Best States for Nurse Practitioners in 2026: California Leads as High-Pay Markets Diverge on Scale

Across the top 10 states, LaborCove’s data shows that no single metric explains the rankings. California leads the list with the highest LaborCove Geography Score and the largest employment count among these states, while states such as Alaska and Oregon combine smaller employment totals with high median salaries but lower Geography Scores. The national median salary of $132,300 and the 40.1% projected national growth rate frame these state-level results: several top-ranked states have median salaries above this national benchmark, and some of the largest employment markets, such as Texas and California, do not necessarily have the highest salaries. For nurse practitioners, this means the “best” state depends on how they weigh salary levels, state-scale employment counts, and overall Geography Scores.

Before comparing states, it is useful to understand the national picture for nurse practitioners in 2026. LaborCove data shows a national median annual salary of $132,300, with total national employment of 323,040. The occupation also has a projected national employment growth rate of 40.1%. This figure describes the national outlook for nurse practitioners overall and does not represent or imply any specific growth rate for individual states. Instead, it provides context for understanding why state-level comparisons matter: even within a nationally growing occupation, salaries, employment counts, and Geography Scores differ across states.

California holds the #1 position in LaborCove’s 2026 state rankings for nurse practitioners, with a Geography Score of 86.48. This is well above the second-ranked state, New York, which has a Geography Score of 74.42, and it is also higher than Texas at #3 with a Geography Score of 63.94. Within the top five, New Jersey ranks #4 with a Geography Score of 61.19, followed by Washington at #5 with 55.25. These scores show that the gap between California and the rest of the top five is larger than the gaps among New York, Texas, New Jersey, and Washington. Moving further down the top 10, Florida ranks #6 with a Geography Score of 54.19, ahead of Massachusetts at #7 with 50.87, Ohio at #8 with 46.85, Alaska at #9 with 46.31, and Oregon at #10 with 45.89. Because the Geography Score is a composite measure, it does not correspond to any single underlying metric. However, the rank ordering makes clear that some states with high salaries or sizable employment counts still sit below others in the overall LaborCove rankings.

Several of the top-ranked states have median annual salaries for nurse practitioners above the national median of $132,300. California, ranked #1, has a median salary of $168,520, which is higher than the national figure. New York at #2 has a median salary of $153,510, also above the national median. New Jersey at #4 has a median salary of $159,310, and Washington at #5 has a median salary of $156,100; both exceed the national median as well. Alaska at #9 shows a median salary of $155,170, and Oregon at #10 reports $155,680, again above the national benchmark. Massachusetts at #7, with a median salary of $142,440, and Texas at #3, at $131,670, illustrate that even within the top 10, salary levels vary around the national median, with Massachusetts above the national median and Texas slightly below it. Ohio, ranked #8, has a median salary of $124,870, and Florida at #6 has a median salary of $129,510, both below the national median. This spread underscores that a higher Geography Score or rank does not always correspond to a higher salary relative to the national median.

Among the top 10 states, Texas has the largest employment count for nurse practitioners, with 25,970 positions. California, despite ranking #1 overall, has a slightly smaller employment count of 25,120. Both states have substantially larger employment counts than any other state in the top 10 list. New York, ranked #2, has employment of 22,890, which is lower than both Texas and California but higher than Florida’s 21,790 at #6. Ohio at #8 has 15,400 nurse practitioner positions, again trailing the three largest markets in this group. Massachusetts at #7 has 8,070 positions, and New Jersey at #4 has 9,950. At the smaller end of the top 10, Washington at #5 has an employment count of 6,700, Oregon at #10 has 2,820, and Alaska at #9 has 710. These differences show that states can secure a place in the top 10 with a range of employment scales, from several hundred to more than twenty-five thousand roles, as measured in this data.

The top 10 states illustrate that salary and employment scale interact with the LaborCove Geography Score in varied ways. California, with a median salary of $168,520 and employment of 25,120, combines a high salary with one of the largest employment counts in the group and achieves the highest Geography Score of 86.48. Texas offers an example of a different balance. It ranks #3 overall with a Geography Score of 63.94 and has the largest employment count in the top 10 at 25,970, yet its median salary of $131,670 is slightly below the national median of $132,300. By contrast, Alaska at #9 and Oregon at #10 each have high median salaries—$155,170 and $155,680, respectively—well above the national median, but smaller employment counts of 710 and 2,820 and lower Geography Scores of 46.31 and 45.89. Florida at #6, with a median salary of $129,510 and employment of 21,790, and Ohio at #8, with a median salary of $124,870 and employment of 15,400, further demonstrate that mid-ranked states in this list mix moderate salaries relative to the national median with mid-range employment counts. For nurse practitioners weighing relocation, this means the rankings can highlight where states sit on each metric, while individual preferences determine which combination is most appealing.

LaborCove’s Best States for Nurse Practitioners ranking is built from authoritative labor-market data and the LaborCove Geography Score, which combines multiple labor-market indicators into a single comparable value for each state. For this article, we focus on three supplied elements for each top-ranked state: median annual salary, employment, and the LaborCove Geography Score. National median salary, national employment, and the national projected employment growth rate of 40.1% are used only as broad occupational context, not as state-level projections. The rankings and comparisons presented here should be interpreted as structured data points to support decision-making, not as predictions of individual employment outcomes. Nurse practitioners should consider these results alongside their own career goals, specialization, and non-labor factors such as personal preferences and licensing requirements, which are outside the scope of this data.