An actuary is a statistician who analyzes the financial consequences of risk. Actuaries use statistics, mathematics, and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance and pension programs. They evaluate the likelihood of those events and design creative ways to reduce the likelihood and decrease the impact of adverse events that do occur. Their work designing and managing programs that control risk requires a combination of strong analytical skills, business knowledge, and understanding of human behavior.

Actuaries enjoy excellent job security, high incomes, and a low-stress work environment. Careers in actuarial science are consistently ranked among the top three professions. Competent actuaries are highly recruited and can have many professional opportunities. Actuaries are employed across a wide variety of industries and typically become established in one of the following career tracks: enterprise riskmanagement, quantitative finance and investment, life insurance, health insurance, and retirementbenefits. By focusing on development of data analysis skills, actuaries can also easily transition to business analytics settings.