Number Of Male Nurses Has Multiplied 10x In The Past 40 Years

Nursing has changed in a lot of ways over the last four decades, from how nurses use technology to how much of the patient relationship they manage. One of the clearest shifts is demographic: the number of men in the profession has climbed sharply. Pulling data from the Health Resources and Services Administration's Nursing Workforce Survey, from 1977 through the most recent figures, the trend is hard to miss.

Nursing workforce trends over 40 years

	Number of Nurses	Female	% of Total	Male	% of Total
1977	1,417,665	1,390,004	98.05%	27,254	1.92%
1988	2,049,213	1,972,672	96.26%	68,249	3.33%
1996	2,558,874	2,439,245	95.32%	125,120	4.89%
2008	3,063,163	2,848,000	92.98%	214,421	7.00%
2018	3,272,872	2,912,000	88.97%	314,195	9.60%

The shift reflects two things working together: more men choosing nursing, and the slow erosion of old stereotypes about men in the role. Those stereotypes haven't vanished, but the direction is set. Applications from men keep rising, with professional opportunity and strong job security driving the increase. If the curve holds, the next decade could bring another 10% to 15% jump in the share of nurses who are men.