Best States for Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses in 2026

Across the ten highest-ranked states for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses in 2026, CareerGPS Pro’s data shows a consistent growth rate but meaningful differences in pay, employment counts, and overall Geography Scores. Every top‑10 state has a projected 2.6% growth rate for this occupation, so rankings are being driven by combinations of other metrics rather than growth differences. Median salaries in these states range from just below the national median to well above it, and employment counts span from hundreds of roles to tens of thousands within the supplied data. The result is that the highest Geography Scores do not always align with the highest salaries or the largest employment counts, underscoring that CareerGPS Pro’s rankings reflect multiple dimensions rather than pay alone.

The national median salary for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses in 2026 is $64,400, with 648,410 employed nationally. Within the top 10 states, median salaries and employment counts vary around those national reference points. Among the ten highest‑ranked states, several have median salaries above the national median. California’s median salary of $79,750 is higher than the national figure, and Massachusetts ($80,220) and Washington ($83,150) also sit above the national median. New York’s $67,180 is above the national median as well, while Texas at $62,240 is below it. Employment counts among the top‑ranked states also differ from each other and from the national total. California has 82,850 LPN/LVN roles in the supplied data, which is a smaller count than the national total but is the largest employment figure reported among these top 10 states. Texas follows with 57,560, and New York with 39,400, while the other top‑ranked states have smaller employment counts within this dataset.

California ranks #1 in CareerGPS Pro’s state results for LPNs/LVNs with a Geography Score of 83.86, the highest among the listed states. Its median salary of $79,750 is higher than the national median of $64,400, and the state has 82,850 employed LPNs/LVNs in the supplied data, more than any other state in the top 10 list. California’s projected growth rate for this occupation is 2.6%, matching the 2.6% rate reported for every other top‑10 state. This equal growth figure reinforces that its leading Geography Score is not based on a higher growth rate within this group. Compared with other top‑ranked states, California combines a high median salary, a large employment count, and the top Geography Score in this dataset. For example, its employment count is larger than that of Texas (57,560) and New York (39,400), and its median salary is higher than Texas’s $62,240 and New York’s $67,180.

Several high‑salary states do not occupy the very top positions in the CareerGPS Pro rankings. Washington has the highest median salary among the top 10 states at $83,150 but ranks #3 with a Geography Score of 57.17, below California (#1 at 83.86) and Massachusetts (#2 at 58.03). Washington’s employment count of 6,780 is also smaller than California’s 82,850 and Texas’s 57,560. Massachusetts ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 58.03 and an $80,220 median salary. Its salary is higher than California’s $79,750 while its employment count of 13,210 is smaller than California’s 82,850 and Texas’s 57,560. The state shares the same 2.6% projected growth rate as the rest of the top 10. New York and New Jersey illustrate how salary differences do not always mirror Geography Score differences. New York, ranked #4 with a Geography Score of 53.64, has a median salary of $67,180, which is lower than New Jersey’s $75,160. Yet New Jersey ranks #6 with a Geography Score of 52.88. New York’s employment count of 39,400 is also larger than New Jersey’s 17,410 in the supplied data.

Among the top 10 states, California, Texas, and New York stand out for their employment counts. California’s 82,850 LPN/LVN positions in the data exceed Texas’s 57,560 and New York’s 39,400. All three of these figures are smaller than the national employment total of 648,410 but are larger than the counts reported for the other top‑ranked states. By contrast, several high‑ranking states combine smaller employment counts with strong Geography Scores. Massachusetts (#2) has 13,210 employed LPNs/LVNs, New Jersey (#6) has 17,410, and Illinois (#9) has 17,440. These employment counts are lower than California’s 82,850 and Texas’s 57,560. At the smallest end of the employment range within this top‑10 group, Alaska has 290 LPN/LVN roles and Rhode Island has 1,290, both clearly below the employment levels found in California, Texas, or New York. All of these states nonetheless share the same 2.6% projected growth rate in the supplied data.

Some states in the lower half of the top‑10 ranking list combine relatively high salaries with Geography Scores below those of the top three states. Alaska, ranked #7 with a Geography Score of 50.94, has a median salary of $80,800, which is higher than California’s $79,750 and the national median of $64,400. Its employment count is 290, which is smaller than the counts in all other top‑10 states. Rhode Island (#8) and Oregon (#10) also report median salaries above the national median. Rhode Island’s salary is $80,090 and Oregon’s is $80,470, and both states share the same 2.6% projected growth rate as the rest of the top‑10 list. Their employment counts of 1,290 for Rhode Island and 4,260 for Oregon are smaller than those in California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. Illinois, ranked #9 with a Geography Score of 49.29, has a median salary of $75,000, which is higher than the national median but lower than the salaries reported for Washington, Massachusetts, Alaska, Rhode Island, and Oregon. Its employment count of 17,440 is larger than those of Massachusetts (13,210), Washington (6,780), Oregon (4,260), Rhode Island (1,290), and Alaska (290).

CareerGPS Pro builds these state rankings for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses from authoritative labor‑market data and its proprietary CareerGPS Geography Score. For each state, we use the supplied 2026 median annual salary, employment count, and projected growth rate for occupation 29-2061. These metrics, along with other internal factors, are combined into a single Geography Score that supports the ranking. The detailed weighting of each metric inside the score is not disclosed, so this article focuses only on relationships that can be directly observed in the reported values. Because every nurse’s situation is different, these state rankings should be considered alongside your own priorities, including preferred locations and non‑economic factors that are not captured in this dataset.