Alabama has a population of about 5.2 million. Registered nurses in the state average $77,020 a year, the lowest figure among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Licensure
The Alabama Board of Nursing licenses registered nurses and licensed practical nurses. It works out of RSA Plaza on Washington Avenue in Montgomery and takes calls at (334) 293-5200. Licensing rules, renewal dates and disciplinary records are published at abn.alabama.gov. What a board of this kind can and cannot do is covered under nurse practice acts and boards of nursing.
Alabama belongs to the Nurse Licensure Compact. A nurse who lives in Alabama can hold one multistate license and work in any other compact state without applying there first. A nurse arriving from another compact state transfers that license rather than starting a fresh application.
Nurse practitioner practice
Alabama is in the reduced practice group. A nurse practitioner here has to keep a current collaborative agreement with a physician to carry out at least one part of the job, prescribing above all. The physician does not need to be on site, but without the agreement the nurse practitioner cannot work. See nurse practitioner practice authority for what the three categories mean.
Nursing education
The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing is the state's largest research nursing school and sits alongside the hospital that anchors the Birmingham market. The Capstone College of Nursing at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, the University of South Alabama College of Nursing in Mobile, Auburn University's College of Nursing and Troy University make up most of the rest of the baccalaureate capacity, with associate degree and practical nurse programs spread across the community college system.
Pay and workforce
Alabama's average sits roughly $73,000 below California, which pays the most of any state. Within Alabama, the Birmingham area holds the largest share of hospital nursing work, built around the University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital, with Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery behind it. The Black Belt counties in the center and west of the state are rural and thinly served, and several of their hospitals have closed obstetric services. See rural and frontier nursing.
Four of the states on Alabama's border are compact members, so one license covers a wide commuting radius: Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi. How the state's pay compares nationally is set out under registered nurse pay.
Related
- Nurse Licensure Compact
- Nurse practitioner practice authority
- Collaborative practice agreements
- Registered nurse pay
- 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.
- Alabama 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.