What Can You Do with a Doctorate in Public Health?
By Sam MacArthur

A working professional in the public health field may wonder whether getting their doctorate is worth their time. It’s a reasonable question; there are a number of factors ranging from what careers they can obtain with a doctorate to what the average salary is for someone with a doctorate in public health. This is especially the case since the price to earn a doctorate can be quite high. Individuals may also wonder about how in-demand PhD in public health jobs are.

What Can I Do With a Doctorate in Public Health?

Before a person decides to earn a PhD, he or she may wonder what can you do with a doctorate in public health. To answer what can you do with a PhD in public health, a person should understand that his or her options are vast. For instance, he or she could teach public health courses in a college or university as one of the PhD in public health careers.

A health and safety engineer is another one of the public health PhD jobs, but a person can obtain this position with only a bachelor’s. This is one of the high-paying PhD jobs. When searching for jobs for PhD in public health, a person will also notice that he or she could become a public health researcher, which means he or she would get to conduct research to help find solutions for public health concerns.

An epidemiologist is another one of the PhD public health jobs. As one of the career opportunities for a PhD in public health, a person who enters into this position studies public health. He or she would look for patterns and determine causes of diseases and injuries. This is one of the PhD public health careers that allow a person to determine solutions for diseases and injuries.

Additionally, what can you do with a doctorate in public health includes a biostatistician. As an answer to what can you do with a PhD in public health, these individuals conduct research regarding data related to public health.

Other jobs for PhD in public health include public health consultant, global health professional, or a public health policy advisor. Health and safety engineers earn an average salary of $89,130 per year.

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How Much Can I Make With a Doctorate in Public Health?

Besides knowing what can I do with a doctorate in public health, a person may also be inquisitive about how much career opportunities for a PhD in public health can earn a person. Those who take on public health PhD jobs as biostatisticians can earn over $80,00 per year, possibly even over $100,000 per year. The average statistician earns a median wage of $87,780 while a biostatistician may earn slightly more since he or she has a specialty in statistics.

Epidemiologists, on the other hand, earn a median annual age of $75,690. The top-paying PhD in public heath jobs for this particular position pay $112,600 per year or more.

Career opportunities for a PhD in public health as a public health advisors can earn a person an average of $99,730 per year. However, if a person chooses PhD public health jobs in colleges or universities, a person may earn $78,470 annually or even $124,580 or more.

Are Public Health PhD Careers in Demand?

Besides having a general understanding of how much the salary is of PhD in public health careers, a person should also understand if he or she has a good chance of finding a job after completing their PhD. PhD in public health jobs as a biostatistician are in demand right now and opportunities are only supposed to grow in number. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that the number of jobs will grow by 30 percent from 2018 until 2028.

Although the number of positions for health safety engineers isn’t projected to grow tremendously, the number of jobs is expected to grow by five percent from 2018 until 2028. From 2018 until 2028, the number of epidemiologist positions will grow by five percent. The job growth of these two PhD in public health careers is average when compared to other jobs.

Entering into a career as a public health manager will lead to a number of potential opportunities in the future since this job is expected to grow by 18 percent from 2018 until 2028, which is much faster than average.

The jobs for health and safety engineers will grow by five percent from 2018 until 2028 while the need for post secondary teachers will increase by 18 percent from 2018 until 2028. Although the job increase for health and safety engineers is average, the need for post secondary teachers will grow much faster than average.

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