Nurses have an undeniably difficult job, caring for the public while working long hours, often in unsafe conditions. While nurses are usually financially rewarded for their heroic careers, with a mean annual wage of more than $94,000 and one of the lowest unemployment rates in the U.S, the benefits of a nursing career can still differ significantly state by state.
WalletHub recently ranked all 50 states to find the best and worst locations for nurses based on 20 metrics, including opportunity and competition, as well as work environment. In addition to these main metrics, WalletHub examined monthly average starting salary for nurses, nursing job openings per capita, quality of nursing schools, mandatory overtime restrictions, industry job growth and quality of local public hospital systems to create a score out of 100.
