Registered Nurse vs Nurse Practitioner: Which Field Is Better?

Dimension	Registered Nurse	Nurse Practitioner
Median pay	$93,600	$129,210
Projected growth (2024–34)	4.9%	40.1%
Annual openings	189,100	29,500
2024 employment	3,391,000	320,400
2034 projected employment	3,557,100	448,800
Self-employed share	0.5%	1%
Typical entry education	Bachelor's degree	Master's degree
Related work experience	None	None
On-the-job training	None	None

Dimension

Registered Nurse

Nurse Practitioner

Median pay

$93,600

$129,210

Projected growth (2024–34)

4.9%

40.1%

Annual openings

189,100

29,500

2024 employment

3,391,000

320,400

2034 projected employment

3,557,100

448,800

Self-employed share

0.5%

Typical entry education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Related work experience

None

On-the-job training

None

Registered Nurse: main tradeoff

Employment security is exceptional, but workload, burnout, and retention are central career risks rather than footnotes.

Nurse Practitioner: main tradeoff

One of the fastest-growing occupations with strong compensation and a large national workforce, but it requires graduate nursing education and state-dependent practice rules.

Which should you choose?

Nurse Practitioner has the higher national median pay in the BLS data. Nurse Practitioner has the higher projected 2024–2034 growth rate. The larger decision is whether you prefer the training path, work style, and occupation-specific tradeoffs of Registered Nurse or Nurse Practitioner.