Where the CNA Jobs Are: States, Metros and Settings (BLS May 2025)

Six states hold more than a third of the country's certified nursing assistant jobs, but the states where a CNA certificate is most in demand relative to the size of the economy are mostly in the Plains and New England. This guide answers "which states have the most CNA jobs" with the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, the newest state and metro employment data the government publishes for nursing assistants (the BLS occupation covers certified nursing assistants, nurse aides and patient care assistants; orderlies are counted separately). Every count, concentration and wage below is a BLS estimate; nothing is taken from job postings or salary sites.

The short answer

• By headcount, the most CNA jobs are in California (110,060), Florida (96,960), Texas (88,680), New York (87,990), Illinois (68,640) and Pennsylvania (67,740). Together those six states employ 520,070 of the nation's 1,448,910 nursing assistants, 35.9% of the total.
• By concentration, meaning CNA jobs per 1,000 jobs of every kind, the leaders are Rhode Island (20.38 per 1,000), Kansas (17.12), Nebraska (16.06), North Dakota (15.92) and South Dakota (15.00). In those states a nursing assistant has more employers competing for the same certificate, relative to the size of the economy, than anywhere else.
• By metro, New York (79,480) is far ahead of the rest; Chicago (45,850), Los Angeles (43,090), Philadelphia (30,680) and Boston (26,130) complete the top five.
• By setting, skilled nursing facilities employ 534,270 nursing assistants, 36.9% of all of them, followed by general hospitals (442,820), continuing care and assisted living communities (161,150) and home health care (70,770).

Open CNA postings on hospital and health-system career sites are listed on the CNA jobs hub, and every state and metro in the tables below links to its own page there.

Which states have the most CNA jobs?

The ten states with the largest nursing assistant workforces account for 50.7% of the national total. "Per 1,000 jobs" is the number of CNA jobs for every thousand jobs in the state; the location quotient compares that density with the national average (1.00), so a state at 1.39 has 39% more CNA jobs, relative to its size, than the country as a whole.

Two things stand out. The three biggest markets are not dense ones: California (6.04 CNA jobs per 1,000) and Texas (6.30) sit a third below the national average, and Florida (9.77) is right at it, so the sheer number of jobs there comes with a proportionate number of other nursing assistants looking for them. Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio are different: each is a top-ten employer and at least 20% denser than the national average, with North Carolina at 1.39 the thickest market of the ten. A CNA certificate goes furthest where both numbers are high.

Where CNA jobs are most concentrated

If the question is not "where are the most jobs" but "where is my certificate most in demand", concentration is the better measure. The leaders are small and mid-sized states where nursing homes make up a large share of all employment: Rhode Island has more than twice the national density, and Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Iowa each have at least 50% more CNA jobs per 1,000 than the country as a whole. The trade-off is pay. Most of these states have a mean wage below the national mean of $42,700; Rhode Island, North Dakota and Maine are the exceptions (our CNA pay by state guide ranks every state by wage).

At the other end, District of Columbia (4.98 per 1,000), Nevada (5.22 per 1,000), New Mexico (5.45 per 1,000), California (6.04 per 1,000), Arizona (6.27 per 1,000) have the fewest CNA jobs relative to their size. Several of them pay well (the District of Columbia's mean is $47,930, Nevada's $44,900), but there are fewer positions per thousand jobs to apply for.

CNA jobs in every state

All 50 states and the District of Columbia, ranked by the number of nursing assistants employed in May 2025. Each state name links to its CNA jobs page on the job board.

Which metros have the most CNA jobs?

Metropolitan areas hold most of the jobs, but a large share of nursing assistant employment sits in nursing homes and assisted living communities in smaller towns, so the biggest metros hold a smaller share of CNA jobs than their size suggests. The 25 metros below hold 545,800 CNA jobs, about 38% of the national total; the two largest, New York and Chicago, hold 125,330 between them. Florida has three metros on the list (Miami, Tampa and Orlando) and Ohio two (Cleveland and Cincinnati), and Providence, a metro of modest size, makes the top 25 on the strength of Rhode Island's density.

Which settings employ the most CNAs?

Where CNA jobs are is as much a question of setting as of geography. Five industries employ 1,257,310 nursing assistants, 86.8% of the total, and the largest is the skilled nursing facility, with general hospitals close behind. Unlike licensed practical nurses, nursing assistants are a large hospital workforce: almost a third work in general medical and surgical hospitals. The wage column shows that the biggest employers pay close to the national mean, while the smaller ones, staffing agencies, outpatient centers and the federal government, pay the most.

The practical reading: in every state, the fastest route to a CNA job is a skilled nursing facility or an assisted living community, and hospital jobs, which pay a little more and are often the first step toward nursing school, cluster in the states with big hospital systems, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Ohio among them.

Will there be more CNA jobs?

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counted 1,505,900 nursing assistant jobs in 2025 and projects employment to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035, about as fast as the average for all occupations, adding 39,000 jobs. The larger number is turnover: about 203,300 openings a year are projected for nursing assistants and orderlies together over the decade, most of them to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force. The Handbook attributes the demand to an aging population that will need care for chronic and progressive conditions, with more of the growth expected in home and community settings, and notes that financial pressure on nursing homes may limit how many nursing assistants they hire. Its employer breakdown matches the OEWS picture: nursing care facilities employ 36% of nursing assistants, hospitals 32%, continuing care and assisted living communities 11% and home health care 5%. The median pay for nursing assistants in May 2025 was $42,260 a year.

How to use this if you are job hunting

1. Decide which number matters to you. Headcount favors California, Florida, Texas, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania; density favors Rhode Island, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Iowa. Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio score on both.
2. Check pay next to volume. The states with the most CNA jobs are not the best-paying ones; Washington, Oregon, California and New Hampshire lead on wages. The CNA pay by state guide has every state's mean, median and hourly figures from the same release.
3. Look at the settings, not just the map. Nursing facilities and hospitals together employ two thirds of nursing assistants; a search limited to hospitals leaves out more than two thirds of the market, and one limited to nursing homes leaves out almost as much.
4. Mind the certificate. A CNA certificate is held on a state nurse aide registry, and the Nurse Licensure Compact that lets RNs and LPNs practice across state lines does not cover it, so moving to a bigger market means transferring your certification to that state's registry before you can work. Our Florida LPN and CNA guide walks through one state's process.
5. Search where the postings are. The CNA jobs hub lists open positions from hospital and health-system career sites by state and city, with links from every row of the tables above.

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, occupation profile for Nursing Assistants (31-1131), May 2025, read 22 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Nursing Assistants and Orderlies, 2025 employment and pay, 2025-35 projections, read 22 October 2026.