Nurse practitioner salary by state ranged from a $105,750 median in Alabama to $168,520 in California in the BLS May 2025 estimates; the national NP median was $132,300. These wages combine specialties and career stages, so they do not tell you what a new FNP or PMHNP will be offered in a particular city.
Updated October 13, 2026. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025, occupation 29-1171. The state table below uses the cross-industry rows in BLS’s downloadable state workbook.
What is the nurse practitioner salary in each state?
The table gives the median, mean, and estimated number of employed NP jobs for every state and Washington, DC. Future NP Club extracted these from the cross-industry NP rows in the BLS workbook, where the columns are labeled A_MEDIAN, A_MEAN, and TOT_EMP. It is alphabetical so you can find your state without treating a wage column as a ranking of where life or work is best.
| State | Median annual wage | Mean annual wage | Estimated NP jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $105,750 | $110,970 | 5,640 |
| Alaska | $155,170 | $149,120 | 710 |
| Arizona | $134,420 | $140,600 | 7,220 |
| Arkansas | $125,660 | $130,260 | 3,970 |
| California | $168,520 | $176,760 | 25,120 |
| Colorado | $132,930 | $132,540 | 4,270 |
| Connecticut | $138,470 | $142,340 | 3,750 |
| Delaware | $131,040 | $132,900 | 1,430 |
| District of Columbia | $135,880 | $146,470 | 680 |
| Florida | $129,510 | $130,410 | 21,790 |
| Georgia | $129,430 | $128,800 | 10,460 |
| Hawaii | $135,570 | $142,910 | 550 |
| Idaho | $132,540 | $133,420 | 1,750 |
| Illinois | $130,680 | $130,940 | 9,270 |
| Indiana | $128,830 | $126,600 | 7,450 |
| Iowa | $130,160 | $136,940 | 3,240 |
| Kansas | $126,650 | $127,940 | 3,780 |
| Kentucky | $122,870 | $125,010 | 4,770 |
| Louisiana | $125,600 | $126,630 | 5,380 |
| Maine | $130,260 | $134,210 | 1,650 |
| Maryland | $131,110 | $133,360 | 6,710 |
| Massachusetts | $142,440 | $152,320 | 8,070 |
| Michigan | $131,450 | $132,790 | 8,290 |
| Minnesota | $133,260 | $135,890 | 7,780 |
| Mississippi | $124,730 | $125,340 | 4,690 |
| Missouri | $129,930 | $130,970 | 7,710 |
| Montana | $137,210 | $135,290 | 1,260 |
| Nebraska | $132,130 | $131,710 | 2,340 |
| Nevada | $140,670 | $137,410 | 1,930 |
| New Hampshire | $137,550 | $138,070 | 1,770 |
| New Jersey | $159,310 | $155,750 | 9,950 |
| New Mexico | $137,520 | $143,510 | 1,770 |
| New York | $153,510 | $153,900 | 22,890 |
| North Carolina | $128,990 | $130,870 | 9,800 |
| North Dakota | $130,070 | $126,370 | 1,290 |
| Ohio | $124,870 | $122,910 | 15,400 |
| Oklahoma | $133,390 | $134,200 | 3,620 |
| Oregon | $155,680 | $155,780 | 2,820 |
| Pennsylvania | $130,140 | $132,070 | 10,670 |
| Rhode Island | $135,970 | $143,150 | 1,180 |
| South Carolina | $123,290 | $124,170 | 5,670 |
| South Dakota | $128,840 | $125,160 | 1,020 |
| Tennessee | $117,590 | $115,510 | 12,150 |
| Texas | $131,670 | $131,420 | 25,970 |
| Utah | $130,920 | $137,060 | 2,740 |
| Vermont | $134,740 | $139,400 | 700 |
| Virginia | $127,810 | $129,060 | 7,110 |
| Washington | $156,100 | $152,180 | 6,700 |
| West Virginia | $127,320 | $126,780 | 2,550 |
| Wisconsin | $131,980 | $135,160 | 5,160 |
| Wyoming | $132,200 | $132,680 | 440 |
The jobs column estimates current employment, not vacancies or new openings. A state with thousands of employed NPs may still have few openings in your specialty or city. For the national figure and how it has changed, see our nurse practitioner salary guide.
Is the state median the same as the average NP salary?
No. The median is the midpoint: half of the estimated wages are above it and half below. The mean is the arithmetic average. A few high wages can pull the mean upward, though that does not happen in every state. Texas is a useful check on the terms: its May 2025 median was $131,670 and its mean was $131,420. Calling either number simply “the average” hides which calculation you used.
The BLS state workbook provides both measures for the same NP occupation. It does not provide separate state wages for family, psychiatric-mental health, acute-care, or pediatric NPs. Our FNP salary guide explains why specialty numbers from other sources cannot be presented as BLS figures.
Which state pays NPs best after living costs?
This table cannot settle that question. California’s NP median exceeded Alabama’s by $62,770 in May 2025, but BLS does not subtract rent, taxes, childcare, transportation, or loan payments. Its guide to using OEWS data in salary negotiations notes that pay varies by geography and that high-cost metro areas can pay more. The wage gap does not establish that an NP in California will have more money left each month than an NP in Texas or Alabama.
Statewide data can also hide a large metro-to-rural spread. If two offers are on the table, look up each location in the BLS metro and nonmetro estimates. Then compare base pay, expected hours, call, benefits, licensing and malpractice costs, and your own housing budget. Our new-graduate salary negotiation guide has an offer checklist. A posted salary is useful; a signed offer with its workload and benefits is far more useful.
How should a future NP use these wages when choosing a school?
Start with the state where you expect to work, but budget from a conservative local offer, not the statewide median. The BLS distribution combines experienced clinicians with new graduates. It also combines every NP population focus and setting.
Put your likely first-job compensation beside the full program bill, lost RN income during school, and the cost of any clinical travel or delay. The true cost of NP school worksheet separates those items. If a program requires you to move, price the move and the new local market separately; the statewide wage row alone does not justify a second degree or a cross-country relocation.
For current source data, use BLS’s May 2025 state OEWS page and its linked workbook. Check the source year whenever you reuse a number. May 2025 wages are the latest published snapshot as of this article’s October 2026 update, not a live quote for an October 2026 job.