Cartographers and Photogrammetrists

Moderate Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (5)

Lower estimated automation risk

Remote Sensing Scientists and Technologists
20% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better More jobs
26.8 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Remote imagery analysis and spatial methods transfer well, with added scientific analysis depth.

Geographic Information Systems Technologists and Technicians
28% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better More jobs
18.8 pts lower View career
Why it fits

GIS databases, spatial data, mapping tools, and user support are core overlaps with cartography work.

Geographers
19% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better
27.8 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Geographic research, spatial interpretation, and map-based analysis are highly reusable.

Database Architects
22% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better Higher growth
24.5 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Spatial database design and data quality experience can support broader database architecture with retraining.

Computer Systems Analysts
29% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better Higher growth
17.1 pts lower View career
Why it fits

GIS workflow, requirements, and mapping-system experience can transfer to systems analysis roles.

Compare this job with others
or search for another job
Share your results with friends and family.

Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
4.8/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

46% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): This occupation may be meaningfully affected by automation. Some parts of the role may be suitable for AI, software, or robotics, while others still rely on human skill, judgement, trust, or real-world context. People in this range may benefit from building skills that complement automation and reduce replacement risk.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
Jobs that also use this strength

Communicating with people outside the organization

Very important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
Jobs that also use this strength

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
Jobs that also use this strength

Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
Jobs that also use this strength
Show 1 more strength

Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 58 votes

59% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 46% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Cartographers and Photogrammetrists will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

View sentiment trend

Pay & outlook

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Cartographers and Photogrammetrists was $78,380 ($38 per hour).

The median annual wage for Cartographers and Photogrammetrists was 58.3% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Cartographers and Photogrammetrists' job openings is expected to rise 6.4% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 12,790 people employed as 'Cartographers and Photogrammetrists' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 12 thousand people are employed as 'Cartographers and Photogrammetrists'.

People also viewed

Computer Programmers Civil Engineers Web Developers Lawyers Electrical Engineers

What people are saying (1)

Bagrovskiy (Highly likely)
28 Jul 2025 22:09
In my job we have automatic process and I understand that my job is very unified:(
Leave a reply about this occupation
0/8000

Job description

Research, study, and prepare maps and other spatial data in digital or graphic form for one or more purposes, such as legal, social, political, educational, and design purposes. May work with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). May design and evaluate algorithms, data structures, and user interfaces for GIS and mapping systems. May collect, analyze, and interpret geographic information provided by geodetic surveys, aerial photographs, and satellite data.

O*NET-SOC code: 17-1021.00