Wisconsin has about 6.0 million residents. Registered nurses average $94,690 a year, 23rd among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Licensure
The Wisconsin Board of Nursing licenses registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and advanced practice nurse prescribers through the Department of Safety and Professional Services. Its office is at Madison Yards Way in Madison, telephone (608) 266-2112. Rules and applications are at dsps.wi.gov.
Wisconsin was among the first states to implement the Nurse Licensure Compact, in 2000. An eligible RN or LPN/VN whose primary state of residence is Wisconsin may obtain a multistate license. That license permits practice in other jurisdictions where the compact privilege is in effect, Iowa included. Neither Minnesota nor Illinois, the two states most Wisconsin nurses would commute to, is a member, so the Twin Cities, Duluth and Chicago markets all require a license by endorsement.
Nurse practitioner practice
Wisconsin is in the reduced practice group. An advanced practice nurse prescriber must keep a collaborative relationship with a physician in order to prescribe. Bills to end the requirement have passed the legislature without being signed into law. See nurse practitioner practice authority.
Nursing education
The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing is the state's leading research program. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing runs one of the largest programs in the Midwest, Marquette University and Alverno College carry substantial private programs in Milwaukee, and the technical college system supplies associate degree and practical nurse graduates statewide.
Pay and workforce
Milwaukee and Madison hold the largest markets. Milwaukee carries Froedtert Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Aurora Health Care and Children's Wisconsin. Madison carries UW Health and its academic hospital, while Marshfield Clinic covers a large part of the rural center and north.
Green Bay, Appleton, La Crosse and Eau Claire hold regional systems. The northern counties are thinly populated and served by critical access hospitals, several of them a long drive from the nearest tertiary center. See rural and frontier nursing.
Notable nurses
Florence Guinness Blake, a founder of modern pediatric nursing and of graduate education in the specialty, was born in Stevens Point in 1907. She came back to the state in 1963 as a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she directed the graduate pediatric nursing program until she retired in 1970.
Related
- Nurse Licensure Compact
- Licensure by endorsement
- Nurse practitioner practice authority
- Collaborative practice agreements
- Nursing by state
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, state population estimates for July 1, 2025. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, registered nurses (29-1141), May 2025. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Wisconsin Board of Nursing, contact details and licensing information. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Nurse Licensure Compact, member states. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- American Association of Nurse Practitioners, State Practice Environment. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Nurse Licensure Compact: eligibility and multistate privileges (accessed 2026-11-11).
- O*NET OnLine, registered nurse wage percentiles for Wisconsin, BLS May 2025 data (accessed 2026-11-11).