Data Analyst Salary by State (2026): Pay Compared Across All 50 States

Data analyst salary by state varies more than for almost any other technology profession because state-level employer mix differs sharply — some states concentrate FAANG-tier tech employers and finance, others concentrate manufacturing analytics, others insurance and healthcare analytics. The national median for Data Analysts sits at $80,394, but state-by-state pay across the 52 states tracked here ranges widely — from $52,878 in Mississippi to $107,618 in Washington. That spread reflects state-level cost of living, the regional density of FAANG-tier tech headquarters and engineering offices, finance / hedge fund analyst employment, healthcare / insurance / pharma analytics hubs, state income tax structures, and the prevalence of remote-friendly employers anchoring pay to higher-cost markets.

This page compares the average data analyst salary by state across 1675+ metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas — drawing on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey for SOC 15-2051. If you're a working data analyst evaluating relocation or remote opportunities, a bootcamp / CS / statistics graduate planning your first analyst role, or a hiring manager benchmarking pay across states, the state-level comparison below is the central reference point.

How Data Analyst Salary by State Is Measured

The BLS reports state-level data analyst salary through three numbers (base pay; equity / RSU compensation not included):

• Annual median (50th percentile) — used to rank state-level pay in the table below. Excludes RSU / equity grants.
• Annual mean (average) — typically runs 8–15% above median; tech-hub states with strong FAANG / hedge fund employment show wider mean-median spreads.
• Percentile distribution (P10 / P25 / P75 / P90) — P10 reflects entry-level analysts at non-tech regional employers; P90 reflects senior analysts and data engineers at FAANG-tier tech employers (Meta, Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix), top-tier finance / hedge funds (Citadel, Two Sigma, Renaissance, Jane Street, Hudson River Trading, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JPM), top-tier consulting (McKinsey QuantumBlack, BCG GAMMA, Bain AAG), and analytics leadership roles at large enterprises.

The state-comparison table below applies BEA Regional Price Parity (RPP) adjustment so both nominal pay and real purchasing power are visible.

1. State Tech Hub Concentration

The single largest non-cost-of-living driver of state-level data analyst pay is tech hub concentration:

• California (Bay Area + LA) — Meta, Apple, Google, Netflix, Salesforce, Adobe, Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Snowflake, Databricks, Stripe, Airbnb, Uber, Pinterest, Roblox, ServiceNow, Workday. By far the highest state-level data analyst pay, especially in San Francisco / San Mateo / Santa Clara counties.
• Washington (Seattle / Bellevue / Redmond) — Microsoft, Amazon (HQ), Meta engineering office, Google engineering office, Apple AI/ML, Stripe. Strong number two state-level pay; no state income tax materially boosts take-home.
• New York (NYC + Westchester) — Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Citadel (NY office), Two Sigma, Jane Street, Hudson River Trading, Bloomberg, Spotify, Meta NYC, Google NYC, Datadog, MongoDB. Strong finance analytics pay.
• Massachusetts (Boston / Cambridge) — MIT-area startups, Fidelity, State Street, Wayfair, HubSpot, Wellington, Akamai, Vertex, Moderna, Takeda analytics. Strong life sciences and finance analytics.
• Texas (Austin + Dallas + Houston) — Apple (Austin), Tesla, Oracle (Austin HQ), Meta Austin, Google Austin, Indeed, Charles Schwab, USAA, Capital One. No state income tax + rapid tech hub growth.
• Illinois (Chicago) — Citadel HQ, Citadel Securities, Jump Trading, DRW, Renaissance Chicago, Boeing, McDonald's analytics. Strong quant finance.
• Other emerging hubs — Colorado (Denver / Boulder), North Carolina (Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte finance), Georgia (Atlanta), Virginia (Northern VA AWS / DoD), Florida (Miami fintech), Tennessee (Nashville).

2. State Remote Work and Geographic Pay Banding

Remote work has reshaped state-level data analyst pay distributions:

• National pay banded employers — some tech employers (GitLab, Automattic, Stripe historically) pay roughly nationally regardless of location. Analysts in low-cost states get outsized real purchasing power.
• Location-banded employers — most FAANG-tier employers band pay by geographic zone. SF Bay / NYC / Seattle Zone 1 typically 100% base; Zone 2 (Boston, Austin, LA, Chicago) 90–95%; Zone 3 (Denver, Raleigh, Atlanta) 80–85%; Zone 4 (low-cost states) 70–80%. Remote work in low-cost states with Zone-1-banded compensation maximizes real purchasing power.
• State remote-work disclosure — California, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Maryland, Illinois have pay-transparency laws requiring salary range disclosure in job postings. These laws shape remote pay band visibility.
• State income tax variation — analysts in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, Washington, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, and New Hampshire keep significantly more of every dollar at senior-analyst income levels.

3. State Industry-Specific Analytics Demand

State-level industry mix shapes data analyst pay distribution:

• Finance analytics — concentrated in NY (Wall Street), Chicago (Citadel, Jump, DRW), Connecticut (hedge fund Stamford / Greenwich), Charlotte NC (Bank of America), Boston (Fidelity, State Street, Wellington), Florida (PE shift to Miami).
• Healthcare and pharma analytics — Massachusetts (Boston biotech), Pennsylvania (Big Pharma — Merck, Pfizer, GSK historical), New Jersey (Merck, J&J, BMS), North Carolina (Research Triangle pharma), Indiana (Eli Lilly), California (Genentech, Gilead).
• Insurance analytics — Connecticut (Hartford insurance corridor), Massachusetts (Liberty Mutual), Ohio (Progressive, Nationwide, Cincinnati Financial), Illinois (State Farm, Allstate), Iowa (Principal Financial).
• Retail and CPG analytics — Arkansas (Walmart), Washington (Amazon), Minnesota (Target, General Mills, 3M), Ohio (Procter & Gamble), Michigan (Auto OEM analytics — Ford, GM, Stellantis).
• Federal / defense analytics — Northern Virginia (DoD, Intelligence Community contractors — Booz Allen, Leidos, CACI, ManTech), Maryland (NSA, NIH analytics), Colorado (Space Force, NORAD).

4. State Cost of Living, Tax, and AI Talent Migration

State cost of living, tax structure, and emerging AI talent migration shape state-level analyst pay:

• State cost of living — California, Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey lead nominal data analyst pay rankings.
• State income tax for high earners — California (13.3% top), New York (10.9% top), New Jersey, Hawaii, Oregon, Minnesota, Massachusetts (recent millionaire surtax) tax high earners aggressively. Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, Washington, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, New Hampshire have no state income tax.
• AI talent migration — recent migration of AI/ML and analytics talent toward Texas (Austin), Florida (Miami), Tennessee (Nashville) from California and New York for tax advantages. Some employers (Tesla, Oracle) relocated HQ from California to Texas.
• State CS/statistics program supply — California, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia have largest CS / data science / statistics graduate pipelines.

How to Compare Data Analyst Salary by State Effectively

When comparing the average data analyst salary by state, work through this checklist:

• Account for RSU / equity — BLS data captures base only. At FAANG-tier employers, RSU compensation can equal or exceed base. True total comp in tech-hub states materially exceeds BLS percentile figures.
• Compare nominal and real (cost-adjusted) pay together — a state with the highest nominal median can have lower real purchasing power if its cost of living is higher.
• Check state income tax — at senior analyst income levels, no-tax states (TX, FL, TN, NV, WA, WY, SD, AK, NH) deliver $15,000–$50,000+ annual savings vs high-tax states.
• Verify employer pay-band geography — Zone 1 employers (SF Bay, NYC, Seattle) pay 15–30% above Zone 3 / 4 in low-cost states. Remote workers in low-cost states with Zone-1-banded compensation maximize real purchasing power.
• Compare percentile distribution, not just median — tech-hub states show wide P75–P90 spreads driven by FAANG / hedge fund top-tier compensation.
• Factor in industry mix — match analyst plan to state industry strengths (finance NY/IL/CT/NC; healthcare MA/NJ/NC/IN; insurance CT/OH/IL/IA; defense VA/MD/CO).
• Consider AI/ML pivot path — analyst-to-ML-engineer career transitions support meaningful pay increases at tech hub states.

2026 State-Level Data Analyst Salary Outlook

Data analyst pay has grown at a compound annual rate of 4.48% nationally over the past five years — driven by sustained enterprise analytics demand, rapid AI/ML adoption requiring upstream data quality and pipeline analytics, growing GenAI deployment requiring evaluation analytics, and expanding remote-work geographic flexibility. States with rapid tech-hub growth (Texas — Austin, Florida — Miami, Tennessee — Nashville), states with strong finance analytics (New York, Illinois, Connecticut, North Carolina), and tech-hub leaders (California, Washington, Massachusetts) are seeing the fastest state-level pay growth through 2026. The BLS projects Data Analysts employment growth at 23% through 2033 — much faster than average — keeping strong upward pressure on state-level wages.

Browse the state-by-state comparison table below to see the $80,394-baseline state ranking, top 10 and bottom 10 states by projected median, regional groupings (Northeast / Midwest / South / West), and direct links to per-state pages for deeper city-level breakdown.