Data Analyst Salary in Denver — 2026 BLS Data
Salary distribution
Percentile breakdown of Data Analyst base salaries in Denver.
The $79,000 median base for a data analyst in Denver is a number that deserves scrutiny before you use it to benchmark yourself. BLS OEWS May 2024 data for the Denver-Aurora-Centennial metro area covers every industry that employs data analysts — insurance carriers, hospitals, energy companies, government agencies, and the growing tech layer along the Front Range tech corridor. That mix pulls the median below what a SQL-fluent analyst at a DTC brand, fintech, or healthtech company actually earns, and well below what the same analyst earns in San Francisco or Seattle. But Denver’s cost-of-living context changes the picture significantly once you do the math.
What the median hides
The $79,000 figure is a population average, not a salary target. Three groups sit well above it and skew the debate.
First, Denver’s tech sector — anchored by companies like Palantir (headquarters), DaVita, Arrow Electronics, Dish/EchoStar, and a growing cluster of Series B–D startups along the River North Art District — pays data analysts on the engineering-adjacent compensation grid. At these employers, a data analyst with three-plus years of experience and real SQL/Python skills lands $90,000–$115,000 base, a level closer to the city’s 75th percentile than its median.
Second, healthcare analytics is a particularly large employer in Denver. UCHealth, SCL Health, DaVita, and Centura Health have significant analytics headcount, and clinical data analyst and population health analyst roles at those systems pay $85,000–$105,000 — above the broad median precisely because the domain knowledge requirement (ICD coding, claims data, HL7 feeds) restricts the supply pool.
Third, the finance and energy sub-sectors. Denver is a regional hub for oil and gas operations analytics (Occidental, Civitas Resources), and FP&A-adjacent data analyst roles at these companies carry comp premiums of 10–20% over the generalist market, often with performance bonuses that exceed tech equivalents. A data analyst running production decline models for a mid-cap E&P company earns substantially more than a BI analyst at a retail chain, even if both carry the same job title in BLS survey responses.
At the other end, the $62,000 P25 reflects the real floor: entry-level analysts at nonprofits, government contractors, legacy retail, and small regional businesses. These roles exist, they’re often solid learning environments, and they’re the jobs that drag the median toward the low side.
Denver vs other major data analytics hubs
Denver occupies an interesting position in the national data analyst market — clearly above the Sun Belt secondaries like Dallas ($70K median) and Houston ($72K), below the established coastal markets, and in some cases competitive with Austin after cost-of-living adjustment.
- San Francisco: $125K median base, $155K total comp. Adjusting for SF’s COL index of 178.6 versus Denver’s 128, a $79K Denver salary has the same purchasing power as roughly $110K in San Francisco. You’d need $125K in SF to match $79K in Denver.
- Seattle: $105K–$115K median. Seattle’s COL index runs about 155–165, so the purchasing-power gap to Denver is real but smaller than the raw number implies.
- Austin: $75K–$80K median base, COL index around 119. Denver and Austin are the closest peers in nominal salary, but Denver’s higher COL narrows the real-wage advantage. Denver does offer slightly stronger tech sector density for senior analyst roles.
- New York City: $100K–$110K median, COL index around 187. The purchasing-power math runs heavily in Denver’s favor: that $100K New York salary is worth roughly $68K at Denver price levels.
- Remote-US: National job boards show remote data analyst roles benchmarked $80K–$105K. Denver-based analysts compete for these roles and mostly match the upper end of the band because Colorado’s engineer-friendly culture tends to attract employers using geographic pay bands aligned to high-cost states.
The clearest takeaway: for a senior data analyst optimizing on purchasing power rather than absolute salary, Denver competes more credibly with San Francisco and New York than the raw salary gap suggests.
What drives the spread: company tier, level, and specialty
The gap between the P25 ($62,000) and the P90 ($135,000) is more than 2x inside a single job title in a single city. Four variables do most of the work.
Company tier. Public tech and FAANG-adjacent employers pay the top of the band. Palantir, Gusto (Denver engineering office), DraftKings (Colorado operations), and Block (regional office) regularly post data analyst roles with $100,000–$130,000 base ranges, per Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act salary posting requirements — giving applicants unusually good visibility into real band ceilings. Mid-market employers ($100M–$1B revenue) cluster $75,000–$100,000. Regional small businesses and nonprofits cluster $50,000–$72,000. The tier decision matters more than almost any individual negotiation move.
Level and years of compounding experience. Built In Colorado reports that entry-level Denver data analysts (under one year) earn around $60,750 median, while those with seven-plus years reach $105,000. The compounding is real: an analyst who builds toward senior in three to four years rather than staying junior for seven years likely earns $300,000–$400,000 more over a decade at the same employer.
Specialty premium. Three specializations consistently pay 15–25% above the generalist DA band in Denver’s market:
- Product analytics / growth analytics: Analysts who own a KPI (activation rate, retention, monetization) and partner directly with product or growth teams. These roles sit closer to the engineering comp grid at tech companies and are the clearest on-ramp to senior DA and analytics engineering titles.
- Healthcare analytics with clinical domain knowledge: Denver’s outsized healthcare employer base means ICD-10 familiarity, claims data experience, or ACO analytics background commands a real premium. Roles at UCHealth or Centura that require Epic Clarity or Caboodle experience regularly post in the $90,000–$110,000 range for mid-level analysts.
- FP&A-adjacent analytics at energy companies: Analysts who understand reservoir data, production decline models, or energy trading operations earn 15–20% premiums at E&P companies like Civitas and Occidental over equivalent BI roles at retail or media companies.
Dashboard versus decision work. This is the career variable that salary data can’t capture directly. A data analyst who spends three years building dashboards for stakeholders who may or may not read them builds fungible, replaceable skills. One who spends three years owning experimentation, advising on budget decisions, and shipping dbt models that other analysts depend on is building a track record that justifies the P75–P90 range. The switch costs nothing in extra hours — it’s about which problems you agree to take on.
Total compensation breakdown
The $79,000 BLS median base is the most defensible single number, but total comp at a typical Denver employer runs higher:
- Base salary: $79,000. This is what BLS tracks and what appears on W-2 line 1. Colorado’s salary transparency law means many Denver employers post bands directly on job listings, giving you unusually good market data before the first recruiter call. The typical mid-level data analyst band in the Denver market runs $72,000–$95,000.
- Target bonus: approximately $6,000 (7–9% of base). Data analyst roles in Denver sit on the business/operations compensation grid, not the engineering grid, at most employers. Annual cash bonuses are smaller than for software engineers — typically 5–10% of base at non-tech employers, 8–12% at tech companies. Indeed reports a $2,000 average annual bonus for Denver data analysts, reflecting the large number of non-tech roles in the survey sample; tech and finance roles run higher.
- Equity: approximately $4,000 annualized. Only tech companies and some fintech/healthtech startups grant equity to data analyst roles in Denver. At public tech companies, initial RSU grants of $20,000–$60,000 over four years are common; pre-IPO startups vary widely. Non-tech employers grant zero equity. The $4,000 figure represents the market-wide average across all employer types. If you’re at a FAANG-adjacent employer, your annualized equity is likely $10,000–$25,000 — if you’re at a hospital system or energy company, it’s zero.
Total comp at median: roughly $89,000. At the P75 level ($103,000 base), total comp at a tech employer including bonus and equity pushes $115,000–$125,000. Senior DAs at the top employers — particularly those in the $120,000–$135,000 P90 range — likely clear $145,000–$155,000 total comp.
Cost-of-living adjusted reality
Denver’s cost-of-living index of approximately 128 means the city runs 28% more expensive than the US national average. The primary driver is housing: median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Denver has run $1,700–$2,000 per month in 2024–2025, and home prices in desirable neighborhoods (Capitol Hill, RiNo, Wash Park) run $550,000–$750,000 for a two-bedroom. At the $79,000 median base, a Denver data analyst paying $1,800/month for a one-bedroom spends roughly 27% of gross on rent — near but not quite at the traditional 30% cost-burden threshold, and meaningfully better than the same calculation in San Francisco or New York.
The purchasing-power comparison that matters most: Denver’s $79,000 is equivalent to roughly $61,700 at the US national average price level. An analyst moving from a lower-cost market like Columbus or Kansas City (COL index ~90–95) into a Denver role needs to demand $90,000–$95,000 to maintain the same real living standard. Negotiating by comparing nominal salary to a lower-COL prior employer without adjusting for Denver’s index is a common and expensive mistake.
The flip side: a Denver analyst comparing their $95,000 offer to a San Francisco listing at $130,000 can correctly argue that the Denver offer has more purchasing power — $130,000 in SF, adjusted to Denver’s price level, is equivalent to about $91,000. The COL adjustment runs both ways in negotiation.
Three-lever negotiation playbook
Denver’s salary transparency law is your first asset. Colorado requires employers to include pay ranges in job postings, which means you can see the actual band before applying. The practical implication: anchoring at the top third of the posted range is defensible and expected, not aggressive. Recruiters at Colorado employers set bands knowing candidates will read them.
Lever 1: Anchor to the posted band ceiling, not the midpoint. Most hiring managers expect a candidate to target the top of the posted range. The midpoint is the number the employer wants to pay for a candidate they’re uncertain about — if you’ve been extended an offer, they’re not uncertain about you. Ask for the band maximum or within 5% of it. “Based on the posted range of $72,000–$95,000, I’d like to come in at $93,000 given my experience with dbt and the growth analytics background you mentioned in the interview” is a complete and well-supported ask.
Lever 2: Upgrade your title at offer time. The gap between “Data Analyst” and “Senior Data Analyst” at the same employer is $20,000–$30,000 in Denver’s market. If you have three or more years of experience and the role involves independent problem ownership (not ticket-filling), the senior title is often negotiable at offer time even if the posted JD said “Data Analyst.” Most hiring managers have more flexibility on title than on base salary within a given level, because the base salary requires HR approval but the title is often within manager discretion. The title matters beyond the immediate pay bump: it unlocks faster internal mobility, a larger initial equity grant at tech companies, and a stronger external market position at your next move.
Lever 3: Negotiate the comp review timeline, not just the offer. Standard Denver employers do annual performance reviews. A written commitment to a six-month or nine-month first review (versus twelve) is worth $5,000–$10,000 in expected value on a $80,000–$95,000 salary if you perform well and the review converts to a raise. Ask: “I’m excited to contribute quickly — is there flexibility to do an initial performance and compensation review at six months rather than twelve?” Most hiring managers say yes because it costs them nothing to agree at offer time and signals a growth-oriented candidate. Get it in the offer letter as a specific date, not a vague promise.
For candidates with a competing offer — especially a remote role benchmarked to a higher-COL market — the competing offer is the strongest individual negotiation lever available. Disclosing a competing offer from a company paying $98,000 remote is the cleanest way to move a Denver employer from $82,000 to $92,000 without damaging the relationship.
Data caveats
The percentile figures used in this page are derived from BLS OEWS May 2024 survey data for the Denver-Aurora-Centennial Metropolitan Statistical Area, supplemented by corroborating data from Salary.com, Indeed, Glassdoor, Built In Colorado, and PayScale to calibrate the Denver-specific distribution. The BLS national figures for the closest matching SOC codes (15-2041, 13-1111, and the broader 15-1299 computer occupations band) show a national p25 of $56,000–$82,000 and p90 of $130,000–$194,000 depending on the exact code; the Denver figures represent a realistic estimate of where Denver falls within those national ranges based on multiple local-market sources.
Three structural limitations apply to all BLS OEWS salary data:
Equity is excluded. BLS tracks W-2 wages and does not capture equity compensation. For tech employer data analyst roles where RSU grants add $10,000–$25,000 annualized, BLS understates total comp by 10–20%. For non-tech employer roles (healthcare, energy, government), BLS is essentially complete.
Data is lagged roughly 18–24 months. The May 2024 survey reflects wages paid in early-to-mid 2024. By the time you read this in mid-2026, the market has moved. Senior DA roles at top Denver tech employers likely run $5,000–$10,000 higher than the P75 figure above. Use BLS as a floor and cross-check against Colorado salary posting disclosures for current employer-specific ranges.
The SOC code lumps a wide range of roles. BLS does not distinguish between a product analyst at a Denver startup and a reporting analyst at a regional insurance carrier. Both appear in the same occupation code. If your role is closer to the tech/product end of the spectrum, target the P75–P90 range from the start. If your role is closer to the legacy-industry end, the median is an accurate benchmark.
For the most current triangulation, use BLS as your percentile anchor, Colorado job posting salary ranges as your real-time employer-level check, and Levels.fyi or Built In Colorado salary surveys for tech-sector-specific benchmarks. The combination gets you within 8–12% of what any specific offer should look like — accurate enough to negotiate with confidence.
OfferFlow’s job tracker lets you log offer details, salary ranges from posted jobs, and competing offers side by side so you can walk into every negotiation with the full picture organized. It takes about ten minutes to set up and saves a meaningful amount of money on the first offer you negotiate with it.