Business Intelligence Analyst Salary: Median Pay, Top States, and What a Degree Costs

Business intelligence analysts sit inside the BLS occupation for data scientists, whose May 2025 median wage was $120,230 and mean was $126,800. Pay runs from $67,240 at the 10th percentile to $199,130 at the 90th. Your state can move the number by tens of thousands of dollars, and an online AI degree costs far less than a year of that median.

What Is the Median Business Intelligence Analyst Salary?

BLS does not have a line called business intelligence analyst. It counts the job with data scientists, so these numbers describe that wider group, which also includes people who build predictive models. Read them as the market range, not as a promise for one title.

The national May 2025 figures:

• Median: $120,230 a year, or $57.80 an hour.
• Mean: $126,800 a year, or $60.96 an hour.
• Jobs counted: 262,440.

The mean sits above the median because the highest earners pull it up. If you want one number to plan around, use the median, since half of workers earn more and half earn less.

Our career page for business intelligence analyst jobs covers the duties and how to get hired. This page stays on pay.

How Much Do Business Intelligence Analysts Earn at Each Percentile?

Percentiles are the best view of experience that federal data offers. BLS does not report pay by years on the job, so we will not invent bands like “entry level” or “senior.” What the percentiles show is how the whole range is laid out.

• 10th percentile: $67,240. One in ten workers earns this or less.
• 25th percentile: $85,660.
• Median: $120,230.
• 75th percentile: $158,880.
• 90th percentile: $199,130. One in ten earns this or more.

The middle half of workers, from the 25th to the 75th percentile, earn between $85,660 and $158,880. That gap is large for one occupation group. It reflects differences in skills, employer size, location and job content, not just tenure.

People earlier in their careers are more likely to sit in the lower half, and people with deep modeling skills in the upper tail.

What Moves Business Intelligence Pay?

Four things show up in postings.

State. This is the factor you can measure. The same group has a median of $163,350 in Washington and $69,490 in Mississippi. The next section shows the table.

Skill mix. BLS describes the group’s work as collecting and analyzing data, building and validating models, visualizing findings and advising managers. Analysts who can do the modeling and the advising sit toward the upper percentiles more often than those who only build reports. That is our reading, not a BLS statistic.

Employer. Pay differs by company, and the OEWS data we use does not break pay out by industry, so we cannot show an industry comparison here. Compare the offers you actually see.

Scope of the job. A role that includes forecasting and machine learning is closer to a data scientist job than a reporting job. The title alone will not tell you, so read the duties.

Which States Pay Business Intelligence Analysts the Most?

By median wage, these states lead, along with how many jobs BLS counted in each.

• Washington: median $163,350, with 9,600 jobs.
• California: median $141,590, with 39,310 jobs.
• Maryland: median $136,370, with 3,340 jobs.
• New Jersey: median $135,280, with 6,430 jobs.
• Massachusetts: median $131,750, with 9,420 jobs.
• New York: median $130,460, with 23,970 jobs.
• Minnesota: median $128,800, with 4,020 jobs.
• Virginia: median $126,430, with 8,920 jobs.

BLS also ranks states by annual mean wage. On that measure, Washington has $158,040, California $156,000, Maryland $144,080, the District of Columbia $142,580 and New Jersey $138,590.

California’s spread is the widest worth noting. Its 10th percentile is $77,480 and its 90th is $224,920, so the top tenth earns well above the national top tier of $199,130. Washington is similar, with $79,930 at the 10th percentile and $220,040 at the 90th.

How Wide Is the Range Inside One State?

State medians hide the spread. In Texas, the 10th percentile is $64,540 and the 90th is $170,780. In Mississippi, it runs from $43,940 to $125,990. Those ranges overlap with other states’ middles, which tells you something useful: a strong analyst in a lower-paying state can still earn more than a weaker one in a higher-paying state.

Use state data as a starting point for a salary conversation, then adjust for the specific job. A posting that asks for forecasting, machine learning and stakeholder presentations belongs near the upper end of whatever your state’s range is. A posting for routine weekly reports belongs nearer the middle.

Which States Pay Business Intelligence Analysts the Least?

The low end is just as informative. Mississippi has a median of $69,490, Louisiana $78,760, North Dakota $81,900 and Alaska $84,110.

These states also tend to have fewer jobs. BLS counted 440 in Mississippi and 1,300 in Louisiana. That does not mean you cannot build a career there. It means fewer employers hire for the job, and remote roles may matter more.

Cost of living matters too. A lower salary in a cheaper state can leave you with more money left over than a higher salary in an expensive one. The wage data does not adjust for that, so compare rent and taxes before you chase the top of the table.

Where Are the Most Business Intelligence Jobs?

Pay is only useful if there are openings near you. California has 39,310 jobs, Texas has 25,860, New York 23,970, Pennsylvania 13,810 and North Carolina 11,430. Florida has 10,240 and Illinois has 10,520.

Texas and Pennsylvania have many jobs but middling pay, with medians of $122,090 and $106,850. Washington pays the most and has 9,600 jobs. California and New York do both reasonably well: lots of jobs and medians above $130,000.

If openings matter most, look at the job-heavy states. If pay matters most, look at the pay-heavy ones.

How Does the Outlook Affect Pay?

BLS projects 35 percent growth for the group from 2025 to 2035, which it describes as much faster than the average. That is about 95,400 more jobs on a base of 275,600 in 2025, plus about 24,800 openings a year when replacement of departing workers is counted.

Fast growth can support wages, but BLS does not say that it will. Treat the projection as a sign that demand is healthy, not as a forecast of your raise. Projections are estimates and BLS revises them.

What Does an Online AI Degree Cost Compared With This Pay?

Cost is where the numbers get practical. Here are the totals schools print for online programs that teach AI for business or applied AI.

• Saint Louis University, Applied AI and Decision Analytics master’s: $24,300 for 30 credits at $810 each.
• Boston University, Online MS in AI in Business: $25,000 for 32 credits.
• University of Cincinnati, AI Management master’s: $34,800 for 30 credits.
• University of Arizona, AI for Business master’s: $37,500 at a flat $1,250 per credit.
• Oregon State University, Business Analytics and Applied AI master’s: $43,425 for 45 credits.
• Georgetown University, AI Management master’s: $52,560 for 30 credits.

Against the national median of $120,230, a master’s near $25,000 is about a fifth of one year’s pay. The Oregon State program is a bit over a third. Georgetown’s is a bit under half.

Cheaper options exist. The University of Texas at Austin’s online master’s in artificial intelligence is $9,990 for 30 credits, which is under a tenth of that median, though it is an engineering-style AI degree, not a business one. The University of Colorado Boulder’s Coursera master’s is $15,750.

Our cheapest online AI degrees ranking sorts programs by per-credit price, and our online master’s in AI ranking lists every master’s with format and admission details.

What About Certificates and Bachelor’s Degrees?

A certificate is the lowest-cost way to test whether AI skills help your career. The University of Rochester’s Graduate Certificate in AI in Business is listed at $7,500. Penn State World Campus lists its AI for Business and Innovation certificate at $9,801 for 9 credits. Saint Louis University’s post-baccalaureate certificate is $7,290 for 9 credits.

A bachelor’s costs more because it is longer. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s online Bachelor of Science in Applied Artificial Intelligence is $67,800 for 120 credits. Dakota State University’s Artificial Intelligence in Organizations bachelor’s is $44,856 at $373.80 per credit.

BLS lists a bachelor’s as the typical entry education for this group, so the bachelor’s is where most people begin. The master’s and certificate are for people who already have one.

Will a Degree Pay for Itself?

It depends on your starting pay, your employer and the program you choose.

What we can give you is a way to think about it. Take the price of the program and compare it with the gap between where you are now and the median.

If you earn $67,240 or $85,660 today, the distance to $120,230 is real money, and a $25,000 program is a plausible bet if it moves you into modeling and forecasting work. If you already earn near the median, the same program is a smaller bet.

Employer tuition help changes the math. Ask HR before you enroll, because some employers help with the cost of degrees tied to your role. Certificate students at Penn State, for example, are not eligible for federal student aid, so ask each school what funding applies.

Our guide on whether an AI degree is worth it goes deeper on the decision.

What Do These Numbers Not Tell You?

A median is one number in a wide range, and it hides a lot.

It does not tell you what a new hire earns. BLS reports pay for everyone in the group, not for people in their first year.

It does not tell you about the job itself. A title like business intelligence analyst can mean building dashboards all day or running forecasts. Pay follows the second more than the first.

It does not tell you about bonuses, equity or benefits. OEWS wages cover base pay for wage and salary workers.

And it does not tell you what any given employer will offer. Use the range to ask good questions. If an offer sits at the low end, ask why. If it sits well above, ask what the employer expects in return.

How Do You Use These Numbers?

Take the range, not the midpoint. Check your state in the table above. Then read three real postings in your area and see which parts of the work sound like a reporting job and which sound like a modeling job.

Then price your education against that range. Our business intelligence analyst jobs page lists the degree levels that fit, and the AI for business ranking shows which programs publish prices. For a nearby field, see our page on machine learning engineer pay, which draws on the same BLS occupation.