Best States for Information Security Analysts in 2026

Across the top states for information security analysts, CareerGPS Pro’s data shows meaningful variation in salary, employment counts, and geography scores, even when projected growth is the same. California, Virginia, and Texas anchor the ranking with relatively large employment counts, while states like Washington and Colorado combine smaller employment bases with higher salaries. The national median salary and employment benchmarks provide a reference point, but the CareerGPS Geography Scores show that rankings depend on more than a single metric. Taken together, these results suggest that information security analysts comparing states in 2026 will be weighing different trade-offs: larger employment counts in some states, higher pay levels in others, and varying overall rankings as captured in the CareerGPS Geography Score.

For 2026, information security analysts nationwide have a median annual salary of $129,180. This serves as a reference point when comparing state-level pay. National employment for information security analysts is 190,650. Every state’s employment count represents a portion of this national total, with some states in the top 10 ranking having notably larger counts than others. All of the top 10 states listed here share the same projected growth rate of 28.5% for information security analysts in 2026, matching the supplied growth figure for each of those states.

California ranks #1 for information security analysts in the CareerGPS Pro state results with a Geography Score of 74.02. Virginia ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 73.76, and Texas ranks #3 with a Geography Score of 67.75. Among these three, Virginia has the largest employment count at 19,120 information security analyst roles, compared with 15,570 in California and 16,130 in Texas. These are also the three largest employment counts in the top 10 states. On median annual salary, Washington has the highest value among the top 10 at $154,940, while California’s median salary is $138,570, Virginia’s is $134,900, and Texas’s is $129,890.

Several of the top-ranked states have median salaries above the national median of $129,180 for information security analysts in 2026. Washington’s median salary of $154,940 is higher than the national figure. California’s median salary of $138,570, Virginia’s $134,900, New York’s $134,660, Maryland’s $139,640, Massachusetts’s $136,550, North Carolina’s $131,540, and Colorado’s $135,220 are also above the national median. Texas, with a median salary of $129,890, is slightly above the national median salary, while Florida’s median salary of $124,860 is below the national figure.

Virginia has the largest employment count among the top 10 states, at 19,120 information security analyst roles. Texas follows with 16,130, and California has 15,570. Florida’s employment count of 14,220 and New York’s 10,060 show that mid-ranked states in this list can still have five-figure employment counts. Maryland (8,650) and North Carolina (8,670) sit in a similar range. Washington (6,030), Massachusetts (6,100), and Colorado (5,700) have smaller employment counts than the larger markets in this top 10, even though their salaries and Geography Scores keep them in the upper tier of states.

The CareerGPS Geography Score summarizes how each state performs in CareerGPS Pro’s methodology for information security analysts in 2026. California leads the list with a Geography Score of 74.02, followed closely by Virginia at 73.76. Texas, ranked #3, has a Geography Score of 67.75. Within the rest of the top 10, Washington (64.13), New York (62.36), Maryland (60.45), Florida (58.69), Massachusetts (57.05), North Carolina (54.78), and Colorado (54.04) all have Geography Scores above 54, but they differ enough to produce distinct ranking positions despite sharing the same projected growth rate.

CareerGPS Pro uses authoritative labor-market data to evaluate locations for information security analysts (occupation 15-1212). For this article, we compare states using four supplied metrics for 2026: median annual salary, employment counts, projected growth rates, and the CareerGPS Geography Score. The CareerGPS Geography Score is a composite result that reflects how each state ranks in CareerGPS Pro’s methodology. The exact weighting of salary, employment, growth, and other inputs is not disclosed here, so this article interprets the scores only as provided, without attributing them to any specific causal factor. Rankings and scores offer a structured way to compare states, but they should be considered alongside individual priorities such as preferred locations or personal circumstances. The data describe relative salaries, employment counts, growth rates, and CareerGPS Geography Scores; they do not predict an individual’s likelihood of being hired in any state.