Highest-Paying U.S. States for Registered Nurses: 2025 Salary Ranking

Overview: where registered nurse median pay is highest

The national median annual wage for registered nurses in May 2025 was $97,550, according to BLS. Only 18 of the 51 state/DC median wages in this ranking exceed that national benchmark. This does not mean only 18 areas have nurses earning more than $97,550: each row describes the midpoint of an entire area's RN wage distribution.

The distribution is uneven. The top four jurisdictions pay medians of at least $124,200, while the fifth, Alaska, sits at $109,480. The West accounts for six of the ten highest-paying states; all four remaining Top 10 positions belong to the Northeast, using U.S. Census geographic regions.

A median is the point at which half of wage-and-salary RN workers in the area earn more and half earn less. It is not the mean, a guaranteed job offer, an overtime-inclusive paycheck or a cost-of-living-adjusted figure. Statewide results also hide differences between cities, hospitals, employers and nursing specialties.

Top 10 highest-paying states for registered nurses in 2025

Rankings are recalculated from the published annual median wage values, in descending order. Washington, D.C., is included in the full 51-area table but does not enter the Top 10.

Annual median wages (USD), BLS OEWS May 2025; single official numeric source

Status on every row: official_value. The median annual wage is a BLS-published statistical estimate, not a StatRanker projection.

Chart: Top 20 U.S. jurisdictions by RN median annual wage

Bars represent the same unrounded-to-display BLS dollar values as the tables, scaled to California at 100%. This is a nominal-pay comparison, not a purchasing-power ranking.

StatRanker calculation from confirmed rows: the average of the Top 10 state medians is $116,618, versus $79,125 for the bottom ten—a difference of $37,493. These are unweighted averages of area medians, not mean salaries earned by individual nurses.

Methodology and comparability

Published measures versus page calculations

The 51 wages come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 state series and are treated as official published statistical estimates. Ranks, gaps, percentages, regional counts and summaries are StatRanker calculations on those confirmed inputs. Ranking uses the dollar figures shown, not a copied external ordering. Dollar figures in this ranking are displayed to the same $10 precision as the published medians; percentages are rounded to one decimal place.

Wage definition and interpretation limits

OEWS is an employer survey of wage-and-salary jobs. It covers straight-time gross pay including some allowances and incentive pay, but excludes overtime, shift differentials, employer-paid benefits and some additional compensation. Estimates are statistical rather than an exact census of every nurse. Hourly-paid occupations' annual wages are generally annualized using a 2,080-hour work year under BLS rules.

The estimates are not adjusted for tax, rent, prices, hours actually worked, nursing experience, metropolitan concentration or workplace. A median in a high-cost state cannot be read as a higher standard of living. The national $97,550 median is a worker-level national distribution measure; the $93,600 median of 51 area medians on this page is an unweighted StatRanker statistic and must not replace the official national median.

Primary dataset, extraction fields and reproducibility

The primary numeric series is the BLS May 2025 state OEWS release. Its downloadable state archive is oesm25st.zip, containing state_M2025_dl.xlsx. A direct workbook-based check selects the all-industries (NAICS 000000), all-ownership statewide records where OCC_CODE = 29-1141 and reads A_MEDIAN, the published median annual wage. Match the state code or name to precisely 50 states and the District of Columbia; omit U.S. territories and any national or substate entries. The original release, not the order of a secondary ranking, determines which wage belongs to each jurisdiction.

State-by-state government validation: All 51 HTML annual median amounts were compared with the 2025 Annual Median (50%) values in the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET OnLine state wage tables for Registered Nurses (29-1141.00). Vermont was additionally verified in the government CareerOneStop Salary Finder and the O*NET Vermont statewide figure displayed through its ZIP-based local wages view. Result: 51 of 51 values matched; zero discrepancies. O*NET and CareerOneStop republish BLS wage data; they are authoritative government validation views of the same underlying survey, not additional independent wage surveys. The direct BLS ZIP remains linked in Sources for reproducibility, but its original XLSX was not downloaded or checksum-audited for this edition. No claim of a direct workbook or byte-level comparison is made.

Source priority, missing values and change control

BLS is the single authoritative numeric publisher. O*NET, CareerOneStop and Becker's are validation presentations of the same BLS 2025 wage estimates and do not increase the independent numeric publisher count above one. If a BLS record and a secondary presentation disagree, retain the verified original BLS value and document the discrepancy; never average the two. No row is interpolated from an earlier year, estimated from hourly pay or changed to fit a published rank order. All 51 displayed values are labeled official_value because they are reported as BLS May 2025 wage estimates; StatRanker-generated comparisons are identified separately and are not official BLS measures. The current edition has no missing or stale-year rows. An updated BLS release would require another documented comparison before changing figures.

Wage survey design and remaining limitations

The OEWS wage estimates are based on employer survey samples across multiple semiannual panels rather than a full census of individual paychecks. Estimates can be revised; sampling error, employment mix, geographic variation and rounding constrain comparisons between close neighbors such as Alaska and New York (a $40 difference). Census supplies the region definitions only. Neither Becker's nor CareerOneStop represents an independently measured alternative to BLS OEWS.

Main ranking: all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Search by place, filter by U.S. region or data status, sort the existing rows, or restrict the view to the original Top 10 or Top 20. All 51 rows remain visible without JavaScript.

Showing 51 of 51 jurisdictions.

May 2025 BLS OEWS annual median wages for SOC 29-1141; 51 official_value rows; nominal USD

Source notes identify the official BLS May 2025 estimate for each area; the status is not a salary prediction. D.C. is a federal district, shown separately from the 50 states.

Four findings from the 51-jurisdiction ranking

What the wage ranking tells a registered nurse

California and Hawaii lead on nominal statewide median pay, but that midpoint is not an individual job offer. New York's statewide figure, for example, should not be treated as the expected wage at a specific New York City hospital or an upstate employer: both are included in a statewide distribution, while job setting, experience and local employment mix can differ.

The statewide comparison is most useful as a screening tool. Compare metro-area medians before choosing a city, then review the actual employer, scheduled hours, shift differentials, licensing rules, living costs and take-home pay. StatRanker's companion RN metropolitan-area ranking addresses a different geographic scale and is listed under Further reading in Sources.

The national RN median ($97,550) describes the wage distribution of workers nationally. The site's $93,600 median of 51 jurisdiction medians gives every jurisdiction equal weight, regardless of RN employment, and should never be interpreted as the median wage of a U.S. nurse.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and their roles