Aerospace Engineers vs Nuclear Engineers: Similar Pay, 8.3% vs 0.4% Growth

Aerospace Engineers vs Nuclear Engineers: what changes?

Consider Aerospace Engineers if you want to perform engineering duties in designing, constructing, and testing aircraft, missiles, and spacecraft. Consider Nuclear Engineers if you would rather conduct research on nuclear engineering projects or apply principles and theory of nuclear science to problems concerned with release, control, and use of nuclear energy and nuclear waste disposal. Both list bachelor's degree; compare training and prior experience separately.

Try this next: Compare three local entry-level postings for Aerospace Engineers and Nuclear Engineers. List the duties, credentials, prior experience, and paid training each employer actually asks for. Try a supervised class or sample project from each field before choosing a program.

BLS 2025 wages and 2025–2035 projections. National medians are not starting offers. Occupation size is not a count of vacancies. View the BLS data.

Compare the practical differences

Aerospace Engineers

National median pay (2025): $134,960
Route into the job: Bachelor's degree
Prior related experience: No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.
Training and licensing: BLS does not list a separate on-the-job training requirement. Employers may still provide orientation and role-specific training.
Work to investigate: Formulate mathematical models or other methods of computer analysis to develop, evaluate, or modify design, according to customer engineering requirements.
Annual openings (2025–2035): 3,800

Know before you choose

Review the full career brief for day-to-day working conditions.

See the full Aerospace Engineers brief

Nuclear Engineers

National median pay (2025): $133,970
Route into the job: Bachelor's degree
Prior related experience: No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.
Training and licensing: BLS does not list a separate on-the-job training requirement. Employers may still provide orientation and role-specific training.
Work to investigate: Design or develop nuclear equipment, such as reactor cores, radiation shielding, or associated instrumentation or control mechanisms.
Annual openings (2025–2035): 800

Know before you choose

BLS projects essentially flat employment (0.4%) through 2035. Annual openings mostly reflect replacement, not a rapidly expanding field.

See the full Nuclear Engineers brief

How the national numbers differ

Aerospace Engineers has the edge on projected growth

Aerospace Engineers is at 8.3% projected growth, compared with 0.4% projected growth for Nuclear Engineers.

Aerospace Engineers has the edge on annual openings

Aerospace Engineers is at 3,800 annual openings, compared with 800 annual openings for Nuclear Engineers.

National pay benchmarks are very similar.

Compare actual offers, expected paid hours, schedule, and benefits before treating either career as the higher-paying option.

67.9/ 100

Aerospace Engineers

43.8/ 100

Nuclear Engineers

Each available metric is ranked from 0 to 100 against the careers on ChooseField. The weighted average uses this profile: pay 30%, growth 25%, openings 30%, preparation level 15%. Missing values are not scored as zero; their weights are redistributed across available metrics. Occupation size has zero weight: employment is not accessible vacancies. Preparation categories do not measure admission difficulty or years without earnings. The score summarizes national measures; local opportunities and personal fit still need separate consideration.

Detailed evidence

Aerospace Engineers vs Nuclear Engineers

Dimension	Aerospace Engineers	Nuclear Engineers
Median pay (2025)	$134,960	$133,970
Pay percentile	93.2 percentile	92.7 percentile
Projected growth (2025–2035)	8.3%	0.4%
Annual openings (2025–2035)	3,800	800
2025 employment	68,700	16,600
How you qualify	Bachelor's degree	Bachelor's degree
O*NET preparation group	Job Zone 4	Job Zone 4
Related work experience	No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.	No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.
On-the-job training	BLS does not list a separate on-the-job training requirement. Employers may still provide orientation and role-specific training.	BLS does not list a separate on-the-job training requirement. Employers may still provide orientation and role-specific training.

The table reports national benchmarks and reviewed work descriptions. It does not rate personal suitability, job security, or physical safety.

Read Aerospace Engineers brief Read Nuclear Engineers brief

Aerospace Engineers vs Nuclear Engineers: what changes?

The facts most likely to affect your decision

Aerospace Engineers

Nuclear Engineers

How the national numbers differ

Aerospace Engineers has the edge on projected growth

Aerospace Engineers has the edge on annual openings

National pay benchmarks are very similar.

Aerospace Engineers vs Nuclear Engineers

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