A nurse practitioner email list has to follow state law as closely as specialty. The AANP counted 461,000 licensed nurse practitioners in 2025; BLS counted 336,300 NP jobs. Full practice authority covers 27 states, DC and two territories (AANP map, May 2026), and it changes who owns the practice and who signs.
Nurse practitioners, by three counts
| Count | What is counted | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 523,482 | individual providers whose primary taxonomy is nurse practitioner (NUCC codes starting with 363L), active NPIs | NPPES downloadable file, CMS | September 2026 file |
| 461,000 | nurse practitioners with an active license, deduplicated across states, whatever their role | AANP 2025 NP count, from board of nursing data | published 11 November 2025 |
| 336,300 | jobs held by nurse practitioners | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook | 2025 |
NPPES downloadable file, September 2026, CMS; active NPIs only, primary taxonomy only; counted by Premium Data on 3 October 2026.
The AANP counts licensed people: active licenses from the boards of nursing of the 50 states and DC, deduplicated on the boards' address data, with NPs who teach, manage or do research included and retired NPs left out. Its own series, in the AANP NP infographic of October 2026, shows how fast that number moves: 290,000 in 2019, 355,000 in 2021, 431,000 in 2023, 461,000 in 2025. BLS counts jobs in the NP occupation: a licensed NP who works as a nurse manager or teaches in a nursing school holds a job counted elsewhere. NPPES counts identifiers by primary taxonomy: an NP who flagged another code as primary is outside the count, and an NP who stopped practicing without deactivating the number is still inside. The three numbers also carry three different dates.
Who is a nurse practitioner, for this file
The NUCC taxonomy lists 18 nurse practitioner codes under 363L, among them family, adult health, acute care, pediatrics, psychiatric and mental health, women's health, gerontology, neonatal and primary care. The AANP reports that in 2026, 84% of NPs were prepared in primary care, 10% in acute care and 12% in psychiatric and mental health care, some holding more than one certification.
- In: nurse practitioners in every population focus, whether they own a clinic, work for a physician practice, a hospital, a retail clinic or a telehealth service.
- Out: physician assistants (363A00000X), clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists, and registered nurses without an NP license. RNs are a separate list in our role index.
- Edge cases: NPs certified in two foci, family and psychiatric for example; NP faculty who keep a small clinical practice; NPs licensed in several states for telehealth.
Where nurse practitioner data comes from
| Source | What it gives | What it does not give |
|---|---|---|
| NPPES (CMS) | name, NPI, NP specialization code, practice address and phone | the practice owner, and whether the NP still works at that address |
| Doctors and Clinicians file (CMS) | Medicare-enrolled NPs with their group practice and its phone | NPs outside Medicare enrollment |
| State boards of nursing | the APRN license, its status and the state that issued it | any way to reach the NP |
| AANP | national counts and the state practice environment map | names |
| BLS | where the jobs are, for NPs, nurse anesthetists and nurse midwives taken together | names, and a split for NPs alone |
NCSBN is explicit about licenses: the NLC pertains to RN and LPN/VN licenses only, and an advanced practice nurse must hold an individual license in each state of practice (Nurse Licensure Compact FAQ).
The state map, as AANP draws it
| AANP category | Jurisdictions, map updated May 2026 | What state law requires |
|---|---|---|
| Full practice | 27 states: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming; plus the District of Columbia, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands | the NP evaluates, diagnoses, orders tests and prescribes under the state board of nursing alone |
| Reduced practice | 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin; plus Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and American Samoa | a career-long regulated collaborative agreement with another provider, or limits on the setting of practice |
| Restricted practice | 11 states: California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia | career-long supervision, delegation or team management by another provider |
Source: AANP State Practice Environment, read on 3 October 2026. Laws change; the map is the reference on the day the file is built.
Five steps to an NP file
- Pull the 363L codes you named from the latest NPPES file, active NPIs only.
- Tag each NP with the practice authority of the state where they practice.
- Attach each NP to a practice, and in reduced or restricted states, note the physician the law ties them to when that is public.
- Confirm with the practice that the NP still works there.
- Add a phone that reaches the NP directly and a work email when there is one.
The same build, applied to any target, is in the full method.
What an NP file costs in actions
- 461,000 licensed NPs (AANP) means 461,000 license records to match to a practice address, then to a phone.
- 30,000 more NPs between 2023 and 2025 (431,000 to 461,000, AANP) means a file built on 2023 figures misses about 30,000 people before any of its lines has aged.
- 11 restricted states means one more person to identify for each NP line there, the supervising provider, whenever your offer needs a decision at practice level.
- 46% of the 399,000 jobs held by NPs, nurse anesthetists and nurse midwives are in offices of physicians (BLS): about 183,500 jobs inside a practice classified as a physician's office.
Traps of nurse practitioner lists
State law decides who signs
In a full practice state, an NP can open and run a practice under the board of nursing alone, so the NP can be the owner and the buyer. In a restricted state, the law requires career-long supervision, delegation or team management by another provider, so there is always a second person in the picture. One national file of NPs is therefore two or three markets. Ask for the practice authority column, or split the file by it.
NP and PA, one word in the clinic
Clinics often call nurse practitioners and physician assistants by one name: providers, or advanced practice providers. The licenses, the boards and the taxonomy codes are different (363L and 363A). A file built from job titles alone mixes them. A file built from the license does not.
One NP, several states
Telehealth NPs hold a license in each state where their patients are, since the compact does not cover advanced practice. The same person can then appear in several state lists. Deduplicate on the NPI, keep one practice address, and keep the list of states as a field rather than as extra lines.
What Premium Data provides for NP targets
- Company line or person line: the practice (name, address, main phone, website), or the NP (name, title, practice, a phone that reaches them, work email when one exists).
- Built the day the order comes in, on the foci, states and practice authority you described.
- Three checks: the practice, the NP, and whether the NP still works there.
- Lines without a phone number are never billed, and the bill stops at your ceiling.
- A wrong line is refunded at its price, against proof (call recording, hard bounce, public profile), within thirty days of delivery.
- The count is free, in a 30 minute call, and you call one of the lines with us before paying.
The federal rules for calling and emailing a practice are on our United States page.
In short: nurse practitioners
- As of the AANP State Practice Environment map updated in May 2026, nurse practitioners had full practice authority in 27 states, the District of Columbia and two US territories (AANP, read on 3 October 2026).
- The AANP counted 461,000 licensed nurse practitioners in the United States in 2025, up from 290,000 in 2019 (AANP 2025 NP count, published 11 November 2025).
- On 3 October 2026, the NPPES file listed 523,482 individual providers whose primary taxonomy is nurse practitioner (CMS, September 2026 file).