Idaho·Management Occupations·SOC 11-9161

Best Emergency Management Director programs in Idaho, ranked by enrollment

Plan and direct disaster response or crisis management activities, provide disaster preparedness training, and prepare emergency plans and procedures for natural (e.g., hurricanes, floods, earthquakes), wartime, or technological (e.g.,.

3 schools in Idaho run programs that feed this job, graduating 52 people a year. The job pays a median of $99,720 in Idaho across about 80 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledEmergency PlannerPublic Safety DirectorEmergency Management DirectorEmergency Management System Director (EMS Director)Emergency ManagerResponse CoordinatorProduction ControllerCivil Defense Director
Graduates / yr
52
in Idaho
Median pay · Idaho
$99,720
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
80
people employed
Schools
3
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
52%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Idaho that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

2 programs in Idaho that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Idaho (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Idaho page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 43.0303In Idaho
40
76.9%
1$46,281$23,250
2
CIP 43.0302In Idaho
12
23.1%
3$46,281$23,250

Top 3 schools in Idaho

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 3 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Idaho State University
Pocatello, ID Public · 2 feeder programs
50Critical Infrastructure Protection39%
2Boise State University
Boise, ID Public · 1 feeder programs
1Crisis/Emergency/Disaster Management60%87%
3University of Idaho
Moscow, ID Public · 1 feeder programs
1Crisis/Emergency/Disaster Management57%76%

All 3 schools in Idaho

Every school in Idaho with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Idaho that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Idaho State UniversityPocatelloPublic502
Boise State UniversityBoisePublic11
University of IdahoMoscowPublic11

What emergency management directors earn in Idaho

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Idaho
$99,720
Mean annual
$107,170
Jobs in state
80
What the range looks like
10th pct$77,310Median$99,72090th pct$137,000
Versus the national median
+6.8%

U.S. median $93,330. Idaho pays above the national figure.

Job concentration
1.02×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+3.0%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
1,000
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
400
13,200 → 13,600
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Emergency Management Directors page.

How to become a Emergency Management Director

Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree
Work experience needed
5 years or more

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Top skills

SpeakingActive ListeningCritical ThinkingWritingMonitoringReading Comprehension

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Idaho

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 7 majors mapped to Emergency Management Directors6 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 43.0119Critical Incident Response/Special Police Operations
  • 43.0120Protective Services Operations
  • 43.0301Homeland Security
  • 43.0302Crisis/Emergency/Disaster Management
  • 43.0303Critical Infrastructure Protection
  • 43.0304Terrorism and Counterterrorism Operations
  • 61.0603Emergency Medical Services Fellowship Program(no graduates reported)

Common questions

Answers for people weighing emergency management directors programs in Idaho.

What degree do you need to become an Emergency Management Director?+

Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Critical Infrastructure Protection, which awarded 40 degrees in Idaho in 2024-25, 76.9% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming an Emergency Management Director?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 2 programs to this occupation. The largest are Homeland Security. Together they graduate about 52 people a year in Idaho.

How much do emergency management directors earn in Idaho?+

The median is $99,720 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 6.8% above the U.S. median of $93,330. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for emergency management directors growing?+

BLS projects a +3.0% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 1,000 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Idaho?+

3 institutions in Idaho reported graduates from at least one of the 2 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do emergency management directors work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Emergency Planner, Public Safety Director, Emergency Management Director, Emergency Management System Director (EMS Director) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 11-9161.

Emergency Management Directors in other statesWest VirginiaTexasArizonaIowaFloridaNew YorkCaliforniaVirginia

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

All Clema data sources and release dates →

Explore every U.S. college in one conversation

Clema turns plain-language questions into sourced answers across every U.S. institution — earnings, aid, acceptance, graduation, safety, and athletics from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and 10+ federal datasets, built in.

Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card