Women make up about 77% of the professionally active nurse practitioner workforce in the U.S., according to a recent analysis from KFF.
For its analysis, KFF obtained information on the number of active, licensed nurse practitioners in the U.S., as of May from Redi-Data.
Nearly 588,000 professionally active NPs are currently practicing in the U.S., about 453,000 of whom are female. This translates to a gender ratio of 6.95 female NPs to 1 male NP.
Here is the gender ratio for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., ranked in descending order, as calculated by Becker’s.
Note: Female-to-male ratios are presented as X:1 and were obtained by dividing the number of female NPs by the number of male NPs in each state. The ratios do not take unspecified gender numbers into account. The national percentage of female NPs mentioned above may be a slight underestimate and may not reflect the ratios in this table because it is a percentage of the total number of NPs, which includes those who did not specify gender. All rounding is to the nearest tenth.
| State | Ratio of females to 1 male | Female NPs | Male NPs | Total NPs* |
| Wisconsin | 10.18 | 8,216 | 807 | 9,473 |
| Indiana | 9.98 | 8,978 | 900 | 10,574 |
| Virginia | 9.95 | 10,681 | 1,074 | 13,115 |
| North Dakota | 9.93 | 1,609 | 162 | 1,864 |
| Nebraska | 9.79 | 3,114 | 318 | 3,679 |
| West Virginia | 9.11 | 3,488 | 383 | 4,055 |
| Missouri | 9.09 | 9,244 | 1,017 | 11,025 |
| Delaware | 8.99 | 2,004 | 223 | 2,452 |
| Illinois | 8.96 | 12,264 | 1,368 | 15,301 |
| Massachusetts | 8.90 | 16,084 | 1,807 | 20,059 |
| Maine | 8.74 | 2,527 | 289 | 2,945 |
| South Carolina | 8.48 | 5,829 | 687 | 7,054 |
| Maryland | 8.46 | 8,911 | 1,053 | 12,345 |
| Rhode Island | 8.41 | 1,934 | 230 | 2,380 |
| New Jersey | 8.37 | 9,790 | 1,170 | 12,819 |
| North Carolina | 8.32 | 11,995 | 1,442 | 14,651 |
| Pennsylvania | 8.18 | 17,875 | 2,186 | 21,807 |
| Georgia | 8.16 | 14,275 | 1,749 | 18,407 |
| Kentucky | 8.05 | 7,682 | 954 | 9,212 |
| New Hampshire | 7.96 | 1,831 | 230 | 2,183 |
| New York | 7.94 | 38,637 | 4,869 | 52,076 |
| Michigan | 7.83 | 15,186 | 1,939 | 19,116 |
| Iowa | 7.80 | 4,109 | 527 | 4,874 |
| Ohio | 7.79 | 27,532 | 3,533 | 34,439 |
| Colorado | 7.78 | 9,380 | 1,205 | 11,321 |
| Connecticut | 7.66 | 5,516 | 720 | 6,928 |
| Minnesota | 7.48 | 8,322 | 1,112 | 10,207 |
| Vermont | 7.44 | 922 | 124 | 1,100 |
| Kansas | 7.39 | 3,305 | 447 | 4,035 |
| Arkansas | 7.32 | 4,287 | 586 | 5,294 |
| South Dakota | 7.13 | 1,582 | 222 | 1,891 |
| Alaska | 6.93 | 1,323 | 191 | 1,646 |
| Tennessee | 6.70 | 14,544 | 2,171 | 18,068 |
| Oklahoma | 6.62 | 3,796 | 573 | 4,853 |
| Alabama | 6.54 | 7,598 | 1,162 | 9,518 |
| District of Columbia | 6.34 | 1,812 | 286 | 2,803 |
| Wyoming | 6.33 | 734 | 116 | 918 |
| Montana | 6.25 | 1,288 | 206 | 1,578 |
| Mississippi | 6.16 | 5,104 | 829 | 6,842 |
| New Mexico | 6.09 | 2,960 | 486 | 3,737 |
| Arizona | 5.88 | 8,864 | 1,507 | 11,401 |
| Texas | 5.87 | 34,003 | 5,790 | 47,177 |
| Louisiana | 5.83 | 5,356 | 918 | 6,892 |
| Hawaii | 5.82 | 1,112 | 191 | 1,502 |
| Oregon | 5.23 | 4,712 | 901 | 6,001 |
| Florida | 5.21 | 30,093 | 5,773 | 42,826 |
| California | 5.15 | 38,060 | 7,393 | 55,119 |
| Washington | 4.95 | 6,805 | 1,374 | 9,265 |
| Nevada | 4.38 | 3,169 | 724 | 4,815 |
| Idaho | 3.82 | 1,945 | 509 | 2,615 |
| Utah | 3.62 | 2,616 | 722 | 3,608 |
*Includes NPs who did not specify gender.
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