Data Analyst Certification

The practice of analyzing data to draw valuable insights and make conclusions about the information the data has to offer.

In business, data analytics has an important role: it helps companies understand things like customer churn, the relationship between clientele and location, and which sales tactics work or don’t work.

The kind of insights that data analysts pull from data means businesses can compete with other, data-driven businesses in their niche or sector.

Read our full guide on what is data analysis? for a more in depth explanation of the field.

The most obvious option is data analyst, but other roles where the ability to analyze data and effectively communicate your findings are also open to you:

• Business intelligence specialist
• Marketing analyst
• Researcher
• Supply chain analyst
• Logistics analyst
• And many others

With a professional data analytics certification, you’re able to work in a wide range of positions that involve data management and analysis. With more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data generated every day, there are plenty of those roles up for grabs.

Generous salary prospects, massive global demand for data analysts, and guaranteed industry growth year on year. These factors mean there’s an excellent chance you can land a well-paid, future-proof job as soon as you gain certification.

Data analytics is also fun! When you become a data analyst you have the opportunity to analyze data and uncover the patterns, relationships, and insights it has to offer.

Plus, you get to understand things on a level most people don’t have access to, like how social media click-through rates relate to audience time zones or how algorithmic decision-making affects health interventions.

Companies of all sizes and in all sectors and industries hire data analysts. Businesses these days need data insights to gain or maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly digitalized world, so analysts are always in demand.

Additionally, it’s not just private sector companies hiring data analysts. Public organizations and government entities also need data professionals to help them deliver their services in the best way possible while understanding the people they serve.

$63,595, according to 2022 data from Indeed. While that’s the average salary range for entry-level data analysts with less than a year of experience, analysts with three to five years of experience earn an average salary of $71,063.

At the upper end of the scale, data analysts can earn well over $130,000 per year, depending on the company they work for and the location.

A great many. In fact, there are far more open positions than there are professionals to fill them. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts strong demand for data science skills, with the field estimated to grow around 28% through 2026. That's roughly 11.5 million jobs.

Take a quick look on LinkedIn, Indeed, or Glassdoor and you’ll quickly see that searching for ‘data analyst’ yields thousands of jobs on each platform.

It depends on your focus, prior education, and budget. Many data analyst certifications are platform-specific, such as Cloudera’s CDP offering and Microsoft’s Power BI certificate. If you’re primarily interested in working with one vendor’s platform, these are good options.

However, for a generalist, a certification that covers general data analytics and a mix of technologies and techniques is best. DataCamp’s Data Analyst certification was designed to help people prove their knowledge of general data analytics and the associated tools, and although it’s our certification, it’s also our top pick for that reason!

Other options you might like to consider include the Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) program, but note that you’ll need a Master’s degree in a STEM field, and Columbia University’s Certification of Professional Achievement in Data Sciences. For the latter, note that there’s a $395 technology fee per course for online learning.