Nurse Practitioners

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025

$132,300

Half earn more, half earn less

Middle half earn

$117,990 – $156,700

25th to 75th percentile

People employed, May 2025

323,040

Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)

Projected change, 2025–35

+41%

Growing at twice the all-jobs rate or more (7%+)

Openings a year (projected)

29,400

New jobs plus replacing people who leave

Typical education to enter

Master's degree

BLS

• All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
• Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
• Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.

What the work involves

Diagnose and treat acute, episodic, or chronic illness, independently or as part of a healthcare team. May focus on health promotion and disease prevention. May order, perform, or interpret diagnostic tests such as lab work and x rays. May prescribe medication. Must be registered nurses who have specialized graduate education.

Main tasks

• Maintain complete and detailed records of patients' health care plans and prognoses.
• Develop treatment plans, based on scientific rationale, standards of care, and professional practice guidelines.
• Provide patients with information needed to promote health, reduce risk factors, or prevent disease or disability.
• Analyze and interpret patients' histories, symptoms, physical findings, or diagnostic information to develop appropriate diagnoses.
• Diagnose or treat complex, unstable, comorbid, episodic, or emergency conditions in collaboration with other health care providers as necessary.
• Prescribe medication dosages, routes, and frequencies, based on such patient characteristics as age and gender.
• Diagnose or treat chronic health care problems, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
• Prescribe medications based on efficacy, safety, and cost as legally authorized.

Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)

Master's degree

O*NET Job Zone 5

Extensive preparation

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 72 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.

Related careers

Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.

• Registered Nurses

  $97,550 median · +5.6% projected

• Family Medicine Physicians

  $244,180 median · +3.3% projected

• Emergency Medicine Physicians

  $335,550 median · +3.2% projected

• Nurse Midwives

  $134,040 median · +11.5% projected

• General Internal Medicine Physicians

  $256,560 median · +4% projected

• Physician Assistants

  $135,880 median · +21.1% projected