Illinois·Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations·SOC 45-2011

Best Agricultural Inspector programs in Illinois, ranked by enrollment

Inspect agricultural commodities, processing equipment, and facilities, and fish and logging operations, to ensure compliance with regulations and laws governing health, quality, and.

1 schools in Illinois run programs that feed this job, graduating 2 people a year. The job pays a median of $62,000 in Illinois across about 470 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledInspectorBrand InspectorGrain InspectorConsumer Safety Inspector (CSI)CertifierMilk TesterGrain SamplerSugar Sampler
Graduates / yr
2
in Illinois
Median pay · Illinois
$62,000
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
470
people employed
Schools
1
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
32%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Illinois that lead to this job

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

1 programs in Illinois that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Illinois (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 Illinois page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 01.0401In Illinois
2
100.0%
1$48,505$23,250

Top 1 schools in Illinois

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 1 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Kankakee Community College
Kankakee, IL Public · 1 feeder programs
2Agricultural and Food Products Processing32%

All 1 schools in Illinois

Every school in Illinois 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 Illinois that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Kankakee Community CollegeKankakeePublic21

What agricultural inspectors earn in Illinois

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

Median annual in Illinois
$62,000
Mean annual
$64,360
Jobs in state
470
What the range looks like
10th pct$44,130Median$62,00090th pct$93,590
Versus the national median
+24.1%

U.S. median $49,940. Illinois pays above the national figure.

Job concentration
0.83×

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

Metro areas in Illinois

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
$64,790median
220 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+1.5%
Little or no change
Openings per year
2,200
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
200
14,700 → 14,900
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree
Plus moderate-term on-the-job training

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 Agricultural Inspectors page.

How to become a Agricultural Inspector

Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree
On-the-job training
Moderate-term on-the-job training

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.

Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.

Top skills

MonitoringActive ListeningReading ComprehensionCritical ThinkingSpeakingActive Learning

The same job in other states

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

Related careers in Illinois

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 1 majors mapped to Agricultural Inspectors1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 01.0401Agricultural and Food Products Processing

Common questions

Answers for people weighing agricultural inspectors programs in Illinois.

What degree do you need to become an Agricultural Inspector?+

Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Agricultural and Food Products Processing, which awarded 2 degrees in Illinois in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming an Agricultural Inspector?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Agricultural and Food Products Processing. Together they graduate about 2 people a year in Illinois.

How much do agricultural inspectors earn in Illinois?+

The median is $62,000 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 24.1% above the U.S. median of $49,940. 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 agricultural inspectors growing?+

BLS projects a +1.5% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, little or no change, with roughly 2,200 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

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

1 institutions in Illinois reported graduates from at least one of the 1 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 agricultural inspectors work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Inspector, Brand Inspector, Grain Inspector, Consumer Safety Inspector (CSI) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 45-2011.

Agricultural Inspectors in other statesKansasNorth CarolinaTexasIowaOhioMichiganIndianaWashington

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

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