Nurse practitioners (NPs) are a large and increasingly visible part of the U.S. health care workforce. In 2024, 431,410 licensed NPs were counted, compared with 385,358 in 2023—an increase of nearly 12%, according to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) 2025 NP count announcement. AANP also reports that NPs deliver nearly 1 billion patient visits each year.
Table of contents
- Workforce size and access
- Certification and primary care preparation
- Education and credentials
- Roles, employment, and practice structure
- Privileges, insurance, and patient panels
- Care coordination and conditions treated
Workforce size and access
The 2024 licensed-NP count provides a current snapshot of workforce scale, while the annual visit estimate shows how extensively NPs participate in patient care. These figures describe the United States and come from AANP materials; they are not a forecast of future workforce growth.
| Measure | Reported figure | Source and period |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed NPs | 431,410 | AANP 2025 NP count announcement, 2024 count |
| Licensed NPs | 385,358 | AANP 2025 NP count announcement, 2023 count |
| Annual patient visits | Nearly 1 billion | AANP, NPs Expanding Access to Health Care |
| Medicare Part B patients receiving NP services | 42% | AANP, NPs Expanding Access to Health Care |
| Adults supporting easier choice of an NP as primary care provider | 73% | AANP, State of Primary Care in America survey |
The Medicare figure indicates that NPs serve a substantial share of Medicare Part B patients. The 73% public-support result measures adults’ views in the AANP survey; it is a survey result, not a count of patients or providers.
Together, the figures show three different dimensions of access: the number of licensed professionals, the volume of visits, and public support for choosing an NP for primary care. They should not be added together or treated as interchangeable measures.
Certification and primary care preparation
The AANP 2025 NP infographic reports that 87% of NPs were prepared in primary care in 2024. The AANP 2024 Nurse Practitioner Practice Report provides a more detailed distribution of population certifications.
| Population certification | Share of NPs |
|---|---|
| Family | 68.7% |
| Adult-Gerontology Primary Care | 7.9% |
| Psychiatric/Mental Health | 7.1% |
| Adult | 7.0% |
| Adult-Gerontology Acute Care | 6.1% |
| Acute Care | 3.9% |
| Pediatric-Primary Care | 2.9% |
| Women’s Health | 2.0% |
| Gerontology | 0.9% |
| Neonatal | 0.9% |
| Pediatric-Acute Care | 0.7% |
| No population certification | 0.6% |
Family certification was the largest individual category at 68.7%. Adult-Gerontology Primary Care accounted for 7.9%, while Psychiatric/Mental Health accounted for 7.1%. Adult certification represented 7.0%, and Adult-Gerontology Acute Care represented 6.1%.
The remaining categories were smaller: Acute Care was 3.9%; Pediatric-Primary Care was 2.9%; Women’s Health was 2.0%; Gerontology and Neonatal were each 0.9%; Pediatric-Acute Care was 0.7%; and 0.6% reported no population certification. The 87% primary-care-preparation figure and the certification distribution use different descriptions, so they should be read as separate reported measures rather than recalculated from one another.
Education and credentials
The AANP 2024 Nurse Practitioner Practice Report records both the route of initial NP education and the highest degree or credential reported. Initial education was at the master’s level for 83.6% of NPs. Another 7.1% entered NP education through a post-master’s certificate program, 6.7% through a doctoral NP program, 1.4% through a certificate program, and 1.3% through a bachelor’s program.
Reported highest degrees and credentials were distributed differently from initial educational routes. A nursing master’s was the highest degree for 78.4% of NPs, while 17.6% reported a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). A clinical nurse specialist credential was reported by 3.5%, and a certified nurse-midwife credential by 0.7%.
The report also found that 95.8% reported no other advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) credential beyond NP. The credential figures describe what respondents reported as their highest degree or additional credential; they do not establish that every education-route percentage can be combined into one degree total.
These education statistics are useful for distinguishing preparation pathways from current credentials. For example, the 6.7% doctoral NP-program figure describes an initial route, whereas the 17.6% DNP figure describes the highest degree reported. Those measures answer different questions.
Roles, employment, and practice structure
Most NPs in the AANP 2024 practice report worked in clinical roles. The report lists 82.5% in clinical roles, 9.9% in administrative roles, 4.2% in faculty roles, and 3.4% in research roles. These categories describe reported work roles and should not be interpreted as a projection of future employment.
Employment arrangements also varied. Staff or faculty employees accounted for 72.2% of reported arrangements, contractors for 19.7%, and owners of their practice or work site for 2.9%. Separately, 65.2% worked under an employment contract, and 56.4% had a patient panel. Because these measures describe different aspects of work, the percentages are not a single mutually exclusive employment breakdown.
The report found that 99.5% had a National Provider Identifier number. In addition, 62.6% had credentials with commercial insurance. These figures help describe administrative participation and payer access alongside the clinical-role data.
Military-service history was reported separately: 94.4% had never served in the military, 1.2% had served only on active duty for training in the Reserves or National Guard, 0.3% were currently on active duty, and 4.1% had served on active duty in the past but were not currently active.
Privileges, insurance, and patient panels
The AANP 2024 Nurse Practitioner Practice Report includes several measures of practice privileges. Ordering privileges were the most commonly reported at 69.9%. Discharge privileges were reported by 48.5%, admitting privileges by 45.8%, and hospital privileges by 40.6%.
Other reported forms of participation were less common. A total of 38.7% had ordering privileges with a physician, 28.7% had committee representation, and 8.8% had a vote on a board of directors. Nursing home privileges were reported by 10.1%.
These measures do not describe one universal scope of practice. They are separate percentages reported by NPs, and the presence of a privilege does not indicate how frequently it was used. The figures also do not state that every NP has the same privileges in every setting or geography.
Patient needs extended beyond office-based care for many respondents. A total of 64.8% of NPs had patients receiving home health services, and the average share of those patients in an NP’s panel was 22.4%. Hospice care was represented in the panels of 49.5% of NPs, with an average share of 10.7% of a panel. The first percentage in each pair describes how many NPs had such patients; the average-share figure describes the reported portion of their panels.
Care coordination and conditions treated
NPs reported working with multiple professional groups. In the AANP 2024 Nurse Practitioner Practice Report, 77.0% consulted with specialist physicians, 69.6% consulted with physical therapists, and 65.6% consulted with psychologists.
The report also lists common conditions treated by NPs. Anxiety was treated by 64.5%, hypertension by 64.0%, pain by 63.6%, abdominal pain by 63.4%, and diabetes by 57.7%.
| Reported activity | Share of NPs |
|---|---|
| Consulted with specialist physicians | 77.0% |
| Consulted with physical therapists | 69.6% |
| Consulted with psychologists | 65.6% |
| Treated anxiety | 64.5% |
| Treated hypertension | 64.0% |
| Treated pain | 63.6% |
| Treated abdominal pain | 63.4% |
| Treated diabetes | 57.7% |
The consultation figures describe reported collaboration, while the condition figures describe conditions treated. Neither set measures patient outcomes, treatment effectiveness, or the number of cases treated. They do show the breadth of clinical activities represented in the AANP practice data, from chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes to mental health, pain, and abdominal complaints.
Across these measures, the reported picture is of a large U.S. NP workforce with strong primary-care preparation, varied educational backgrounds, extensive clinical participation, and regular coordination with other health professionals. The dates and definitions differ by source, so each statistic is most useful when read with its stated measurement period and source label.