Data science is an interdisciplinary field focused on extracting knowledge from data sets. The field encompasses analysis, preparing data for analysis, and presenting findings to inform high-level decisions in an organization. Data science incorporates skills from computer science, mathematics, statistics, information visualization, graphic design, and business. In 2015, the American Statistical Association identified database management, statistics and machine learning, and distributed and parallel systems as the three emerging foundational professional communities.

Data science is currently an expanding field. Data scientist is ranked at the third best job in America for 2020 by Glassdoor and was ranked the number one best job from 2016-2019. Data scientists have a median salary of $118,370 per year or $56.91 per hour. Job growth in this field is also above average, with a projected increase of 16% from 2018 to 2028. The largest employer of data scientists in the United States is the federal government, employing 28% of the data science workforce. Other large employers of data scientists are computer system design services, research and development laboratories, and colleges and universities. Most data scientists work full time, and some work more than 40 hours a week.