Nurse
Federal headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison for the Nurse occupation series (code 0610), drawn directly from the OPM FedScope dataset (June 2026).
The verdict
Nurse is one of the largest federal occupations: 106,218 employees (5.4% of the federal civilian workforce) in the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family. At an average salary of $132,267 it pays above the federal average, and headcount edged up from the prior period.
- Headcount change
- +0.1%
- Pay change
- +0.1%
- Avg tenure
- 10.2 yrs
- Rank in family
- #1 of 45
FedScope read on Nurse (dense series)
Headcount moved up versus the prior period, a workforce-scale shift government watchers track closely, since swings this large move federal staffing totals meaningfully. Pay moved up between the two reporting periods, a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change. On length of service, this series shows a mid-length average tenure, reflecting a mix of career employees and those who transfer or exit mid-career.
The Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family (code 06) groups Nurse together with 44 other related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Nurse postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family. Across the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family, 339,162 employees work in 45 occupations; Nurse is 31.3% of that headcount. Nurse is one of just 5 federal occupation series with 50,000 or more employees, out of 541 tracked in OPM FedScope for the June 2026 reporting window. Within the family, the largest occupations by headcount are Nurse, Medical Support Assistance at 39,856, and Medical Officer at 34,687, ahead of 42 smaller occupations; together they hold 53.3% of the family total. Across these 5 large series, average tenure runs 13.5 years; Nurse's own is shorter than that peer-group average.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Nurse pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$132,267
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+12.7%
Where Nurse ranks on rich federal pay
Nurse earns more on average than 77% of federal occupation series (414 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Nurse sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Nurse.
Related Occupations in Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group
10 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medical Support Assistance | 39,856 | $58,279 | 8.2 yrs |
| Medical Officer | 34,687 | $301,569 | 11.6 yrs |
| General Health Science | 17,434 | $133,765 | 11.9 yrs |
| Practical Nurse | 16,755 | $75,898 | 10.4 yrs |
| Pharmacist | 14,529 | $167,390 | 11.1 yrs |
| Nursing Assistant | 14,498 | $55,851 | 7.8 yrs |
| Health Aid and Technician | 12,490 | $61,276 | 10.8 yrs |
| Health System Specialist | 7,966 | $110,534 | 15.9 yrs |
| Pharmacy Technician | 7,658 | $70,794 | 9.5 yrs |
| Medical Technologist | 6,123 | $117,456 | 12.2 yrs |
Nationwide peers near this dense headcount
Two peer sets for Nurse outside the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar dense headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (106,218 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($132,267 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Nurse pay in context with the pay-rank chart above, then compare it with another occupation.
- Turn an average salary into a grade: the GS pay grade tables show how grades and steps map to pay.
- Browse the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family occupations in the table above, or search current Nurse postings on USAJOBS.
OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.