Every degree-granting institution in the United States reports the awards it confers, by programme, to the federal education statistics agency. That makes it possible to count how many nursing qualifications each state produces, which is the supply side of the argument about the nursing shortage.
The figures below are for the 2023 reporting year, the most recent available when this page was compiled on 9 September 2026, and cover the registered nursing programme classification and the practical nursing classification separately.
The national totals
Registered nursing awards conferred in 2023: 256,911.
- Bachelor's degrees: 147,345
- Associate degrees: 83,963
- Master's degrees: 20,089
- Doctorates: 953
- Certificates of various lengths: 4,561
Practical and vocational nursing awards: 50,931, of which 48,683 were certificates and 2,247 associate degrees.
What these numbers are not
This is the caveat that makes the rest of the page usable, and it is routinely ignored when these figures are quoted.
An award is not a new nurse. The bachelor's total includes completion programmes for nurses who are already licensed and already working, the route usually called RN to BSN. The federal data does not separate those from pre-licensure degrees, so the bachelor's column mixes new entrants with existing nurses upgrading a qualification. Master's and doctoral awards are almost entirely existing nurses.
A graduate is not a licensed nurse. Graduates still have to pass the licensing examination, where the first-time pass rate for United States-educated candidates has fallen to 86.7 percent. See the NCLEX.
A state's graduates do not necessarily work there. Completions are counted where the institution sits, and licences are issued where the nurse applies.
The honest use of this table is comparative: which states produce many qualifications relative to their size, and which route into nursing dominates locally.
What stands out
The bachelor's degree has won the volume argument. Nationally, bachelor's awards outnumber associate awards by roughly seven to four. That is the labour market outcome of an argument the profession never settled by regulation. See entry into practice and levels of nursing.
The mix varies enormously by state. Among states producing more than 500 registered nursing awards, the bachelor's share runs from 86 percent in Minnesota, 85 in Utah and 82 in Nebraska down to 40 percent in West Virginia, 43 in Mississippi and 48 in Arkansas. A nurse's likely qualification depends heavily on where they trained.
Volume does not track population neatly. Texas, Florida and California lead, as expected. Minnesota and Utah then appear alongside New York and Ohio, well ahead of states with far larger populations, largely on the strength of very high bachelor's output.
Practical nursing is a separate system. It is overwhelmingly certificate-based, concentrated in different states, and feeds long-term care rather than hospitals. California produced 7,313 practical nursing awards, Ohio 3,668 and Texas 3,143.
By state
Registered nursing awards by level, then practical nursing awards, then the number of institutions in that state conferring registered nursing awards.
| State | Associate | Bachelor's | Master's | Doctorate | RN-track total | Practical nursing | Institutions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 1,989 | 2,305 | 1,715 | 0 | 6,058 | 1,655 | 37 |
| Alaska | 94 | 125 | 18 | 0 | 237 | 26 | 3 |
| Arizona | 2,009 | 6,604 | 764 | 5 | 9,469 | 441 | 34 |
| Arkansas | 1,342 | 1,258 | 90 | 0 | 2,690 | 799 | 36 |
| California | 6,139 | 9,717 | 1,092 | 35 | 17,458 | 7,313 | 147 |
| Colorado | 1,395 | 2,552 | 599 | 0 | 4,635 | 517 | 32 |
| Connecticut | 786 | 1,395 | 319 | 0 | 2,524 | 231 | 22 |
| Delaware | 217 | 519 | 62 | 0 | 798 | 90 | 7 |
| District of Columbia | 18 | 426 | 259 | 34 | 755 | 0 | 6 |
| Florida | 8,712 | 8,392 | 1,025 | 5 | 18,245 | 1,884 | 93 |
| Georgia | 2,940 | 4,239 | 754 | 15 | 8,033 | 1,472 | 55 |
| Hawaii | 123 | 371 | 38 | 0 | 532 | 69 | 8 |
| Idaho | 546 | 761 | 82 | 0 | 1,428 | 224 | 12 |
| Illinois | 2,934 | 11,041 | 2,333 | 0 | 16,331 | 1,109 | 80 |
| Indiana | 2,146 | 4,057 | 693 | 0 | 6,918 | 1,213 | 51 |
| Iowa | 1,208 | 1,213 | 253 | 0 | 2,689 | 442 | 30 |
| Kansas | 1,166 | 1,542 | 320 | 0 | 3,065 | 597 | 30 |
| Kentucky | 2,070 | 2,158 | 620 | 0 | 4,900 | 1,414 | 40 |
| Louisiana | 1,196 | 2,030 | 380 | 0 | 3,611 | 1,266 | 32 |
| Maine | 393 | 445 | 46 | 0 | 891 | 132 | 12 |
| Maryland | 1,140 | 2,109 | 660 | 21 | 3,942 | 361 | 30 |
| Massachusetts | 1,724 | 3,187 | 1,166 | 24 | 6,142 | 700 | 51 |
| Michigan | 2,428 | 4,152 | 843 | 0 | 7,461 | 733 | 55 |
| Minnesota | 1,710 | 10,684 | 3,931 | 0 | 16,327 | 751 | 48 |
| Mississippi | 1,169 | 878 | 179 | 0 | 2,231 | 741 | 25 |
| Missouri | 2,269 | 3,616 | 811 | 0 | 6,714 | 1,455 | 55 |
| Montana | 259 | 411 | 20 | 0 | 690 | 137 | 10 |
| Nebraska | 396 | 1,835 | 373 | 0 | 2,608 | 197 | 17 |
| Nevada | 632 | 1,113 | 173 | 0 | 1,918 | 232 | 15 |
| New Hampshire | 434 | 703 | 132 | 0 | 1,269 | 96 | 13 |
| New Jersey | 1,610 | 3,296 | 671 | 0 | 5,577 | 810 | 41 |
| New Mexico | 704 | 545 | 120 | 0 | 1,369 | 150 | 17 |
| New York | 5,266 | 6,562 | 346 | 9 | 12,284 | 2,358 | 107 |
| North Carolina | 3,553 | 3,802 | 706 | 22 | 8,088 | 1,225 | 66 |
| North Dakota | 214 | 561 | 108 | 0 | 883 | 128 | 10 |
| Ohio | 3,810 | 5,524 | 684 | 56 | 10,574 | 3,668 | 109 |
| Oklahoma | 1,489 | 1,595 | 251 | 0 | 3,335 | 866 | 32 |
| Oregon | 843 | 1,140 | 316 | 0 | 2,299 | 224 | 20 |
| Pennsylvania | 3,222 | 6,428 | 1,318 | 66 | 11,047 | 1,780 | 96 |
| Rhode Island | 232 | 566 | 104 | 0 | 902 | 76 | 8 |
| South Carolina | 1,516 | 1,881 | 322 | 0 | 3,724 | 651 | 30 |
| South Dakota | 259 | 979 | 121 | 0 | 1,359 | 116 | 11 |
| Tennessee | 2,242 | 3,616 | 1,050 | 24 | 6,932 | 1,467 | 53 |
| Texas | 6,419 | 11,948 | 53 | 0 | 18,923 | 3,143 | 116 |
| Utah | 1,498 | 8,496 | 39 | 97 | 10,130 | 423 | 18 |
| Vermont | 160 | 259 | 3 | 0 | 422 | 163 | 3 |
| Virginia | 2,178 | 3,401 | 705 | 0 | 6,308 | 1,140 | 51 |
| Washington | 1,417 | 2,076 | 337 | 0 | 3,834 | 476 | 32 |
| West Virginia | 618 | 411 | 68 | 0 | 1,097 | 348 | 20 |
| Wisconsin | 1,447 | 3,300 | 545 | 0 | 5,308 | 601 | 42 |
| Wyoming | 269 | 147 | 7 | 0 | 423 | 192 | 8 |
State figures sum to slightly less than the national totals because awards at institutions in territories and a small number of unclassified records are excluded.
Reading it against the shortage
The pipeline argument usually runs that schools cannot expand because they cannot hire faculty, and that tens of thousands of qualified applicants are refused each year. Both are true and documented. See the nurse faculty shortage.
What this data adds is the other end: a quarter of a million registered nursing awards a year, of which an unknown but substantial share are existing nurses adding a qualification rather than new nurses entering. Anyone modelling supply from completions alone will overstate it, which is the same error as modelling it from enrolment. The number that matters for supply is licences issued, and the number that matters for hospitals is who takes a post and stays past the first year. See nurse turnover and retention and where the nursing numbers come from.
Related
- The nursing shortage
- The nurse faculty shortage
- The NCLEX
- Entry into practice
- Levels of nursing
- Where the nursing numbers come from
Sources
- IPEDS completions data, National Center for Education Statistics, 2023 reporting year, programme classifications 51.3801 and 51.3901. Figures computed on 9 September 2026 from the Education Data API maintained by the Urban Institute at educationdata.urban.org.
- NCLEX pass rates. National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Accessed September 9, 2026.
- Research and data centre. American Association of Colleges of Nursing, for enrolment and applications turned away. Accessed September 9, 2026.