A look at nurse practitioners for National Nurse Practitioner Week

Nurse practitioners are a type of registered nurse with specialized graduate education of at least a master’s degree. Although their duties vary by state, nurse practitioners in many states can work independently and provide some of the same services as physicians, including conducting physical examinations, ordering laboratory tests, prescribing medications, and administering treatments. In celebration of National Nurse Practitioner Week, the second full week in November, let’s take a closer look at these workers.

In May 2022, the latest data available, nurse practitioners had employment of 258,230 and an annual mean wage of $124,680, approximately double the U.S. average wage of $61,900. About 92 percent of nurse practitioner jobs were in the private sector. Employment of nurse practitioners is projected to increase by 45 percent from 2022 to 2032, much faster than the average of 3 percent for all occupations.

Nearly half of nurse practitioners (122,830) worked in offices of physicians. The next highest numbers of nurse practitioners were in general medical and surgical hospitals (58,080); outpatient care centers (23,760), such as community health clinics and health maintenance organization (HMO) medical centers; and offices of other health practitioners (10,950), which includes nurse practitioners’ offices.

California (19,130), Texas (18,820), Florida (18,530), and New York (17,670) were the states with the largest numbers of nurse practitioner jobs. States with the highest employment concentrations of nurse practitioners were mainly in the South and New England. As a share of state employment, Tennessee had 2.4 times as many nurse practitioners as the national share. States with the highest concentrations of nurse practitioners also included Mississippi (location quotient of 2.0), Rhode Island (1.7), and Vermont (1.6).

California ($158,130), New Jersey ($143,250), and Massachusetts ($138,700) were among the highest paying states for nurse practitioners. The lowest paying states for this occupation included Tennessee ($99,330), Alabama ($106,610), and West Virginia ($106,790).

These data are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) and Employment Projections programs. To learn more, see the OEWS profile page for nurse practitioners and the Occupational Outlook Handbook profile for nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners. Location quotients represent the ratio of an occupation's share of state employment to that occupation's share of national employment. For example, an occupation that makes up 10 percent of state employment compared with 2 percent of U.S. employment would have a location quotient of 5 for that state. Information on the practice environment for registered nurses by state is available from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.