Registered Nurses salary in Mississippi

Registered Nurses in Mississippi earned a median annual wage of $74,470 in 2024, about 21% below the US median of $94,511. That is a wide gap. Most of it reflects Mississippi's lower cost of living rather than lower purchasing power, but not all of it.

Mississippi's cost-of-living index sits at 87.6, meaning prices run roughly 12% below the national baseline. After adjusting for that, the state median translates to around $85,000 in national-baseline dollars. That closes the gap considerably, though a roughly $9,500 real-terms deficit remains.

The spread between bottom and top earners is meaningful. The lowest-paid 10% of Registered Nurses in the state earned $58,130 in 2024. The highest-paid 10% earned $104,040. Top earners make about 1.8 times what entry-level peers make, a range that reflects how much experience, specialty, and work setting can shift pay within a single occupation. A nurse in an ICU or OR typically lands closer to that upper figure than one in a long-term care or school health role.

The mean wage of $79,470 runs $5,000 above the median, which tells us a smaller group of higher-paid nurses pulls the average up. The median is the more useful anchor for someone thinking about a typical starting point.

BLS projects employment for Registered Nurses to grow 4.9% between 2024 and 2034, which it classifies as average growth. Mississippi employs about 29,400 RNs in total, a size that keeps the state among the mid-tier markets by workforce count.