Historians
Explore safer careers (3)
Lower estimated automation risk
Why it fits
Applies historical scholarship, historiography, research, lectures, writing feedback, curriculum, and academic publication.
Why it fits
Fits historians with regional or cultural expertise using research, teaching, writing, mentoring, and curriculum development.
Why it fits
Uses archival research, cultural context, field records, artifact interpretation, source criticism, and report writing with method training.
Occupation snapshot
What does this snowflake show?
What's this?
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
Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.
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.
Critical thinking
Very importantWhy this matters
Communicating with people outside the organization
Very importantWhy this matters
Active learning
Very importantWhy this matters
Social perceptiveness
Quite importantWhy this matters
Thinking creatively
Quite importantWhy this matters
Show 2 more strengths
Developing objectives and strategies
Quite importantWhy this matters
Education and training expertise
Quite importantWhy this matters
What users think
Based on 356 votes
Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 22% chance of automation.
What do you think the risk of automation is?
What is the likelihood that Historians will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?
Sentiment
Based on user votes over time
View sentiment trend
How opinions have changed over time
Pay & outlook
Wages
In 2024, the median annual wage for Historians was $74,050 ($36 per hour).
The median annual wage for Historians was 49.6% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.
View wage trend
Wages over time
Growth
The number of 'Historians' job openings is expected to rise 2.2% by 2034
View employment trend
Total employment, and estimated job openings
Updated projections are due 09-2025.
Volume
As of 2024 there were 3,140 people employed as 'Historians' within the United States.
This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country
Put another way, around 1 in 49 thousand people are employed as 'Historians'.
People also viewed
Job description
Research, analyze, record, and interpret the past as recorded in sources, such as government and institutional records, newspapers and other periodicals, photographs, interviews, films, electronic media, and unpublished manuscripts, such as personal diaries and letters.
O*NET-SOC code: 19-3093.00
What people are saying (12)
AI Reasoning
AI language comprehension and understanding of nuance and the secondary meanings of texts, items, and pictures.
OCR text recognition
Serious digitisation efforts that are neither cost efficient, sustainable, or practical for archival sources.
AI will not be able to perform the archival research needed to create new, innovative histories. Therefore, historians will remain completely safe from AI takeover.
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