Registered Nurses salary in Iowa

Registered Nurses in Iowa earned a median annual wage of $76,960 in 2024, about 19% below the US median of $94,511. That gap is one of the larger state-level differences we see for this occupation, and it holds up even when you look at the mean: $77,780 in Iowa against $98,425 nationally.

The pay range within the state tells a quieter story. The 10th-percentile wage was $62,210 and the 90th was $98,280, a difference of about $36,000. That spread is narrower than what BLS reports for many coastal states, where senior nurses in specialized settings push the top of the range considerably higher. In Iowa, the distance between an entry-level nurse and a top-earning one is real but not extreme.

Iowa's cost of living complicates the headline gap. The state's overall cost-of-living index sits at 89.9 against a national baseline of 100, meaning everyday expenses run roughly 10% lower than the US average. Adjusted for that, the effective purchasing power of the Iowa median lands closer to $85,600 in national-dollar terms. That does not close the gap entirely, but it cuts it from 19% to something closer to 9%.

BLS projects growth for this occupation at 4.9% between 2024 and 2034, which falls into the average outlook category. Iowa employs about 33,480 Registered Nurses, making it a sizable workforce relative to the state's population. The kinds of facilities that hire nurses here skew toward community hospitals and rural health systems rather than the large academic medical centers that tend to anchor higher wages in bigger states. That mix is likely one reason the Iowa median sits where it does.