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Biologist: what the job actually is

Studying living things and how they interact, usually by collecting data, running tests and writing up what the evidence does and does not show.

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Biologist: quick facts

Biologist salary in Ontario: the median pay is $40.00 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is very limited. The job usually needs a university degree.

Median pay in Ontario
$40.00 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$24.50 to $69.23 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Very limited
People working in it in Ontario
12,850
Usually needs
Usually a university degree

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 21110. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Studying living things, from cells to whole ecosystems, to answer a question: how many fish are in a lake, how a disease spreads, how a species is coping with a changed habitat.
  • The work splits between the field or the lab and the desk. Collecting samples, running tests and counting are the visible parts, and statistics, writing and funding applications are the larger part.
  • Job Bank's group covers many kinds of biologist, including marine, wildlife and environmental. It reports one set of figures for all of them, so the pay and outlook on this page describe the group, not one kind of biologist.
  • Job Bank's Ontario outlook for this group is Very limited. Its text says employment growth will lead to a few new positions and that not many positions will become available due to retirements. That is a different situation from most pages in this library, so read the next sections before you plan around it.
  • Research jobs go to people with graduate degrees. Job Bank says a master's or doctoral degree is required for employment as a research scientist, and a bachelor's degree in biology or a related discipline is the minimum for the group.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 7:00 — Check the weather, the permit paperwork and the gear. If the weather is wrong the field day is moved, not abandoned.
  2. 8:00 — At the site with a field crew. You count, measure and record, and the recording has to be the same way every time.
  3. 11:30 — A sample is contaminated. You note it in the log and move on, because honest data matters more than tidy data.
  4. 12:30 — Lunch on the tailgate, talking about whether a funding application will come through.
  5. 13:30 — Back at the lab or office. You label and store the samples and enter the day's numbers in a spreadsheet.
  6. 15:00 — Run a statistical test and see that the result is not what you hoped. You check the method before you check the hypothesis.
  7. 16:00 — Write a section of a report. Every sentence has to be one you can defend.
  8. 17:00 — Email a colleague about a paper that argues with your result.
  9. 18:30 — Read a grant call. A lot of the job is explaining why your question deserves the money.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You are curious about how living things work and you are happy to answer a small question carefully rather than a big one loosely.
  • You like both fieldwork and desk work, including statistics.
  • You can accept that your result may be "we do not know yet", and write that down plainly.
  • You are willing to keep studying. Many biologist jobs ask for a master's or a doctorate.
  • You can see yourself in a nearby job if the exact one does not open up, such as conservation, environmental consulting or lab work.
You may hate this if
  • You need a clear route to a job. Job Bank rates the Ontario outlook as Very limited, so competition for biologist jobs is real and the route is not a guaranteed one.
  • You want to spend your days with animals. Much of the work is data, counting and writing, and the closest you get to a creature may be a sample bag.
  • Short contracts and grant funding would stress you. Many research and field jobs depend on a project being funded.
  • You dislike statistics or lab work. Both are central to the job.
  • You would be unhappy if you studied biology for years and did not end up with the job title. That is a real possibility, and it is the reason this page shows adjacent routes.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. Get a biology or related degree

    Job Bank says a bachelor's degree in biology or a related discipline is the minimum qualification for the group. Read the biology degree page on this site and compare programmes on ontariouniversitiesinfo.ca. Co-op programmes and summer research placements are worth choosing, since employers look for hands-on lab and field experience.

  2. Decide whether graduate study is part of your plan

    Job Bank says a master's or doctoral degree in biology or a related discipline is required for employment as a research scientist, and that post-doctoral research experience is needed for academic and research institution positions. That is a long route, and it is a decision to make with the Very limited outlook in view.

  3. Know that Ontario does not regulate the title

    Job Bank says biologists are regulated in Alberta and British Columbia and does not list Ontario, so a licence is not compulsory here. Check the posting for each job, since some employers ask for specific certifications, such as those for working with certain equipment or in the field.

  4. Look at the neighbouring jobs on purpose

    A biology degree leads to more than one job. This site's biology degree page links to medical laboratory technologist, pharmacist, physiotherapist, veterinary technician, conservation officer and agricultural representative, and each has its own training and regulator. Ontario's conservation officer page says a college or university degree in natural resource management is an asset, not a requirement, and asks for knowledge and experience in natural resource management and a law enforcement fitness test completed within nine months before applying.

Where this comes from: Job Bank — Biologists and related scientists: requirements in Ontario · Job Bank — Biologists and related scientists: outlook in Ontario · Ontario.ca — Become a conservation officer

The money

Biologist salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$24.50
Low (hourly)
$40.00
Median (hourly)
$69.23
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 21110. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Biologist wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Very limited1 out of 5 stars

  • Employment growth will lead to a few new positions.
  • Not many positions will become available due to retirements.
  • There are a moderate number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

12,850
people work in this job in Ontario
61%
are women (48% across all jobs)
5%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Biologists and related scientists job prospects in Ontario (NOC 21110). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take biology, chemistry, maths and, if you can, a data management or statistics course. Statistics is the part of a biologist's job most students do not expect.
  • Join a citizen science project, such as a local bird count or a stream monitoring day, and ask a conservation authority or field naturalist club about youth volunteering.
  • Visit the biology degree page on this site and look at three programmes on ontariouniversitiesinfo.ca for their co-op or research-placement options.
  • Look at the jobs near biology on purpose. Read the conservation officer page and the medical laboratory technologist page and ask which of them you could picture yourself doing.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Run a small count and say what it does not show

About 90 minutes
  1. Choose one question you can answer by counting in your neighbourhood: how many kinds of birds visit a feeder, how many plant species grow in a square metre of lawn. Do not touch or disturb any animals.
  2. Decide your method before you start, such as the same spot, the same twenty minutes, written down. Then do the count on two different days.
  3. Compare the two counts. Write down at least two reasons they might differ that have nothing to do with the thing you are studying, such as weather or time of day.
  4. Write three sentences: what you found, what you cannot conclude, and what you would change to be more sure.

What it tells you. If you enjoyed the careful counting and writing down what you could not conclude, you have the habit of mind that scientists need, and a biology degree is a reasonable bet even if the exact job is not certain. If it felt tedious, or you only liked the animals, look at the neighbouring jobs on this page first, because the daily work is mostly this.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “What does your day look like, and how much of it is outdoors or in a lab?”
  2. “How did you get your first paid job, and how long did it take?”
  3. “How secure is funding for your kind of work?”
  4. “What degree did you need, and would you recommend the same route now?”
  5. “What other jobs did your classmates end up in?”
  6. “What would you tell someone who loves biology but is worried about finding work?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Some do. Job Bank's figures show self-employment is lower in this group than across the workforce overall. Independent biologists usually work as environmental consultants doing surveys and assessments for developers and agencies, which needs experience, insurance and a steady stream of clients, so most start with an employer.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a biologist make in Ontario?

The median pay for a biologist in Ontario is $40.00 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $24.50 to $69.23 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a biologist in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as very limited for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment growth will lead to a few new positions. Not many positions will become available due to retirements. There are a moderate number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a biologist in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a university degree. The usual route in Ontario, in order: Get a biology or related degree; Decide whether graduate study is part of your plan; Know that Ontario does not regulate the title.

How many people work as a biologist in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 12,850 people working in this job in Ontario. 61% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Where people come from

Which programs lead here?

In the 2021 Census, this job is one of the 12 most common for graduates of these programs. Each page shows what else they do, and which of those jobs have openings.

Tech and engineering jobs: who is hiring What can you do with your degree?

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — freeAll jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

If this appeals, look at these too

conservation officer geoscientist veterinarian agricultural representative medical laboratory technologist teacher

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.