Archivist
Federal headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison for the Archivist occupation series (code 1420), drawn directly from the OPM FedScope dataset (June 2026).
The verdict
Archivist is a smaller, specialized federal occupation: 571 employees (0.0% of the federal civilian workforce) in the Library and Archives Group family. At an average salary of $121,113 it pays near the federal average, and headcount edged down from the prior period.
- Headcount change
- -0.3%
- Pay change
- +0.1%
- Avg tenure
- 15.8 yrs
- Rank in family
- #3 of 6
What the Numbers Say About Archivist
Headcount moved down versus the prior period, a modest but trackable signal for anyone considering this specialized federal career path. Pay moved up between the two reporting periods, a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change. On length of service, this series shows a long average tenure, typical of career federal roles where employees stay through much of a full career before retirement.
The Library and Archives Group family (code 14) groups Archivist together with 5 other related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Archivist postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Library and Archives Group family. Archivist makes up 17.5% of the Library and Archives Group family's 3,259 combined employees. Its average salary ranks in the bottom half (40th percentile) of pay among Library and Archives Group occupations.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Archivist pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$121,113
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+3.2%
Where Archivist ranks on rich federal pay
Archivist earns more on average than 68% of federal occupation series (370 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Archivist sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Archivist.
Related Occupations in Library and Archives Group
5 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archives Technician | 1,284 | $68,544 | 14 yrs |
| Librarian | 660 | $129,880 | 15.7 yrs |
| Technical Information Services | 483 | $128,567 | 16.8 yrs |
| Library Technician | 260 | $70,783 | 16.4 yrs |
| Library and Archives Student Trainee | 1 | n/a | 1.8 yrs |
Nationwide occupation series with similar scale or pay
Two peer sets for Archivist outside the Library and Archives Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (571 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($121,113 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Archivist pay in context with the pay-rank chart above, then compare it with another occupation.
- Turn an average salary into a grade: the GS pay grade tables show how grades and steps map to pay.
- Browse the Library and Archives Group family occupations in the table above, or search current Archivist postings on USAJOBS.
OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.