Cook Demographics and Statistics in the US – 2024

We’ve gathered Cook statistics and demographics to help you learn about their education, where they work, top industries and more. 

• The average salary for a Cook in the U.S. is $36,060 per year 
• Top earners in the Cook role can earn $46,420 per year 
• Cooks on the low end of the scale can expect to make $26,980 annually 
• Cooks working in NYC  make $42,460 annually 
• Miami Cooks can expect to earn $36,380 each year 

Cook Employment Statistics 

There are 1,412,350 Cooks working in the United States. 

Below you can see a graph showing how the number of Cooks in the U.S. changed during the last few years. 

Cook Gender Statistics 

70% of Cooks are men. This is similar to other kitchen roles, such as the demographics of Line Cooks.

Cook Age Statistics 

Just like with Pastry Chef demographics, most Cooks working in the United States are 40 years or older, 22% of them are between 30 and 40 years old while 33% of them are younger than 30. 

Cook Ethnicity and Race Statistics 

While the majority of Cooks are white, 17% are Hispanic or Latino with 10% of them being Black (African American). 

You can see Cook demographics and statistics by race and ethnicity below. 

Cook Education Statistics 

Cook roles in the U.S. typically don’t require extensive education. In fact, most Cooks (45%) were able to find a job with just a high school diploma. That being said, a good number of Cooks also have higher education levels, as you can see in the below graph.

Explore more roles that don’t require extensive culinary education, such as our Prep Cook demographics page.

Cook Tenure Statistics 

Given the high rates of turnover in hospitality, it is no surprise that most Cooks stay in the same position for less than a year (40%). Still, there are individuals in this role who stay at the same employer for over eight years (6%).  

See how long Cooks stay with the same employer below. 

Cook Industry Statistics 

Cooks work in many settings across industries. 

Below is a table showing where most Cooks work, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Industry	Employment
Restaurants and Other Eating Places	1,186,130
Traveler Accommodation	84,540
Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages)	30,960
Other Amusement and Recreation Industries	27,120
Special Food Services	23,000

Cook Languages Spoken    

Putting English aside, Cooks in the U.S. speak dozens of other languages. 

While Spanish is the most popular second language, they also speak German, Italian and French. 

See what languages Cooks in the United States speak below. 

Additional Cook Statistics 

• 30% of Cooks are women 
• 45% of all Cooks are older than 40 years 
• Most Cooks (58%) are white 
• There will be a 6% increase in the number of Cook jobs for the period 2023-2033 
• The top paying metropolitan area for this role is Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, HI ($ 51,130) 

Cook Statistics and Demographics Data 

We collect our Cook statistics and demographics from multiple government and agency websites. 

You can see where and how we collect all of our data on the demographics methodology page.