Actuary Salary in Illinois 2026,
$115,430 Median | BLS Data by City

Illinois actuaries earn a median $115,430 a year, $55.50 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $95,940 and $158,540 and a full range of $77,790 to $202,160. That is 11.2% below the $130,000 national median, which reflects the size of Illinois's entry-level actuarial cohort rather than weak pay at the senior end.

Of the areas BLS publishes for this occupation, Springfield leads at $117,590, ahead of Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $113,730, with the Illinois statewide figure at $115,430. The three sit within four thousand dollars of each other, which tells you that in Illinois actuarial pay is set by exam credential and employer, not by metro.

No state licence exists. Illinois has no actuarial board and IDFPR issues no actuarial credential. The ladder is run by the professional bodies — the Society of Actuaries and the Casualty Actuarial Society — through their examination sequences to associateship and fellowship. The Illinois Department of Insurance does require insurers to appoint a qualified actuary for statutory opinions, but that qualification rests on the professional credential, not on a state-issued licence.

Because Illinois hires a disproportionate share of the country's entry-level actuaries. With 2.18 times the national concentration, the state's insurers run large actuarial student programmes, and every analyst on one or two exams sits in this wage row near the $77,790 tenth percentile. A state with fewer, more senior actuarial seats posts a higher median without paying its fellows any better.

Meaningfully, because actuarial income rises fast. Illinois charges 4.95% on every dollar with no graduated brackets, so exam-driven raises and exam-passage bonuses are taxed at exactly the same rate as base pay. Moving from the state 25th percentile of $95,940 to the 75th of $158,540 changes nothing about your marginal rate — an unusual and useful property in a career built on rapid, step-shaped pay increases.

The Midwestern insurance industry headquartered here and the ecosystem compounded. Property-casualty and life insurers with statewide operations, health plans, pension and benefits consultancies, and Chicago reinsurance and brokerage operations all staff actuarial functions in Illinois, and the state's universities feed them. A location quotient of 2.18 is not a rounding artefact — roughly one in twelve US actuaries works here.

It is an exam-credit average pretending to be a market rate. Actuarial pay is more tightly determined by number of exams passed than almost any other professional wage in the country, and the Illinois distribution is heavily weighted toward students. Reading $115,430 as 'what an Illinois actuary earns' is misleading — it is roughly what a near-associate earns, while a credentialled fellow sits far higher up the same ladder.

They add value that this wage figure does not show. Illinois insurance employers competing for a limited actuarial student pool typically fund exam fees and study materials, grant paid study hours before each sitting, and pay a lump sum on each pass. None of that is captured in an OEWS annual wage. Two Illinois actuaries at the same $115,430 can be far apart on total value depending on how generous their employer's student programme is.