By Andrew DePietro

Today, we will discuss the highest-paying cities for nurse practitioner salaries. Once again using occupational and salary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for registered nurse practitioners, we broke down mean annual wages by metro area, which is the smallest geographical unit the BLS tracks for wages. While nurse practitioner salaries vary by state, they can vary even more on the city level.

Places Where Nurse Practitioners Earn the Most Money

Salaries often tend to track the overall cost of living of a certain geographical area. If a city’s cost of living is notably higher than the U.S. average, then incomes tend to be higher there as well. With registered nurse practitioners’ salaries, this is true as well, though with some interesting geographic variation. For instance, Southern cities tend to pay lower incomes in general due to lower cost of living. However, several Southern cities like Alexandria, Louisiana and Hattiesburg, Mississippi — places not known for high incomes — appear among the top-50 places where nurse practitioner salaries are highest.

How Much Do Nurse Practitioners Make a Year in the Top-Paying Cities

As with many other occupations, California cities make up much of the list of the top-paying cities for nurse practitioners. However, there is great geographical variety. Cities like Yuma, Arizona and Springfield, Ohio are a bit unexpected. Check out the list below of the 50 cities where nurse practitioner salaries are the highest:

1. New Bedford, Massachusetts: $156,980

2. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, California: $150,790

3. Spokane-Spokane Valley, Washington: $148,440

4. Sumter, South Carolina: $145,890

5. Vallejo-Fairfield, California: $145,400

6. Leominster-Gardner, Massachusetts: $145,020

7. Yuma, Arizona: $142,650

8. Rochester, Minnesota: $142,640

9. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida: $141,800

10. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut: $141,460

11. Salinas, California: $140,610

12. Homosassa Springs, Florida: $139,610

13. Modesto, California: $135,330

14. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California: $135,230

15. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California: $134,700

16. Springfield, Ohio: $133,850

17. Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, California: $133,710

18. Prescott, Arizona: $133,110

19. Fresno, California: $133,090

20. Alexandria, Louisiana: $132,920

21. Kingston, New York: $132,740

22. Longview, Washington: $130,870

23. Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade: $130,040

24. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California: $129,770

25. Fairbanks, Alaska: $129,430

26. Bakersfield, California: $128,470

27. Madera, California: $128,070

28. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah: $127,750

29. Hattiesburg, Mississippi: $127,250

30. Redding, California: $126,690

31. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California: $126,580

32. New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York-New Jersey: $126,570

33. Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas: $126,380

34. Yuba City, California: $125,800

35. Merced, California: $125,170

36. Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Massachusetts-New Hampshire: $124,490

37. Visalia-Porterville, California: $124,320

38. Stockton-Lodi, California: $124,300

39. Sioux City, Iowa: $124,130

40. Las Cruces, New Mexico: $123,670

41. Honolulu, Hawaii: $123,490

42. Olympia-Tumwater, Washington: $123,240

43. Cheyenne, Wyoming: $122,990

44. Vineland-Bridgeton, New Jersey: $121,830

45. Wenatchee, Washington: $121,830

46. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles-Arroyo Grande, California: $121,740

47. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas: $121,670

48. San Diego-Carlsbad, California: $121,670

49. Mount Vernon-Anacortes, Washington: $121,590

50. Worcester, Massachusetts: $120,850