Data Scientist salary in District of Columbia

Official occupation: 15-2051 Data Scientists · Reference period May 2025 · Data updated · Confidence 95/100

In District of Columbia, the median data scientist earns $126,490 a year, 5% above the United States median of $120,230.

It ranks 9th of 49 states with a published figure.

Pay is relatively compressed, with the 10th percentile at $89,750 and the 90th at $209,730 (a ratio of 2.3).

District of Columbia has 2,680 of these jobs, a location quotient of 2.27: the role is 127% more concentrated here than nationally.

For context, the median across all occupations in District of Columbia is $91,540, so this role pays 1.4 times the local typical wage.

Published figures

Published and derived pay figures
MeasureDistrict of ColumbiaNational
Median annual pay Observed$126,490United States: $120,230
Mean annual pay Observed$142,580United States: $126,800
10th percentile Observed$89,750United States: $67,240
25th percentile Observed$105,320United States: $85,660
75th percentile Observed$174,650United States: $158,880
90th percentile Observed$209,730United States: $199,130
Median hourly pay Observed$60.81United States: $57.80
Employment (jobs) Observed2,680
Jobs per 1,000 employees Observed3.825
Location quotient Observed2.27
Difference from United States median ($120,230) Derived+5%
Rank among 49 states Derived9
Ratio to District of Columbia all-occupation median ($91,540) Derived1.38×
90th / 10th percentile ratio Derived2.34

Nearby in the ranking

  1. 7. Minnesota$128,800
  2. 8. Vermont$127,070
  3. 9. District of Columbia$126,490
  4. 10. Virginia$126,430
  5. 11. Connecticut$126,340

Largest cities in District of Columbia: Washington, Downtown DC, Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, Central 14th Street / Spring Road (GeoNames). Figures are for the whole state, not individual cities.

More pay data

Source, method and data quality

  • Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 (Public domain (U.S. Government work)). Reference period: May 2025. Updates: Yearly (spring release).
  • Observed figures are copied from the published table without adjustment. Derived figures (rankings, ratios and differences) are calculated by us from those observed figures. No figure on this page is modeled or estimated.
  • Relative standard error (PRSE) published per estimate.
  • Confidence score: 95/100. Based on the published sampling error and job count. We only publish region pages scoring 60 or more that have at least 6 observed figures.
  • Place hierarchy from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Data last updated: .
  • Full method: methodology.