Top Metros for Materials Scientists in 2026: Bay Area Leads on Pay, Boston and New York on Workforce Size

Across the 10 highest‑ranked metros for materials scientists, LaborCove’s data shows clear variation in median pay, employment counts, and Geography Scores. Nationally, materials scientists have a median annual salary of $117,790 and national employment of 8,470, with a projected national employment growth rate of 4.9%. Several of the top metros have median salaries above this national level, while some sit closer to it. Within the top 10, LaborCove’s Geography Scores range from 72.26 down to 38.58. Median salaries where reported range from $120,650 to $231,920, and metro‑level employment counts range from 80 to 700. These differences highlight that pay, scale of the local workforce, and Geography Score do not move in lockstep across locations.

For 2026, LaborCove reports a national median annual salary of $117,790 for materials scientists and national employment of 8,470. The occupation’s projected national employment growth rate is 4.9%. This national snapshot provides a benchmark for comparing individual metros. When a metro’s median salary is above $117,790, it can be described as paying above the national median within this dataset. Likewise, metro‑level employment counts can be compared against one another, but they do not represent national totals, job openings, or employer counts.

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA holds the #1 rank with a LaborCove Geography Score of 72.26, a median salary of $231,710, and an employment count of 380. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 65.46, a median salary of $231,920, and employment of 180. Although San Jose’s median salary of $231,920 is slightly higher than San Francisco’s $231,710, San Francisco ranks higher in the LaborCove results and has a larger employment count. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH is ranked #3 with a Geography Score of 64.39, a median salary of $132,600, and employment of 700. Within the top three, Boston has the highest employment count but a lower reported median salary than either San Francisco or San Jose. All three top‑ranked metros have median salaries above the national median of $117,790, but their Geography Scores and employment counts differ substantially.

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ ranks #4 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 59.18, a median salary of $120,650, and employment of 560. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN ranks #5 with a Geography Score of 51.97, a median salary of $133,340, and employment of 460. Comparing these two metros, New York has a larger employment count at 560 versus Chicago’s 460, but a lower median salary at $120,650 compared with $133,340 in Chicago. Both metros have median salaries above the national median of $117,790, yet they trail the top three metros in Geography Score.

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA ranks #6 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 45.82, a median salary of $149,980, and employment of 200. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI ranks #7 with a Geography Score of 42.53, a median salary of $132,160, and employment of 270. Los Angeles has a higher reported median salary than Minneapolis ($149,980 versus $132,160), while Minneapolis has a larger employment count (270 versus 200). Both metros have median salaries above the national median of $117,790, but their Geography Scores are lower than those of the top five metros.

Raleigh-Cary, NC ranks #8 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 40.29 and employment of 120; its median salary is not supplied in this dataset, so no salary comparisons are possible for this metro. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD ranks #9 with a Geography Score of 39.36, a median salary of $127,470, and employment of 180. Worcester, MA ranks #10 with a Geography Score of 38.58, a median salary of $151,070, and employment of 80. Between Philadelphia and Worcester, Philadelphia has the larger employment count (180 versus 80), while Worcester has the higher median salary ($151,070 versus $127,470). Both metros have reported median salaries above the national median of $117,790. All three metros in this group have lower Geography Scores than the top seven metros in the ranking, according to LaborCove’s results.

LaborCove’s 2026 data for materials scientists shows that the highest LaborCove rank does not always align with the single highest reported salary. For example, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA is ranked #1 with a median salary of $231,710, while San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ranks #2 despite a slightly higher median salary of $231,920. The metros with the largest employment counts in this top‑10 list are Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (700) and New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ (560), but they occupy the #3 and #4 ranking positions rather than the top two. Across the list, most metros with reported salaries sit above the national median salary of $117,790, yet they differ in Geography Scores and in employment counts. This highlights that LaborCove’s Geography Score synthesizes multiple dimensions, and that salary, employment scale, and score can each point to different trade‑offs when comparing locations.

LaborCove’s metro rankings for materials scientists combine authoritative labor‑market data with the LaborCove Geography Score methodology. For each metro, the available inputs include median annual salary, employment count, and a composite Geography Score. The Geography Score is LaborCove’s summary measure for comparing locations. The exact weighting of underlying factors is not described in this evidence, so this article interprets the scores only at face value and does not attribute them to any single cause such as salary or employment. All projected employment growth figures in this article are national for the materials scientist occupation as a whole, not metro‑specific. Workers should consider these rankings alongside their own priorities, including the importance they place on salary levels, the size of the local workforce, and the relative Geography Score for each metro.