Gender ratio of nurse practitioners across 50 states and D.C.
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Women account for about 77% of professionally active nurse practitioners in the U.S., according to KFF. Becker’s ranked every state and Washington, D.C., by female-to-male NP ratios.
Women make up about 77% of the professionally active nurse practitioner workforce in the U.S., according to a recent analysis from KFF. The analysis used information from Redi-Data on active, licensed nurse practitioners as of May. In total, nearly 588,000 professionally active nurse practitioners are currently practicing in the U.S., and about 453,000 of them are female. That works out to a national gender ratio of 6.95 female nurse practitioners for every 1 male nurse practitioner.
Becker’s used those figures to rank all 50 states and Washington, D.C., by female-to-male nurse practitioner ratios in descending order. The ratios were calculated by dividing the number of female nurse practitioners by the number of male nurse practitioners in each state. The table does not include unspecified gender numbers in the ratio itself. Becker’s also noted that the national percentage of female nurse practitioners may be a slight underestimate because it is based on the total number of nurse practitioners, including those who did not specify gender.
Wisconsin had the highest female-to-male ratio in the table, at 10.18 female nurse practitioners to 1 male nurse practitioner. Indiana followed at 9.98, and Virginia ranked third at 9.95. North Dakota and Nebraska also posted ratios above 9-to-1, at 9.93 and 9.79, respectively.
Several other states reported ratios above 8-to-1, including West Virginia, Missouri, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, South Carolina, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Kentucky. New Hampshire, New York, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, Kansas and Arkansas also appeared in the upper half of the ranking, with ratios ranging from 8.05 to 7.32.
In the middle of the list, South Dakota had a ratio of 7.13, followed by Alaska at 6.93, Tennessee at 6.70, Oklahoma at 6.62 and Alabama at 6.54. Washington, D.C., was listed at 6.34, and Wyoming and Montana were close behind at 6.33 and 6.25, respectively. Mississippi, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and Hawaii all had ratios below 6.2.
On the lower end of the ranking, Oregon reported a ratio of 5.23, Florida 5.21 and California 5.15. Washington came in at 4.95, Nevada at 4.38 and Idaho at 3.82. Utah had the lowest ratio in the table, at 3.62 female nurse practitioners for every 1 male nurse practitioner.
The table also listed the number of female nurse practitioners, male nurse practitioners and total nurse practitioners in each state and Washington, D.C. The total counts include nurse practitioners who did not specify gender. All figures were rounded to the nearest tenth.
Becker’s said the rankings were calculated from KFF’s analysis and presented state by state, but no additional methodology or interpretation was reported in the source.