Data Science vs Data Analyst: Ultimate Guide to Clear Doubts

Do you want to know about Data Science vs Data Analyst?. Or You are confused between Data Science and Data Analyst?. If yes, then give your few minutes to this article, in order to clear your doubts regarding Data Science and Data Analyst. And get ready to dive into these fields according to your skills.

Hello, & Welcome!

In this blog, I am gonna tell you-

1. What is a Data Analyst?
2. What is Data Scientist?
3. In terms of Qualification: Data Science vs Data Analyst.
4. Skill Set Required: Data Science vs Data Analyst.
5. Roles & Responsibilities: Data Science vs Data Analyst.
6. Salary: Data Science vs Data Analyst.

Firstly, I would like to start with-

What is a Data Analyst?

Today’s age is of the Data age, where lots of data is generated daily. So to handle this huge amount of data, there are various roles are in demand. The Data Analyst is one of the roles. A data analyst takes the data, perform analysis on this data and help companies to make better decisions. Data analysts perform analysis on numeric as well as other kinds of data. Then convert it into the English language so that anyone can understand. After translating it to the English language, the upper management uses this data to make a better decision, that helps them in the business.

So the main responsibilities of Data analysts are to collect the data. Then performs correlation analysis and reports it to upper management.

What is Data Scientist?

A data scientist is a professional, who works on a vast amount of data. This data may be structured as well as unstructured. They use their all skills like statistics, programming, and machine learning for creating a tactical plan. A data scientist has the power of all data editor activities. For business-related decision making, a data scientist has a higher probability to make a decision.

In terms of Qualification: Data Science vs Data Analyst

Data Analyst Qualification-

A data analyst should have the following qualification-

1. Should have a Bachelor’s Degree.
2. Statistics knowledge.
3. Technical Skills.
4. Data Preprocessing knowledge( Includes handling, cleaning, and modeling of Data).
5. Business and Reporting Skills.

So, qualifying the Data Analyst role is very simple. Because it requires only a bachelor’s degree plus some statistical and technical knowledge.

NOTE- The technical skill gives you more preference over other applicants.

Data Scientist Qualification-

A Data Scientist should have the following qualifications-

1. Master’s Degree or Ph.D. Degree in statistics, mathematics, or computer science.
2. Advanced statistical Analyses.
3. Programming Knowledge such a Python, R, and SQL, Pig, Hive, etc.
4. In-depth Knowledge of Machine Learning.
5. Knowledge of Distributed Computing frameworks like Hadoop.
6. Data-driven problem-solving.
7. Data Conditioning.
8. Must have 5-7 years of experience as a Data Engineer.

Skill Set Required: Data Science vs Data Analyst

In terms of skills sets required to become a Data Analyst is-

Data Analyst: Skill Set

1. Data warehousing. (means to deal with data processing like collection, cleaning, and other processes).
2. Adobe and Google Analytics.
3. Must have programming Knowledge. (It is not mandatory but a plus if you have).
4. Statistical Skills.
5. Data Visualization Skills.
6. Database Knowledge like SQL.
7. Spreadsheet Knowledge.

Data Scientist: Skill Set

A Data scientist required following skills sets-

1. A Data scientist must be a master in Statistical and Analytical skills.
2. They should have in-depth knowledge of Machine Learning and Deep Learning.
3. A Data scientist must have data mining skills.
4. In-depth knowledge of programming languages( Python, R, SAS).

Roles & Responsibilities: Data Science vs Data Analyst

In terms of roles and responsibilities, a data analyst and data scientist have following-

Data Analyst: Roles & Responsibilities-

1. A Data analyst performs Statistical Analyses and Data interpretation.
2. They find out important insights from a huge amount of data.
3. A Data analyst creates a data report with the help of various reporting tools. So that business executives can make better business decisions.
4. Data Acquisition and maintenance.
5. Data Cleaning, a data analyst clean the data. Cleaning requires removing noise from the data. The collected data contains noise, so data analysts clean the data before analysis.
6. A data analyst writes SQL queries for data extraction from the Data warehouse.

Data Scientist: Roles & Responsibilities-

A Data Scientist need to perform a lot of tasks, this includes-

1. A data Scientist performs Data Mining to find out valuable insights from the data.
2. They develop Operational Models.
3. A Data Scientist performs Data enhancement and sourcing.
4. They must have in-depth knowledge of machine learning. So that they can develop custom data models and algorithms.
5. A Data Scientist does strategic planning for data analysis.
6. Data Integration.
7. A Data scientist develops a tool in order to track anomaly detection and track the performance of a model.
8. They perform A/B testing in order to test the quality of a model.

Salary: Data Science vs Data Analyst.

In terms of salary, no doubts a Data scientist earns much more as compared to data analyst. Let’s see how much they earn.

Data Analyst: Salary-

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a Data Analyst in 2025 is given below.

A Data Analyst earns in the USA $ 62,453/year.

Whereas, in India, A Data Analyst earn- INR 524K/yr.

Data Scientist: Salary-

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a Data Scientist in 2025 is given below.

A Data Scientist earns in the USA $ 113K/yr.

Whereas, in India, A Data Scientist earns- INR 1,020K/yr.

Final Note-

I know you have some questions in your mind after reading the whole article like-

I hope, now you understand the difference between a Data Analyst and Data Scientist. If you have any other questions regarding the Data Analyst and Data Scientist, just post in the comment section.

Enjoy Learning!

All the Best!

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Though of the Day…

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– John Wooden