The 2022 National Nursing Workforce Survey

Background: Every two years, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) and the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers (Forum) conduct the only national-level survey focused on the entire U.S. nursing workforce. The survey generates data on the supply of registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses/licensed vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs). These data are especially crucial in providing information on emerging nursing issues, which in 2022, was the impact of the (COVID-19) pandemic on the nursing workforce. Purpose: To provide data critical to planning for enough adequately prepared nurses and ensuring a safe, diverse, and effective healthcare system. Methods: This study used a mixed-mode approach, involving mailing a national, randomized sample survey to licensed RNs and LPNs/LVNs in most jurisdictions, supplemented by a national, randomized sample survey emailed to licensed RNs and LPNs/LVNs in four jurisdictions and data from the e-Notify nurse licensure notification system for five jurisdictions. Data from RN and LPN/LVN respondents were collected between April 11, 2022, and September 30, 2022. Data included nurse demographics, educational attainment, employment, practice characteristics, and trends. Results: The total number of active RN and LPN/LVN licenses in the United States were 5,239,499 and 973,788, respectively. The median age of RNs was 46 years and 47years for LPNs/LVNs, which reflects a decrease of 6 years for each cohort from the 2020 data. This decline was associated with estimated losses to the workforce of at least 200,000 experienced RNs and 60,000 experienced LPNs/LVNs. An average of 89% of all nurses who maintain licensure are employed in nursing with roughly 70% working full-time. Hospitals and nursing/extended care facilities continue to be the primary practice setting for RNs and LPNs, respectively. Increased proportions of male and Hispanic/Latino nurses have introduced greater racial diversity in the nursing workforce. The nursing workforce is becoming increasingly more educated with more than 70% of RNs holding a baccalaureate degree or higher. More than one-quarter of all nurses report that they plan to leave nursing or retire over the next 5 years. Increased demand from the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation led nursing incomes to rise significantly across the country. Nurses were also specifically asked how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted them, and more than 60% of all nurses reported an increase in their workload because of the pandemic. Conclusion: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nursing workforce has undergone a dramatic shift with the loss of hundreds of thousands of experienced RNs and LPNs/LVNs. The nursing workforce has become younger and more diverse with increases reflected for Hispanic/Latino and male nurses. An increasing proportion of the RN workforce holds a baccalaureate degree or higher, moving closer to goals established by the National Academy of Medicine. Salaries have notably increased for nurses, likely due to inflation and increased demand for nursing services. With a quarter of the population contemplating leaving the profession, the impact of the pandemic may still be felt in the future. Background: Every two years, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) and the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers (Forum) conduct the only national-level survey focused on the entire U.S. nursing workforce. The survey generates data on the supply of registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses/licensed vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs). These data are especially crucial in providing information on emerging nursing issues, which in 2022, was the impact of the (COVID-19) pandemic on the nursing workforce. Purpose: To provide data critical to planning for enough adequately prepared nurses and ensuring a safe, diverse, and effective healthcare system. Methods: This study used a mixed-mode approach, involving mailing a national, randomized sample survey to licensed RNs and LPNs/LVNs in most jurisdictions, supplemented by a national, randomized sample survey emailed to licensed RNs and LPNs/LVNs in four jurisdictions and data from the e-Notify nurse licensure notification system for five jurisdictions. Data from RN and LPN/LVN respondents were collected between April 11, 2022, and September 30, 2022. Data included nurse demographics, educational attainment, employment, practice characteristics, and trends. Results: The total number of active RN and LPN/LVN licenses in the United States were 5,239,499 and 973,788, respectively. The median age of RNs was 46 years and 47years for LPNs/LVNs, which reflects a decrease of 6 years for each cohort from the 2020 data. This decline was associated with estimated losses to the workforce of at least 200,000 experienced RNs and 60,000 experienced LPNs/LVNs. An average of 89% of all nurses who maintain licensure are employed in nursing with roughly 70% working full-time. Hospitals and nursing/extended care facilities continue to be the primary practice setting for RNs and LPNs, respectively. Increased proportions of male and Hispanic/Latino nurses have introduced greater racial diversity in the nursing workforce. The nursing workforce is becoming increasingly more educated with more than 70% of RNs holding a baccalaureate degree or higher. More than one-quarter of all nurses report that they plan to leave nursing or retire over the next 5 years. Increased demand from the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation led nursing incomes to rise significantly across the country. Nurses were also specifically asked how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted them, and more than 60% of all nurses reported an increase in their workload because of the pandemic. Conclusion: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nursing workforce has undergone a dramatic shift with the loss of hundreds of thousands of experienced RNs and LPNs/LVNs. The nursing workforce has become younger and more diverse with increases reflected for Hispanic/Latino and male nurses. An increasing proportion of the RN workforce holds a baccalaureate degree or higher, moving closer to goals established by the National Academy of Medicine. Salaries have notably increased for nurses, likely due to inflation and increased demand for nursing services. With a quarter of the population contemplating leaving the profession, the impact of the pandemic may still be felt in the future. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) has collaborated with the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers (Forum) to conduct the National Nursing Workforce Survey since 2013. The 2022 survey added questions pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel nursing. Data are comparable to the 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2020 datasets, which facilitated trend analyses. This study is the only continuous national, randomized survey of this size specifically focused on nurses, and it is the only comprehensive and updated study that includes registered nurses (RNs) as well as licensed practical nurses/licensed vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs). The evidence generated from the National Nursing Workforce Survey fills a critical gap in supply-side information about nurses in the United States. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nursing workforce has undergone a dramatic shift, with many older nurses opting to leave the profession. In 2020, nurses aged 55 years or older accounted for 43% of the RN workforce and 42% of the LPN/LVN workforce. In 2022, this same age cohort accounted for 31% of RNs and 30% of LPNs/LVNs. This decline was associated with estimated losses to the workforce of at least 200,000 experienced RNs and 60,000 experienced LPNs/LVNs. The losses in the experienced workforce have been somewhat offset by gains in the lowest age ranges. In 2020, nurses aged 29 years or younger accounted for 8% of the RN workforce and 7% of the LPN/LVN workforce. In 2022, this same age cohort accounted for 11% of RNs and 10% of LPNs/LVNs. This increase was associated with estimated gains to the workforce of 130,000 RNs and 16,000 LPNs/LVNs. The workforce in 2022 is more demographically diverse and representative of the country’s population than in any year in which this study was previously conducted. Women continue to account for a large majority of nurses; however, the proportion of men licensed as RNs or LPNs/LVNs in the country has increased steadily since at least 2015. Currently, men account for 11% of the RN workforce, an increase from 8% in 2015. Though less pronounced, the same pattern holds true for the proportion of men in the LPN/LVN workforce. RNs are more likely to report identifying as an underrepresented racial minority. Overall, the RN workforce is 80% White/Caucasian, a slight decrease from 81% in 2020. In contrast, 72% of the U.S. population identifies as White/Caucasian (Census Bureau, 2020Census Bureau U.S. ACS demographic and housing estimates. 2020; (Retrieved March 8, 2023, from): 2019https://data.census.gov/table?tid=ACSDP1Y2019.DP05Google Scholar). RNs who reported being of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity comprised 7% of the workforce in 2022, whereas in 2015 they represented 4% of the workforce. It is unclear whether this increase in diversity will continue. After years of decline, the proportion of RNs identifying as White/Caucasian in the youngest age ranges has risen back to the level of the overall population mean. LPNs/LVNs are also more likely to report identifying as an underrepresented racial minority. Overall, the LPN/LVN workforce is 66% White/Caucasian, a decrease from 70% in 2020. LPNs/LVNs who reported being of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity comprised 12% of the workforce in 2022, an increase from 6% in 2015. As with the RN workforce, the proportion of LPNs/LVNs identifying as White/Caucasian in the youngest age ranges has risen back to the level of the overall population mean. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing employment has jumped significantly. Reporting data suggest an estimated 89% of RNs who maintain licensure are employed in nursing; among these nurses, 70% work full time, 11% work part time, and about 8% work per diem shifts. This is an increase from the 84% who reported working in nursing in 2020. Likewise, the 88% of LPNs/LVNs who reported being employed in nursing in 2022 was an increase over the 82% of LPNs/LVNs who did so in 2020. Despite these gains, the COVID-19 pandemic may still have an impact on future employment. Survey data indicate that 28% of all nurse respondents plan to retire in the next 5 years, an increase from the 21% who responded positively in 2020. Hospitals continue to be the primary practice setting for RNs, followed by the ambulatory care setting, home health, and nursing homes. The primary practice setting for LPNs/LVNs is nursing homes/ extended care settings followed by hospitals and nursing homes. In comparison to 2020, increased proportions of RNs and LPNs/LVNs reported providing direct patient care in their jobs. In the 2022 survey, the educational accomplishment of RNs increased with more than 70% of the workforce holding a baccalaureate degree or higher. The proportion of LPNs/LVNs holding an associate degree or higher remained steady at around 16%. There is evidence that RNs and LPNs/LVNs are continuing their nursing education after obtaining their initial nursing license. Comparing the highest level of nursing education to the educational attainment when first licensed shows that proportionally more RNs hold a baccalaureate or graduate degree than did at initial licensure (51% vs. 47%). Additionally, proportionally more LPNs/LVNs hold an associate or baccalaureate as their highest level of nursing education than at initial licensure (16% vs. 8%). Overall, RNs and LPNs/LVNs are less experienced now than in previous years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The proportion of RNs with 10 or fewer years licensed jumped from 31% in 2020 to 38% in 2022, while the proportion of LPNs/LVNs with 10 or fewer years practicing rose from 37% in 2020 to 42% in 2022. As in previous years, most RNs (96%) and LPNs/LVNs (99%) obtained their initial nursing license in the United States. Increased demand from the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation led nursing incomes to rise significantly across the country, with the median RN annual earnings increasing from $70,000 in 2020 to $80,000 in 2022 and the median LPN/LVN annual earnings rising from $44,000 in 2020 to $50,000 in 2022. Nurses were also specifically asked how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted them. More than 60% of all nurses reported an increase in their workload, while 16% of RNs and 11% of LPNs/LVNs reported changing their practice settings. More than half of all nurses reported feeling “emotionally drained from work” at least a few times each week, while more than a quarter of all nurses reported feeling “like they were at the end of their rope” at least a few times each week. A mixed-mode sampling plan was employed to capture data for the 2022 National Nursing Workforce Survey. The e-Notify nurse licensure notification system helps nurses track their licenses and discipline statuses and provides license renewal reminders. The information is provided as it is entered into the Nursys database by participating nursing regulatory bodies. After a comprehensive review of data collected through the e-Notify system, it was determined that five participating jurisdictions (Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico, Washington, and Wyoming) had entered data of sufficient volume and quality so that a separate survey of nurses was unnecessary. Data for four jurisdictions (Alabama, New Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island) were obtained from an email survey of the state nurse membership. Data for the remaining jurisdictions were collected through a direct mail survey that offered nurses the opportunity to respond via filling out and mailing back a paper survey (using a prepaid business reply envelope) or going online and accessing an online version of the survey. For the U.S. jurisdictions and territories involved in the mailout portion of the survey, all RNs and LPNs/LVNs with an active license were eligible survey participants. A portion of the sample was drawn from Nursys, NCSBN’s licensure database. This database contains basic demographic and licensure information for RN and LPN/LVN licensees. Licensee lists and addresses were obtained directly from the following boards of nursing (BONs): (a) California (LPN/LVN), (b) Colorado, (c) Hawaii, (d) Indiana, (e) Michigan, (f) Pennsylvania, (g) Utah, and (h) Wisconsin. Georgia’s licensee lists and addresses were purchased from MMS, Inc. The BONs for American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands chose not to participate in this survey. As of December 31, 2021, the total number of active RN licenses in the United States was 5,239,499, and the total number of active LPN/LVN licenses was 973,788 (NCSBN, 2022). Separate RN and LPN/LVN samples stratified by state were randomly selected from among RN and LPN/LVN licensees. Surveys were mailed to 154,757 RNs and 154,490 LPNs/LVNs. Tables 1A and 2A present the sampling by jurisdiction/state for the mailout portion of the survey. Each jurisdiction is listed with the actual number of active licenses at the time of sampling. Approximately 1,000 nurses needed to respond from each jurisdiction to construct a 95% confidence of plus or minus 3% error. To calculate the number of surveys that needed to be mailed out to reach the target survey response, response rates to the online and paper surveys from the previous 2020 survey administration were used as estimates. For example, in 2020, Alaska had a 29.1% response rate for the RN survey. Given this estimated response rate, 3,340 RNs in Alaska were selected to be survey recipients in order to receive the target of 1,000 surveys. The actual response from Alaskan RNs to the current survey (i.e., the number of responses returned) was 742, a response rate of 22.1%.Table 1ARN Mailout Survey ResponseJurisdictionNumber of Active RN LicensesNumber of Surveys MailedUndeliverableNumber ReceivedNumber of ResponsesTotal Response RateAK18,1023,440893,35174222.1%AR45,0164,2132513,96255714.1%AZ102,3644,7654904,27565615.3%CA466,4143,858463,81266417.4%CO80,9463,7622943,46858516.9%CT81,2423,676403,63666518.3%DC30,2224,2522284,02453813.4%DE19,2113,308243,28465820.0%FL347,1364,329844,24560114.2%GA139,3144,1062503,85649312.8%HI26,7853,2611363,12567821.7%IA58,5713,184473,13767421.5%ID25,8152,793482,74562922.9%IL219,4093,837623,77561916.4%IN118,8223,110173,09360819.7%KS53,6623,191303,16160619.2%KY72,0583,847353,81264116.8%LA65,1675,3162565,06059711.8%MA153,8623,7533243,42956316.4%MD86,8043,858623,79660315.9%ME27,9423,058353,02363721.1%MI167,7802,911482,86356119.6%MN119,8293,071313,04066121.7%MS50,4364,634854,54962613.8%MT20,2612,504482,45664026.1%ND16,7772,697562,64159122.4%NE31,2382,977322,94566422.5%NJ139,7195,347435,30486116.2%NV51,6064,179994,08058314.3%OH220,8003,449283,42155616.3%OK52,0393,618493,56956715.9%OR73,4183,461623,39977722.9%PA232,5283,315423,27366120.2%SC77,2884,020873,93367917.3%SD19,2372,961262,93565922.5%TN110,4274,065544,01164116.0%TX363,8654,596794,51758012.8%UT40,2013,450893,36166119.7%VA112,4823,762423,72060816.3%VT20,3203,379463,33371721.5%WI111,1922,8531102,74364923.7%WV33,0473,946213,92572818.5%Northern Mariana Islands3,618645346117311.9%Total4,306,972154,7574,059150,69826,75717.8% Open table in a new tab For the four jurisdictions in the email portion of this survey, separate RN and LPN/LVN samples stratified by state were randomly selected from among RN and LPN/LVN licensees. Surveys were emailed to 26,697 RNs and 18,710 LPNs/LVNs. Tables 1B and 2B present the sampling by jurisdiction/state for the email portion of the survey. We again targeted receiving 1,000 responses from each jurisdiction and selected up to 8,000 nurses per jurisdiction for the mailing.Table 1BRN Email Survey ResponseJurisdictionNumber of Active RN LicensesNumber of Surveys EmailedNumber of ResponsesTotal Response RateAL94,0298,0006388.0%NH25,6562,69734012.6%NY356,0838,0006998.7%RI27,2728,0007819.8%Total503,04026,6972,4589.2% Open table in a new tab For the five jurisdictions in the e-Notify portion, the already-collected sample information was selected and unduplicated. Tables 1C and 2C show the number of nurses who contributed data to the e-Notify system.Table 1CRN e-Notify DataJurisdictionNumber of Active RN LicensesNumber of e-Notify ParticipantsMO124,098124,098NC149,00528,301NM30,16023,435WA117,35168,199WY8,8735,383Total429,487249,416Note. RN = registered nurse. Open table in a new tab Table 2ALPN/LVN Mailout Survey ResponseJurisdictionNumber of Active LPN/LVN LicensesNumber of Surveys MailedUndeliverableNumber ReceivedNumber of ResponsesTotal Response RateAK760502264768417.6%AR14,3174,4503314,11958014.1%AZ10,8255,9187785,14067613.2%CA106,0065,275735,20259311.4%CO8,0374,7395334,20657513.7%CT13,8284,799774,72262813.3%DC2,1771,3561041,2521118.9%DE3,1692,886422,84434912.3%FL61,4314,694684,62660513.1%GA29,7522,3982992,0991959.3%HI1,6801,544631,48131721.4%IA10,0693,412703,34264719.4%ID3,5263,189913,09864320.8%IL25,6194,657844,57365914.4%IN22,8943,718743,64467018.4%KS9,6333,510713,43960617.6%KY12,7454,398554,34364214.8%LA21,8364,8591044,75559712.6%MA19,8614,5895794,01055613.9%MD11,2804,9751584,81758412.1%ME1,8991,762331,72938422.2%MI22,4213,618823,53663117.8%MN19,6413,355393,31674322.4%MS14,0723,953653,88845411.7%MT2,4162,214542,16056726.3%ND3,4462,667692,59858522.5%NE5,2093,094233,07169722.7%NJ23,8605,297695,22867312.9%NV4,3933,1751563,01940813.5%OH53,6744,353934,26060914.3%OK15,5974,434864,34857613.2%OR6,0134,081883,99357514.4%PA52,7733,661723,58963517.7%SC12,3544,1581004,05859714.7%SD2,6742,232462,18645120.6%TN30,1404,510684,44262714.1%TX105,6105,3291645,16559011.4%UT2,8082,383432,34036415.6%VA27,0305,034814,95370814.3%VT2,5871,498141,48425417.1%WI15,0452,7761062,67047817.9%WV7,9765,003894,91470914.4%Northern Mariana Islands483513425.9%Total821,131154,4905,321149,16922,63415.2% Open table in a new tab Table 2BLPN/LVN Email Survey ResponseJurisdictionNumber of Active LPN/LVN LicensesNumber of Surveys EmailedNumber of ResponsesTotal Response RateAL17,2488,00083110.4%NH3,0833003110.3%NY68,0608,0001,05113.1%RI2,5612,41026310.9%Total90,95218,7102,17611.6% Open table in a new tab Table 2CLPN/LVN e-Notify DataJurisdictionNumber of Active LPN/LVN LicensesNumber of e-Notify ParticipantsMO24,51421,675NC22,7862,898NM2,4761,435WA11,0624,270WY867415Total61,70530,693Note. LPN/LVN = licensed practical nurse/licensed vocational nurse. Open table in a new tab Note. RN = registered nurse. Note. LPN/LVN = licensed practical nurse/licensed vocational nurse. The survey instrument is based on the Forum’s Minimum Nurse Supply Dataset (MDS), which was approved in 2009 after an intensive process of consensus-building and data compilation to collect data on the nursing workforce at the state level. The MDS was last updated by the Forum in 2016 to account for the transformations that had occurred in healthcare and nursing over the previous 7 years. Additionally, the 2022 survey instrument includes new questions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and a question about travel nursing (Appendix A). The survey was a four-page Scantron fillable document with 39 questions. Data elements from the latest revision of the MDS were incorporated, resulting in the following changes to the survey between the 2020 and 2022 waves of data collection:•Response options for the race and gender questions were updated•A question about travel was added•Questions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic were added•The question about secondary specialty were removed. The Western Institutional Review Board granted approval for the current study. A unique identification number was generated and assigned to each sampled participant. The identification number was only used to record that the survey had been returned. This prevented unnecessary and expensive duplicate mailings to those selected to participate in the study. The unique access code identifier was also used for the online survey option. Once materials were developed and the sampling file was complete, surveys were distributed over a 20-week period starting the week of April 11, 2022, that included the following steps:•Week 1: A cover letter and paper survey were mailed via first-class U.S. mail to all nurses selected to participate. The letter included a URL and access code to take the survey online.•Week 10: For half of the nurses who had not responded, a cover letter reminder and paper survey were mailed via first-class U.S. mail. For the other half of the nonresponders, only the cover letter reminder was sent.•Week 20: For nurses who still had not responded, an additional cover letter and paper survey were mailed via first-class U.S. mail.•Week 25: Participants could submit their responses via mail or online until the survey closed on September 30, 2022. Once the survey was closed, the final data file was compiled separately for RNs and LPNs/LVNs. At weeks 1, 10, and 20, a prepaid business reply envelope was included in the mailing. Survey response data are kept on department-secured servers. NCSBN’s research staff, three key members of the Forum, and key personnel at Scantron and its strategic partner, R. R. Donnelley, had initial access to the identifiable data. Scantron no longer has access to identifiable data. Beginning in April, Qualtrics surveys were emailed to the nurses selected for the email portion of the study. Follow-up reminders were sent to nonresponders on a weekly basis. Participants could submit their responses online until September 2022. Data for the e-Notify portion of the survey were collected from the system in October 2022. A formal nonresponse bias analysis was conducted after the survey closed and weighting was applied in the analysis process. The weights adjust the distribution across states, age, and gender but sum to the actual number of RNs and LPNs/LVNs in the subsets of completed responses. To create the weights, an analysis of basic demographic data (i.e., gender, age, and race/ethnicity) for all RN and LPN/LVN licensees sampled from the Nursys database was used to compare survey respondents to survey nonrespondents. Results revealed that nurses who were White/Caucasian, female, and age 55 years or older may have been slightly overrepresented in both the RN and LPN/LVN samples. Because of missing or incomplete data on race/ethnicity, only gender and age were used to make nonresponse weighting adjustments. Additionally, since sampling was stratified by state, to prevent smaller states from being overrepresented in the overall analysis, a weighting variable was constructed to adjust for differing nursing population sizes across states. A description of this process can be found in Appendix B. At the close of the survey, 26,757 of 150,698 successfully delivered RN surveys were completed and returned, yielding a response rate of 17.8%. There were 22,634 of 149,169 successfully delivered LPN/LVN surveys returned, resulting in a 15.2% response rate. A total of 26,697 RNs were randomly selected for participation in the email portion of the study. The overall response rate was 9.2% or 2,458 nurses. A total of 18,710 LPNs/LVNs were randomly selected for participation in the email portion of the study. The overall response rate was 11.6% or 2,176 nurses. The data for a total of 249,416 RNs and 30,693 LPNs/LVNs were collected in the e-Notify portion of the study. For an accurate and comprehensive view of the statistics drawn from the sample, the number of actual valid answers to each question is reported for every table. Missing data were not imputed; hence, the presented statistics represent the actual responses from participants who responded to each respective survey item. If a participant did not respond to a certain item, they were not part of the analysis for that item. Additionally, some tables display data for all responding nurse licensees while other tables display data for employed nurses. If a table is specific to nurses employed in nursing, it is explicitly stated. Many tables include bar graphs to help readers easily visualize and comprehend the data presented. For each question on the survey, the listed frequencies reflect the nonresponse weighting adjustments. For some of the questions, an additional set of frequencies are shown that displays the data scaled up to reflect estimates of the nursing population in the subgroup identified. For example, the 487,526 males reported in the 2022 column of Table 3 reflect the number of male respondents adjusted to the population level of the number of RNs after the nonresponse weighting adjustments were made to the survey results and after adjusting the population number to account for nurses having licenses in multiple states.Table 3Gender Distribution of Registered Nurses (RNs), 2015–2022Gender2015201720202022n%n%n%n%RN Survey RespondentsN = 43,330.9N = 48,084.9N = 41,698.8N = 273,894.8Male3,459.68.04,369.39.13,915.29.430,555.811.2Female39,871.492.043,715.590.937,739.990.5242,508.488.5Nonbinary----43.60.1830.60.3U.S. RN PopulationMale277,5428.0354,4539.1391,1419.4487,52611.2Female3,198,65092.03,546,32190.93,770,33690.53,869,29088.5Nonbinary----4,3560.113,2520.3Note. “Other” was added as a response option with the 2020 survey and was renamed “nonbinary” in 2022. Open table in a new tab Note. “Other” was added as a response option with the 2020 survey and was renamed “nonbinary” in 2022. Respondents were asked to identify their gender. From 2015 through 2022, the percentage of male nurses grew from 8.0% to 11.2% while the percentage of female nurses decreased from 92.0% to 88.5%. The 2020 and 2022 surveys included a response option of “other” and “nonbinary,” respectively. In 2020 and 2022, this third response option represented 0.1% and 0.3% of responses, respectively. The percentage of respondents answering the question is converted to frequency data (as in all subsequent tables) of the entire U.S. RN population in the second half of Table 3. In 2015, the largest percentage of RNs were aged 55 to 59 years (13.6%). In 2017 and 2020, the largest percentage of RNs were aged 65 years or older (14.6% and 19.0%, respectively). In 2022, the largest percentage of RNs were tied between the age group of 30 to 34 years and 65 years or older (13.2%). While older nurses are remaining in the workforce, we are making headway on increasing younger nurses in the profession (Table 4 and Figure 1).Table 4Age Distribution of Registered Nurses (RNs), 2015–2022Age, y2015201720202022n%n%n%n%RN Survey RespondentsN = 41,258.6N = 47,527.3N = 39.899.2N = 261,161.418–293,905.29.54,594.59.73,349.58.429,085.611.130–344,098.09.94,762.810.03,792.09.534,393.813.235–393,928.19.54,390.69.24,006.210.030,170.411.640–444,200.710.24,356.79.23,645.99.127,756.410.645–494,398.210.75,250.711.13,956.59.927,855.510.750–544,724.811.54,914.910.34,191.610.530,514.511.755–595,622.413.65,834.412.34,502.011.323,695.59.160–645,254.912.76,489.813.74,884.212.223,272.98.9≥655,126.312.46,932.914.67,571.319.034,416.913.2U.S. RN Population18–29313,2919.5372,7169.7334,6268.4464,07011.130–34328,7599.9386,37410.0378,8339.5548,76313.235–39315,1279.5356,1759.2400,23210.0481,37811.640–44337,00010.2353,4309.2364,2379.1442,86110.645–49352,84310.7425,95311.1395,2679.9444,44210.750–54379,04111.5398,71210.3418,75410.5486,86711.755–59451,05113.6473,30312.3449,