Veterinarian Salary in Arizona

At the median, Arizona veterinarians earn $152,020 against the national figure of $130,100 — a $21,920 gap, or 17%.

The hourly median tracks a similar premium: $73.09 against $62.55, also 17% higher.

That premium is not flat across the range.

The Arizona 10th percentile is $81,990, just 11% above the national 10th percentile of $73,920, the smallest gap on this page.

The 25th percentile runs much wider — $125,210 against $101,460, 23% higher — and the 75th percentile holds that same 23% gap at $205,030 against $166,120.

The premium narrows again at the very top: the 90th percentile is $262,990 against $215,700, 22% higher.

A veterinarian comparing an offer against the national 25th or 75th percentile should expect a wider Arizona premium than one comparing the national 10th percentile.

The middle half of Arizona veterinarians — between the 25th and 75th percentiles — earned between $125,210 and $205,030, a band $79,820 wide.

Nationally, that middle-half band runs from $101,460 to $166,120, a width of $64,660.

Even though the Arizona band is wider in dollars, the shape is similar in relative terms: the 75th percentile is 1.6 times the 25th percentile in both distributions.

The full range tells a different story.

From the 10th percentile ($81,990) to the 90th ($262,990), Arizona's span multiplies 3.2 times; nationally, from $73,920 to $215,700, the multiple is 2.9 times — Arizona's top-to-bottom stretch is proportionally wider than the national one.

OEWS publishes the distribution, not what produces it, so this page does not attribute the wider spread to any particular kind of employer or setting.

BLS estimates that 2,080 veterinarians were employed in Arizona, ranking 14th among the 49 jurisdictions that publish a median — well behind the state's 5th-place rank by median pay.

The count is a headcount of people working in the occupation during the survey period, not a number of open positions, and it says nothing about how quickly any employer fills a role.

Arizona combines a high median with a mid-sized workforce rather than a large one, so the percentiles here describe a smaller group of veterinarians than a state with a bigger headcount would show.

Read the employment figure as the scale of the profession in the state, not as a signal of how many positions are open.

Practicing veterinary medicine in Arizona requires a license from the AZ State Veterinary Medical Examining Board, and the route stacks two exams: the national NAVLE plus the Board's own State Veterinary Exam, which every main licensing pathway requires.

The Regular pathway is for an applicant who has taken the NAVLE within the past five years; an out-of-state veterinarian whose NAVLE was not taken within the past five years uses Endorsement, or Universal Recognition once they can show Arizona residency, and both still end at the State Veterinary Exam.

Licenses renew every two years and expire December 31 of even-numbered years, against 20 hours of continuing education per cycle.

A one-time 30-day temporary license bridges a pending application for someone already licensed elsewhere.

None of that changes with where a job sits in the wage distribution; the Arizona license requirements page covers each step with its citation.