of $135,620, 0% in line with the national median of $135,980. The 10th percentile is $100,670 and the 90th is $209,410. Read it as the surrounding band for applied AI work rather than as a figure for the role itself, since AI engineers are distributed across several codes.

10th percentile

$60,060

25th percentile

$75,470

Median

$106,500

Mean

$119,660

75th percentile

$157,290

90th percentile

$182,020

vs national median

11% below the national median

Software developers · median

$135,620

How to get started from Durham-Chapel Hill

Both Coderhouse courses are live online, so where you are based does not change what you can study. Data Analytics runs 11 weeks, one live class a week plus 6 to 8 hours of practice, covering SQL, Python, statistics and experimentation, at $595 launch price. It is not a placement program: no job guarantee, no recruiting team, so the Durham-Chapel Hill search would be yours.

AI Engineering

8 weeks · live online

Build AI systems you can explain, evaluate, and improve—not just demos that happen to call an LLM. Work hands-on with retrieval, RAG, tool use, agents, evals, observability, and deployment while learning the engineering judgment behind reliable AI applications.

See Dates

$595

Data Analytics

11 weeks · live online

Learn to turn data into decisions—not just dashboards. Build practical skills in SQL, Python, metrics, statistics, experimentation, visualization, and AI-assisted analysis, with live feedback from practitioners who do this work professionally.

See dates

$595

Frequently asked questions

How much do data analysts make in Durham-Chapel Hill?

The median for the closest BLS occupation, data scientists, is $106,500 a year in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro area as of May 2025. The range runs from $60,060 at the 10th percentile to $182,020 at the 90th.

How many data jobs are there in Durham-Chapel Hill?

About 1,320 positions under SOC 15-2051, which is 2.28 times the national concentration per worker. That ratio tells you whether the market is deep or just large.

Is Durham-Chapel Hill a good place to start a data career?

On the data: pay is 11% below the national median and the occupation is far more concentrated here than nationally. The entry reference point is $60,060. Weigh both together, since a high median in a thin market is harder to break into than a moderate median in a dense one.

What is the entry-level data analyst salary in Durham-Chapel Hill?

BLS does not publish by experience level. The 10th percentile, $60,060, is the best available proxy for early-career pay, against $67,240 nationally.

Do I need to live in Durham-Chapel Hill to work in data?

Not necessarily, and remote roles widen the market considerably. These figures measure where the job is located rather than where the worker lives, so a remote role at a Durham-Chapel Hill employer would still appear in this metro's count.

Where these numbers come from

All figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025 release, for the Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. BLS does not publish a 'data analyst' occupation; the figures above use Data Scientists (SOC 15-2051), the closest published match, and Software Developers (SOC 15-1252) as the proxy for AI engineering roles. OEWS estimates are built from six semiannual panels collected over three years, so they are stable but lag fast-moving pay changes. Wages cover base pay and exclude equity and bonuses, which understates total compensation at large technology employers.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025