Best & Worst States for Nurses in 2021

Young masked female nurse in teal scrubs gives a shot to an older female patient wearing a mask and a blue v-neck shirt.

Here’s some great news: according to U.S. News & World Reports’ Best Jobs of 2021 rankings, registered nurses cracked the list of the top 10 best healthcare careers in the U.S.! That said, job opportunities and earning potential will differ from state to state, so the real question is: where will you have the BEST chances for professional — and personal — satisfaction?

To help you answer this question, we identified four key factors that contribute to whether a state can be considered the “best” (or “worst”) to work as a nurse:

Salary
Cost of Living
Demand/Job Growth
Quality of Life

For each metric, we pulled the latest data from sources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and U.S. News & World Report. Then, we identified which states ranked the highest and lowest for nurses along all four categories. Here's what we discovered.

SUMMARY: The Best & Worst States for Nurses in 2021

For your skimming pleasure, here's a high-level summary of the best and worst states for nurses in 2021 across the 5 key metrics.

The Best & Worst States for Nurses: Salary

The 5 Highest-Paying States for Nurses
1. California: $113,240/year
2. Hawaii: $104,060/year
3. Massachusetts: $93,160/year
4. Oregon: $92,960/year
5. Alaska: $90,500/year
The 5 Lowest-Paying States for Nurses
46. Arkansas: $61,330
47. Iowa: $60,590
48. Alabama: $60,230
49. Mississippi: $59,750
50. South Dakota: $59,540

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) - "Occupational Employment and
Wages Data for Registered Nurses- May 2019" (Last accessed March 2021)

The Best & Worst States for Nurses: Cost of Living

The 5 Most Affordable States for Nurses
1. Ohio
2. Oklahoma
3. Michigan
4. Iowa
5. Missouri
The 5 Least Affordable States for Nurses
46. Oregon
47. Alaska
48. Massachusetts
49. California
50. Hawaii

Source: U.S. News & World Report - "Best States of 2021 - Affordability Rankings" (Last accessed March 2021)

The Best & Worst States for Nurses: Demand/Job Growth

The 5 States With the Highest Projected Demand for Nurses
1. California
2. New York
3. Texas
4. Florida
5. Pennsylvania
The 5 States With the Lowest Projected Demand for Nurse Practitioners
46. Vermont
47. Wyoming
48. Alaska
49. Idaho
50. Mississippi

Source: ProjectionsCentral.com - "Long-Term Occupational Projections: 2018-2028" (Last accessed March 2021)

The Best & Worst States for Nurses: Quality of Life

The 5 Best States for Nurses' Quality of Life
1. Washington
2. Minnesota
3. Utah
4. New Hampshire
5. Idaho
The 5 Worst States for Nurses' Quality of Life
46. Alabama
47. West Virginia
48. New Mexico
49. Mississippi
50. Louisiana

Source: U.S. News & World Report - "Best States of 2021 Rankings" (Last accessed March 2021)

Registered Nurse Salaries: By State

First, we wanted to find out what your earning potential could be as a nurse working in each state. Below, we’ve shared the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Occupational Employment Statistics program to show you the five states where nurses earn the most money and the five where they earn the least.

Keep in mind that all BLS data reflects the employment and wage numbers for nurses as of May 2019. We'll update these tables when they release their 2020 data in May 2021. If you'd like to see the full data set for all 50 states, we've provided it at the bottom of this article.

Cost of Living for Registered Nurses: By State

When considering your earning potential in different states, one important factor to keep in mind is your cost of living. (In other words, the amount of money you'll need to put towards basic living and housing expenses.)

To help you get a more realistic picture of your earning potential, we turned to U.S. News & World Report's Best States of 2021 Rankings and focused on one particular metric: affordability. To determine each state's "affordability score," U.S. News analysts gave each state scores for two sub-metrics: cost of living and housing affordability. Then, each state received an overall affordability ranking on a scale of 1 to 50, with 1 being the most affordable and 50 being the least.

Below, you'll find U.S. News's Affordability rankings for all 50 states, along with their respective scores across the 2 sub-metrics.

2021 Cost of Living Rankings: State by State

Overall Rank	State	Cost of Living Score	Housing Affordability Score
1	Ohio	6	2
2	Oklahoma	8	3
3	Michigan	4	7
4	Iowa	17	1
5	Missouri	3	9
6	Indiana	11	4
7	Arkansas	2	13
8	West Virginia	13	5
9	Kentucky	7	15
10	Mississippi	1	20
11	Nebraska	21	6
12	Kansas	16	12
13	Georgia	9	18
14	South Dakota	23	11
15	Pennsylvania	26	8
16	Illinois	19	14
17	Tennessee	5	26
18	Alabama	10	25
19	Wisconsin	20	16
20	Louisiana	15	23
21	North Dakota	33	10
22	Texas	14	28
23	Minnesota	28	17
24	North Carolina	12	31
25	South Carolina	18	32
26	New Mexico	24	35
27	Delaware	34	24
28	Virginia	30	34
29	Arizona	27	37
30	Idaho	22	42
31	Florida	25	41
32	Montana	29	44
33	Wyoming	32	39
34	Utah	31	45
35	Maine	39	30
36	New York	37	38
37	New Jersey	42	22
38	New Hampshire	43	21
39	Vermont	41	29
40	Connecticut	46	19
41	Nevada	35	43
42	Maryland	44	27
43	Colorado	36	48
44	Washington	38	47
45	Rhode Island	45	33
46	Oregon	40	46
47	Alaska	48	36
48	Massachusetts	47	40
49	California	50	49
50	Hawaii	49	50

Demand/Job Growth for Registered Nurses: By State

When determining whether a state is the "best" or "worst" to work as a nurse, one key factor to consider is not only how much demand there currently is for your particular skillset, but also how much there will be in the future. Right now, you could be living in a state where nurses are getting hired like crazy, but will that be the case five, even 10 years from now? Whether you choose to stay put or move to a new state, you should at least consider what your job prospects will be, both in the short and long term.

To help you out, we focused on finding out which states are projected to have the greatest — and fewest — number of nursing jobs open up within the next eight to 10 years. To do this, we turned to job growth projection data from Projections Central and identified the five states that are predicted to have the greatest average number of nursing job openings between 2018 and 2028, and the five that are predicted to have the fewest.

Quality of Life for Registered Nurses: By State

Finally, we focused our attention on the states that could provide RNs with the best overall quality of life.

For this metric, we turned again to U.S. News's 2019 Best States Rankings and focused on their overall Best States list. For this ranking, analysts gave each state scores for 71 different sub-metrics, all of which were grouped into the following eight categories:

Healthcare
Education
Economy
Infrastructure
Opportunity
Fiscal Stability
Crime & Corrections
Natural Environment

The analysts took those sub-metric scores and ranked the states for each of the eight key metrics above. Finally, the analysts gave each state an overall rank, based on their performance across those eight categories. States that made the top of the list do the best job of promoting their residents’ well-being, whereas those who made the bottom of the list do the worst job.

Remember: This data was last updated in May 2019. We'll update the tables below when U.S. News releases their new rankings.

Below, we've provided you with quality of life rankings for all 50 states, along with their scores for each of the 8 individual metrics.

2021 Quality of Life Rankings: State by State

Overall Rank	State	Healthcare Score	Education Score	Economy Score	Infrastructure Score	Opportunity Score	Fiscal Stability Score	Crime & Corrections Score	Natural Environment Score
1	Washington	8	4	4	3	25	6	19	15
2	Minnesota	16	17	15	9	2	21	15	10
3	Utah	11	10	1	5	30	5	8	47
4	New Hampshire	13	13	11	34	3	33	1	2
5	Idaho	24	29	3	10	24	4	10	12
6	Nebraska	28	9	20	6	10	17	31	6
7	Virginia	12	12	13	39	8	18	9	19
8	Wisconsin	15	8	26	24	9	9	25	17
9	Massachusetts	2	2	5	42	36	43	4	4
10	Florida	25	3	8	20	33	8	26	18
11	Vermont	18	15	25	12	17	37	3	9
12	Iowa	20	18	27	19	1	23	14	20
13	North Carolina	30	7	17	22	28	7	20	27
14	North Dakota	27	25	32	4	23	16	18	8
15	South Dakota	29	19	30	14	27	2	35	3
16	Colorado	10	5	2	15	41	45	41	23
17	Maryland	6	14	35	38	15	29	22	11
18	Georgia	43	26	12	11	13	11	29	25
19	New Jersey	4	1	33	41	19	49	5	33
20	Connecticut	3	6	22	46	45	30	6	28
21	New York	7	16	43	30	46	20	11	5
22	Oregon	17	35	14	2	31	13	40	42
23	Delaware	14	24	24	25	14	12	39	45
24	California	5	20	10	31	50	36	28	35
25	Hawaii	1	27	46	33	34	46	12	1
26	Kansas	41	23	31	7	16	39	27	16
27	Maine	26	28	36	37	29	26	2	14
28	Missouri	42	30	23	27	4	15	45	21
29	Tennesse	40	33	16	17	21	3	42	39
30	Illinois	23	11	39	26	12	50	16	43
31	Texas	31	34	9	16	39	10	37	40
32	Indiana	32	22	21	32	7	32	24	48
33	Montana	36	32	19	13	35	19	34	24
34	Rhode Island	9	39	28	49	32	44	7	7
35	Wyoming	38	21	45	8	42	34	21	13
36	Ohio	37	31	34	29	6	24	32	44
37	Nevada	39	40	6	1	47	27	36	50
38	Michigan	35	38	29	35	5	38	30	32
39	Arizona	21	46	7	23	40	40	38	41
40	Pennsylvania	19	37	42	44	11	47	17	38
41	Kentucky	44	36	40	18	20	48	13	29
42	South Carolina	34	44	18	36	38	31	46	26
43	Oklahoma	48	42	37	21	26	25	44	34
44	Arkansas	49	41	41	43	22	14	48	30
45	Alaska	22	49	50	40	43	1	49	46
46	Alabama	45	47	38	28	37	22	43	37
47	West Virginia	47	45	48	50	18	28	23	36
48	New Mexico	33	50	44	45	49	35	47	31
49	Mississippi	50	43	49	48	44	41	33	22
50	Louisiana	46	48	47	47	48	42	50	49

Image courtesy of iStock.com/Courtney Hale

Topics on this page:

Here Are the Best & Worst States for Registered Nurses in 2021