For anyone benchmarking an actuarial salary in Ireland, an actuary’s salary in Dublin, or simply asking how much actuaries typically earn in Ireland, the 2025 Acumen Resources survey gives a clear market reference point: newly qualified actuaries cluster around €80,000, while pay rises steadily with post-qualification experience and responsibility. Very senior actuarial salaries increase oo over €200,000.

At Acumen Resources, we have run employer-sourced actuarial salary surveys every year for more than twenty years. This separate guide sets out what the 2025 market-sourced data says about actuarial salaries in Ireland, and how to interpret it in practice.

What Part Qualified Actuaries Earn

Among part qualified actuaries in the survey, graduate salaries cluster between €35,000 and €55,000, with the figure depending largely on the exams a candidate holds on entry. The data shows a median of €38,750 for those with no exams passed, rising to a median of €42,500 after a year of actuarial experience and €50,000 by the second year.

Those entry figures match what we see day to day: graduates with early Core Principal exams are often in the mid €30Ks, while candidates who already hold the full IFoA Core Principal exams and CP1 sit closer to the top of the graduate band.

Exam progress and experience compound. For a student who has cleared the Core Principles, the median salary is €40,250, with most reporting between €38,000 and €46,000. The full Associate set of exams carries a median of €65,025, typically in the €62,350 to €67,700 range.

“The strongest long-term earning power comes from combining exam progress with meaningful experience, rather than focusing solely on qualifying quickly.”

Jenny Johnston BAFS, FIA, FSAI, Director, Acumen Resources

The survey also captures those who reached the profession by other routes. Twenty actuaries who qualified through a body other than the IFoA reported a mean salary of €97,421, with an average of twelve years of experience behind them. A smaller group who had stopped sitting exams showed salaries spread widely, reinforcing the same theme: once experience accumulates, the exam record weighs less heavily on actuarial salaries than candidates often expect.

What a Newly Qualified Actuary Earns

There is an important caveat around the gap between sitting the final actuarial exam and completing the IFoA personal and professional development requirements. Actuaries who have passed every IFoA exam but are still completing PPD report a median of €75,500, ranging from €73,000 at two years of experience up to €87,500 at five to eight years.

“When a student passes all their actuarial exams, they may not get a qualification uplift straight away. There is often a differential for actuaries still waiting on PPD, and those individuals will often have a salary below €80,000.”

Jenny Johnston BAFS, FIA, FSAI, Director, Acumen Resources

The €80,000 median is best read as a market rate rather than a guaranteed internal uplift. In our experience, the actuaries who reach it quickest are those who take on a new role, either internally or externally, shortly after qualifying rather than waiting for their employer to adjust their pay. For a qualified actuary holding FIA and earning around €70,000, the data suggests there is room to move upwards.

Actuarial Salary by Years of Experience (PQE)

For qualified actuaries, salaries rise steadily with post-qualification experience, with the sharpest acceleration around the five to seven year mark, largely driven by increasing responsibility and managerial progression. The table and chart below set out the median for each PQE band, alongside the range reported and the number of responses behind it.

Source: Acumen Resources 2025 Actuarial Salary and Industry Insights Survey, qualified actuary responses, all practice areas.

Two features stand out. The first is the step from a median of €101,000 at five years PQE to €113,263 at six years PQE, which typically reflects the move into more Senior Manager or first Control Function roles. The title bands we see in the market track this: managers from the high €80Ks to around €100K, senior managers to roughly €120K, and head of department level from €120K to €140K. Above that, packages depend heavily on the specifics of the role, the company and its regulatory risk rating (historically known as its PRISM rating), with the most senior figures running from €150K to comfortably beyond €200K.

The second is the width of each range. The bands are generally tighter earlier in a career and wider at more senior levels, as reporting lines, product complexity, PRISM rating, team size, managerial responsibility and CF or PCF level all begin to influence pay.

The Controlled Function Salary Premium

By far the strongest signal in the 2025 data is the premium attached to Controlled Function roles. At seven years of PQE, the survey shows pay of approximately €110K for actuaries without CF or PCF responsibility, against €143,333 for those who hold it: a difference of around €33,000 at the same level of experience.

The size of the gap comes down to the firm’s risk profile. Lower rated companies can give Controlled Function responsibility to less senior actuaries, so the premium arrives earlier, while higher rated firms take longer to reach it. For actuaries mapping their own path, it is the most significant criterion in the data.

Actuarial Salary by Practice Area, Gender and Contracting

Actuarial practice area

Practice area makes less difference than many expect, at least until post-qualification level. The non-life premium may no longer be driven simply by shortage. While the market is not as tight as it once was, remuneration in P&C can still reflect the value placed on specialist experience, particularly in technical, commercial and internationally benchmarked roles.

In practice, the premium often appears to come as much from the type of experience involved as from the practice area label itself. Where that experience is paired with London Market or Lloyd’s exposure, scarcity pushes actuarial salaries higher again.

Gender

On gender, the 2025 survey offers reassurance. Once experience is held constant, there is no material difference in actuarial salaries between men and women. Women trend marginally ahead at four to six years of PQE, men marginally ahead from seven, with the gap closing again beyond ten years.

Actuarial contracting

For actuaries who prefer to contract, the data shows a small but well paid segment. The contracting market has grown sharply over the past fifteen years: Solvency II and then IFRS 17 drove strong demand for flexible resources at short notice. With IFRS 17 now business as usual, the day rate market has cooled, and the next lift is likely to come with new regulations or accounting standards.

Actuarial Salary Trends 2025 vs 2024

Because Acumen Resources runs this actuarial salary survey every year, the direction of travel is often as revealing as the headline figures. Newly qualified actuarial salaries have solidified rather than spiked, settling around €80,000. The larger movements have come in the wider package and in how the market is supplied.

Two forces sit behind the salary picture. The first is the cost of living in Dublin: with most actuarial roles concentrated there and living costs high, particularly accommodation, pay expectations have risen. The second is supply. The flow of international actuaries into Ireland has slowed, while the domestic pipeline is the strongest it has been in two decades. That combination holds down entry level pay without easing the squeeze on genuinely scarce profiles.

The two challenges employers raise with us most often are salary and availability, with availability biting hardest in general insurance. We examine the rise in AI use in more detail in Nearly Half of Irish Actuaries Use AI at Work (article coming soon).

What Actuaries Receive Beyond Salary

Base salary is only part of the typical actuary’s package, and our actuarial survey data shows the rest of the remuneration package can carry real value. Pension benefits are close to universal, hybrid working is now standard, and unsurprisingly bonuses remain common across the actuarial profession.

Flexibility is also increasingly key. The benefit we hear significant enthusiasm for is work abroad policy, typically two to four weeks a year, which is especially attractive earlier in a career, alongside wellness initiatives and additional wellbeing days. For actuaries weighing two offers, flexibility and a sense of employee wellbeing embedded in company culture is often where the real difference lies. The full benefits picture is set out in Beyond the Salary: What Irish Actuaries Receive in 2026 (article coming soon).

Reading the 2025 Actuarial Salary Survey Data

Three points are worth highlighting when using the survey to benchmark a role, offer or career move.

1. Treat the €80,000 median as a market reference point for a newly qualified actuary rather than a ceiling or a guarantee, and interpret it alongside the full range of possible scenarios.
2. The Controlled Function premium, at around €33,000 by seven years PQE, remains one of the most significant drivers of earnings post-qualification and should be weighed alongside the responsibility that comes with the role.
3. In a market shaped by AI, evolving skillsets and more flexible ways of working, the value of experience is becoming increasingly differentiated. Breadth, adaptability and exposure can prove as important as salary progression over the long term.

The strength of the insights comes from participation, so we would encourage all actuaries in Ireland to contribute. If you would like to take part, please get in touch and we will ensure you are included when the survey opens.

For the full route from graduate to chief actuary, see Complete Actuarial Career Path in Ireland (article coming soon). For why most actuaries who accept a counter offer move again within the year, see Counter Offers in Actuarial Recruitment (article coming soon).