The District of Columbia has the most registered nurses per capita, and Idaho has the fewest, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The agency found the total number of registered nurses employed in every state as of May 2023, the latest data available. Becker's used Census information to find the current estimate of state population and calculate the number of nurses per capita.
Here are the states with the most and fewest number of working registered nurses per capita:
Most
District of Columbia — 1,592.11
South Dakota — 1,588.13
North Dakota — 1,320.28
Massachusetts — 1,247.18
Missouri — 1,181.22
West Virginia — 1,178.48
Minnesota — 1,162.44
Nebraska — 1,156
Delaware — 1,144.5
Ohio — 1,131.01
Fewest
Idaho — 715.62
Utah — 723.58
Oklahoma — 804.43
Maryland — 805.31
Louisiana — 805.47
Nevada — 810.54
Virginia — 810.61
Texas — 825.62
Hawaii — 830.58
Washington — 832.34