Veterinarian Salary in Virginia

At the median, Virginia sits close to the nation: $126,730 against $130,100, a difference of $3,370, or 3%.

The hourly median tells the same story at $60.93 against $62.55, also 3% below.

The gap is not even across the range.

The Virginia 10th percentile is 14% below the national 10th percentile and the 25th is 3% below, while the 75th is 7% above the national 75th percentile and the 90th is 2% above.

A veterinarian benchmarking an offer against the national 75th percentile of $166,120 would actually be comparing against a figure the Virginia distribution clears; the Virginia 75th percentile is $177,650.

The middle half of Virginia veterinarians — everyone between the 25th and 75th percentiles — earned between $98,630 and $177,650, a band $79,020 wide.

The same band nationally is $64,660 wide.

From the 10th percentile ($63,350) to the 90th ($220,170), Virginia spans $156,820, against $141,780 nationally.

A wider spread means a Virginia offer has more room to sit far from the median in either direction than the national figures suggest.

OEWS publishes the distribution, not the reasons for it, so this page does not assign the shape to any particular kind of practice.

BLS estimates that 2,700 veterinarians were employed in Virginia, 8th among the 49 jurisdictions that publish a median, so the percentiles on this page summarise a sizeable group rather than a handful of practices.

The figure is a headcount of people in jobs during the survey period.

It is not a count of open positions, and it says nothing about how quickly any one employer fills a role, so read it as the size of the profession in the state and nothing more.

Virginia licenses veterinarians through the Board of Veterinary Medicine, part of the Department of Health Professions.

Applicants pass the NAVLE with a score acceptable to the board, and in place of a scored state-law exam they sign an attestation that they have read, understand, and will abide by Virginia's veterinary statutes and regulations.

ECFVG and PAVE both certify foreign-trained graduates, so an internationally trained veterinarian has a defined path.

Out-of-state veterinarians can qualify by endorsement at the board's discretion, and licenses renew annually each January 1 with 15 hours of continuing education.

Those steps are the same wherever a job sits in the wage distribution above; the full Virginia license requirements page covers each one with its citation.