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 of $117,339, and headcount grew 0.1% from the prior period.
- Employees
- 106,218
- Share of workforce
- 5.4%
- Avg salary
- $132,267
- Avg tenure
- 10.2 yrs
FedScope read on Nurse (dense series)
As of the June 2026 reporting window, 106,218 people work in the Nurse occupation (OPM code 0610) across federal agencies, 5.4% of the 1,953,300-strong federal civilian workforce. Headcount moved up by 0.1% from the prior period, a workforce-scale shift government watchers track closely, since swings this large move federal staffing totals meaningfully.
Nurse pays $132,267 per year on average, moving up 0.1% from the prior period (a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change). Employees in this role stay an average of 10.2 years, 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.
Inside the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family (45 occupations, 339,162 employees combined), Nurse holds the #1 spot by headcount, a 31.3% share of the family total.
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 -- a scale that makes it a defining occupation for how the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family is staffed federal-wide, with an average salary that ranks in the top half (76th percentile) of pay among Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group occupations. Within the family, the largest occupations by headcount are Nurse at 106,218, Medical Support Assistance at 39,856, and Medical Officer at 34,687, ahead of 42 smaller occupations in the same family. Together, these top 3 occupations account for 53.3% of the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family's 339,162 total employees. Nationally, Nurse's average salary of $132,267 sits at the 77th percentile among all 541 federal occupation series tracked in FedScope, above the federal-wide median for occupation-level average pay -- headcount and pay rank independently of each other, so a large occupation series is not guaranteed to also rank high on the pay scale. Among this same group of 5 occupation series at 50,000-plus employees, headcount changed by an average of -4.0% from the prior period, versus Nurse's own 0.1% increase. Average tenure across these 5 large occupation series runs 13.5 years; Nurse's own 10.2-year average is shorter than that peer-group average.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Nurse pay compares to the federal average of $117,339
Occupation Average
$132,267
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+12.7%
Where Nurse ranks on rich federal pay
Its average salary of $132,267 is higher 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; Nurse ranks higher than 77%.
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
- Nurse pays above the federal average by 12.7% ($132,267 vs $117,339 federal-wide), at the 77th percentile for pay among 541 tracked occupation series.
- One of the largest federal occupations by headcount: 106,218 employees, 5.4% of the federal civilian workforce, and headcount grew 0.1% from the prior period.
- According to OPM FedScope June 2026, Nurse ranks #1 of 663 federal occupation series by headcount (the same employee_count ordering as our occupations directory).
- Inside the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family (45 occupations, 339,162 employees combined), Nurse holds the #1 spot by headcount, a 31.3% share of the family total.
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.