Community Health Workers
What Community Health Workers Do
Promote health within a community by assisting individuals to adopt healthy behaviors. Serve as an advocate for the health needs of individuals by assisting community residents in effectively communicating with healthcare providers or social service agencies. Act as liaison or advocate and implement programs that promote, maintain, and improve individual and overall community health. May deliver health-related preventive services such as blood pressure, glaucoma, and hearing screenings. May collect data to help identify community health needs.
See full salary breakdown & percentiles →
Career Outlook
National employment outlook, 2024–2034.
- Related work experience
- None
- On-the-job training
- Short-term on-the-job training
- Self-employed
- 0.8%
Source: BLS Employment Projections — 2024-2034.
How Much Preparation Does This Take?
Job Zone 4 of 5Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
- Experience
- A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations.
- Education
- Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
- Job training
- Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Source: O*NET Job Zones.
Key Knowledge Areas
Subject-matter areas this occupation draws on most, per O*NET.
- Customer and Personal Serviceimportance 4.5/5
- English Languageimportance 4.0/5
- Education and Trainingimportance 3.8/5
- Administration and Managementimportance 3.7/5
- Medicine and Dentistryimportance 3.6/5
- Psychologyimportance 3.6/5
- Administrativeimportance 3.4/5
- Personnel and Human Resourcesimportance 3.0/5
Work Environment
What the day-to-day work setting is like, per O*NET.
- E-Mail4.8/5
- Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams4.8/5
- Contact With Others4.6/5
- Telephone Conversations4.4/5
- Work With or Contribute to a Work Group or Team4.2/5
- Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals4.1/5
Careers With Similar Skills
Occupations whose Transferable Skills profile most closely matches this one — a mathematical comparison, not observed data about people actually moving between these careers.
- Compliance Officers99% skill match
- Fire Inspectors and Investigators98% skill match
- Emergency Medicine Physicians98% skill match
- Social and Human Service Assistants98% skill match
- Tellers97% skill match
- Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers97% skill match
- Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists97% skill match
- Animal Trainers97% skill match
Transferable Skills
Cross-functional skills this occupation draws on most, per O*NET — the kind that carry over to other careers.
- Social Perceptivenessimportance 4.1/5
- Service Orientationimportance 3.9/5
- Coordinationimportance 3.6/5
- Persuasionimportance 3.5/5
- Instructingimportance 3.5/5
- Complex Problem Solvingimportance 3.5/5
- Judgment and Decision Makingimportance 3.4/5
- Systems Analysisimportance 3.4/5
Software & Technologies
Tools and software used in this occupation, per O*NET.
Hot Technologies
Other Software Used
Work Style
Personal work characteristics that matter most for this occupation, per O*NET.
- Empathy
- Cooperation
- Dependability
- Optimism
- Social Orientation
- Sincerity
- Integrity
Career Interests
This occupation’s RIASEC interest profile, per O*NET — how strongly it fits each of the six Holland interest types.
- SocialHigh
- EnterprisingMedium
- InvestigativeMedium
- ConventionalMedium
- ArtisticLow
- RealisticLow
This page includes information from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Where This Career Is Most Concentrated
Metro areas where community health workers make up the largest share of local employment, relative to the national average (BLS location quotient).
- 1Carson City, NV8.18× national avg
- 2Salisbury, MD4.69× national avg
- 3Yakima, WA3.86× national avg
- 4Decatur, IL3.80× national avg
- 5Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA3.50× national avg
Possible Career Moves
A computed starting point, not observed job-change data — see the full list for why each one might fit.
- Social and Human Service AssistantsLateral Move
- Psychiatric TechniciansCareer Change
- Occupational Therapy AssistantsCareer Change
- Police and Sheriff's Patrol OfficersCareer Change
Related Education Programs
Schools that offer related fields of study, based on the NCES CIP-SOC crosswalk — not a guarantee that graduates enter this specific career.
Environmental Health
- George Washington University (Washington, DC)grads earn ~$92,573
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC)grads earn ~$86,115
- Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)grads earn ~$99,605
- University of South Carolina-Columbia (Columbia, SC)grads earn ~$58,715
- Columbia University in the City of New York (New York, NY)grads earn ~$98,728
Health and Wellness, General
- University of South Florida (Tampa, FL)grads earn ~$56,452
- University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL)grads earn ~$56,148
- Purdue University Global (West Lafayette, IN)grads earn ~$54,526
- Sierra College (Rocklin, CA)
- University of Missouri-Columbia (Columbia, MO)grads earn ~$69,333
Clinical/Medical Social Work
- Capella University (Minneapolis, MN)grads earn ~$59,050
- Grand Canyon University (Phoenix, AZ)grads earn ~$58,045
- Walden University (Minneapolis, MN)grads earn ~$60,034
- Liberty University (Lynchburg, VA)grads earn ~$53,721
- Grand Canyon University (Phoenix, AZ)grads earn ~$51,490