Happiest States for Nurses in the US (2024)

• September 26, 2018
• Rachelle Olivar
• General, US Nursing
• 2 Comments

(Estimated reading time: 3 minutes)

Right now, you might be planning to apply for the NCLEX to become a nurse in the United States. If you are still in the process of choosing the right US state for you, one of the things you might want to consider is how happy you would be living and working there.

Can you measure happiness? Not really. But there are other are other factors that you can analyze in order to see which states offer the highest rate of happiness.

The ranking by Nurse.org is based on the following factors:

Best states for quality of life

Quality of life is 50% natural environment and 50% social environment. Natural environment refers to the quality of air and water in the state, as well as weather conditions, pollution, and industrial toxins. Social environment measures community engagement, social support, and voter participation. Do people in that state exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens? Are they able to live in a way that they get to spend time with family and friends?

Average salaries for nurses, adjusted for the cost of living

To compute this, the average cost of living for a single adult in the US is multiplied by the Cost of Living Index. The total is then subtracted from the average nurse’s salary for that state.

Nursing demand: surplus vs supply

This refers to the nursing demand projections for all 50 states based on the latest report from the US Health Resources and Services Administration.

Average hospital ratings

Nurse.org collated data from 65,000 anonymous hospital reviews left by nurses. They then took the average ratings for hospitals in different states to make their rankings.

Top Happiest 5 states for nurses in the US

#5 Colorado

Quality of life ranking: #10

Average RN salary: $69,990.00

RN pay compared to cost of living ranking: #16

Nursing surplus or shortage: +63,200 (surplus)

Overall hospital rating by nurses: 85%

#4 Alaska

Quality of life ranking: #19

Average RN salary: $88,510.00

RN pay compared to cost of living ranking: #3

Nursing surplus or shortage: -5,400 (surplus)

Overall hospital rating by nurses: 78%

#3 Oregon

Quality of life ranking: #18

Average RN salary: $83,800.00

RN pay compared to cost of living ranking: #4

Nursing surplus or shortage: +2,500 (surplus)

Overall hospital rating by nurses: Data Inconclusive

#2 Wisconsin

Quality of life ranking: #3

Average RN salary: $66,400.00

RN pay compared to cost of living ranking: #19

Nursing surplus or shortage: +6,200 (surplus)

Overall hospital rating by nurses: 88%

#1 Minnesota

Quality of life ranking: #2

Average RN salary: $72,310.00

RN pay compared to cost of living ranking: #10

Nursing surplus or shortage: +3,100 (surplus)

Overall hospital rating by nurses: 86%

We hope that this helps you decide which state you’re going to apply for in the NCLEX! IPASS Processing will be more than happy to assist your application. IPASS also offers reviews for the exams and we would like to guide you from the moment you file your application to the very moment you get your results. Remember: I can, I will, IPASS!

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