Tennessee has the most active nurse practitioners per capita of any state, while Hawaii has the fewest for the second year in a row, according to a ranking from KFF.
KFF requested from Redi-Data the number of active state-licensed nurse practitioners in the U.S. as of January. Population estimates are from the U.S. Census Bureau. Becker’s used these figures to calculate the number of nurse practitioners per 100,000 people for each state.
There are 284,717 active nurse practitioners in the U.S., up from 278,577 in January 2023. The rankings stayed roughly the same for 2024, with only minor changes in nurse practitioners per 100,000 compared to last year.
Below are the states and Washington, D.C., with the number of active nurse practitioners per capita.
|
State
|
Total NPs
|
State population
|
NPs per 100,000
|
|
Alabama
|
4,790
|
5,108,468
|
93.77
|
|
Alaska
|
727
|
733,406
|
99.13
|
|
Arizona
|
3,754
|
7,431,344
|
50.52
|
|
Arkansas
|
3,455
|
3,067,732
|
112.62
|
|
California
|
26,992
|
38,965,193
|
69.27
|
|
Colorado
|
5,009
|
5,877,610
|
85.22
|
|
Connecticut
|
4,878
|
3,617,176
|
134.86
|
|
Delaware
|
737
|
1,031,890
|
71.42
|
|
District of Columbia
|
704
|
678,972
|
103.69
|
|
Florida
|
32,076
|
22,610,726
|
141.86
|
|
Georgia
|
10,472
|
11,029,227
|
94.95
|
|
Hawaii
|
371
|
1,435,138
|
25.85
|
|
Idaho
|
1,445
|
1,964,726
|
73.55
|
|
Illinois
|
9,068
|
12,549,689
|
72.26
|
|
Indiana
|
3,459
|
6,862,199
|
50.41
|
|
Iowa
|
3,107
|
3,207,004
|
96.88
|
|
Kansas
|
2,139
|
2,940,546
|
72.74
|
|
Kentucky
|
5,768
|
4,526,154
|
127.44
|
|
Louisiana
|
2,124
|
4,573,749
|
46.44
|
|
Maine
|
1,770
|
1,395,722
|
126.82
|
|
Maryland
|
6,640
|
6,180,253
|
107.44
|
|
Massachusetts
|
10,289
|
7,001,399
|
146.96
|
|
Michigan
|
9,374
|
10,037,261
|
93.39
|
|
Minnesota
|
5,248
|
5,737,915
|
91.46
|
|
Mississippi
|
4,140
|
2,939,690
|
140.83
|
|
Missouri
|
7,285
|
6,196,156
|
117.57
|
|
Montana
|
1,093
|
1,132,812
|
96.49
|
|
Nebraska
|
2,190
|
1,978,379
|
110.70
|
|
Nevada
|
2,184
|
3,194,176
|
68.37
|
|
New Hampshire
|
1,287
|
1,402,054
|
91.79
|
|
New Jersey
|
10,396
|
9,290,841
|
111.90
|
|
New Mexico
|
1,901
|
2,114,371
|
89.91
|
|
New York
|
11,145
|
19,571,216
|
56.95
|
|
North Carolina
|
4,677
|
10,835,491
|
43.16
|
|
North Dakota
|
638
|
783,926
|
81.39
|
|
Ohio
|
12,983
|
11,785,935
|
110.16
|
|
Oklahoma
|
2,683
|
4,053,824
|
66.18
|
|
Oregon
|
2,257
|
4,233,358
|
53.32
|
|
Pennsylvania
|
7,973
|
12,961,683
|
61.51
|
|
Rhode Island
|
1,333
|
1,095,962
|
121.63
|
|
South Carolina
|
1,886
|
5,373,555
|
35.10
|
|
South Dakota
|
1,020
|
919,318
|
110.95
|
|
Tennessee
|
11,617
|
7,126,489
|
163.01
|
|
Texas
|
22,379
|
30,503,301
|
73.37
|
|
Utah
|
1,279
|
3,417,734
|
37.42
|
|
Vermont
|
744
|
647,464
|
114.91
|
|
Virginia
|
9,124
|
8,715,698
|
104.69
|
|
Washington
|
2,991
|
7,812,880
|
38.28
|
|
West Virginia
|
2,089
|
1,770,071
|
118.02
|
|
Wisconsin
|
2,848
|
5,910,955
|
48.18
|
|
Wyoming
|
269
|
584,057
|
46.06
|