Registered Nurses salary in Indianapolis, Indiana

About 26,240 registered nurses worked in the Indianapolis metro in 2024, making it one of the larger RN labor markets in the Midwest.

The median annual wage here was $81,310, just above Indiana's statewide median of $80,740. The gap is small, which tells us Indianapolis doesn't pay a significant city premium over the rest of the state. That's worth knowing if you're weighing a move from a smaller Indiana market expecting a big bump in pay.

The national picture looks different. The US median for registered nurses was $94,511 in 2024, roughly $13,200 above what Indianapolis nurses earned at the midpoint. That's a meaningful gap. Some of it reflects the lower cost of living in central Indiana compared to the coastal metros that push the national figure up, but we don't adjust for that here.

The spread between the lowest and highest earners in the metro is relatively narrow. Nurses at the 10th percentile earned $66,340, while those at the 90th earned $105,480. Top earners make about 1.6 times what bottom earners make. For a healthcare role that spans specialties, hospital systems, and years of experience, that's a tighter range than we see in many other high-employment metros. The mean wage of $89,290 sits noticeably above the median, which suggests a smaller group of higher-paid nurses, likely in specialized or supervisory roles, pull the average up.