The ranking is based on October 2018 data compiled by Redi-Data from state licensing information, website submissions and surveys. The figures count professionally active nurses who work in and outside clinical settings.
In total, nearly 3.4 million professionally active RNs are working in the U.S., according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Here’s how each state stacks up:
- California —337,738 professionally active RNs
- Texas — 262,710
- Florida — 248,709
- Pennsylvania — 172,837
- Ohio — 171,502
- Illinois — 156,625
- New York — 145,094
- Michigan — 125,440
- Georgia — 102,154
- Massachusetts — 100,806
- Indiana — 99,087
- New Jersey — 98,631
- Virginia — 90,939
- Tennessee — 80,104
- Missouri — 79,805
- Minnesota — 77,381
- North Carolina — 72,559
- Maryland — 71,615
- Alabama — 64,966
- Colorado — 58,753
- Kentucky — 58,666
- Arizona — 55,176
- Washington — 47,415
- Connecticut — 45,261
- Iowa — 43,391
- Mississippi — 40,612
- Oklahoma — 39,626
- South Carolina — 36,792
- Arkansas — 35,430
- Louisiana — 33,793
- Oregon — 31,239
- Kansas — 29,047
- Wisconsin — 27,856
- Nevada — 25,181
- Nebraska — 25,155
- West Virginia — 22,448
- Maine — 20,259
- New Mexico — 19,545
- Idaho — 18,234
- Utah — 14,835
- Rhode Island — 13,746
- Montana — 13,050
- South Dakota — 12,945
- New Hampshire — 10,643
- North Dakota — 9,167
- Delaware — 8,842
- Alaska — 7,924
- Vermont — 7,801
- Wyoming — 2,900
- Hawaii — 2,481
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