Best Nursing Assistant programs in Illinois, ranked by enrollment
Provide or assist with basic care or support under the direction of onsite licensed nursing staff.
46 schools in Illinois run programs that feed this job, graduating 7,438 people a year. The job pays a median of $45,960 in Illinois across about 68,640 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in Illinois that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
3 programs in Illinois that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in Illinois (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Illinois page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 51.3902In Illinois → | 7,164 | 96.3% | 43 | $44,377 | $15,018 |
| 2 | CIP 51.3999In Illinois → | 270 | 3.6% | 4 | $44,377 | $15,018 |
| 3 | CIP 51.2601In Illinois → | 4 | 0.1% | 1 | $23,917 | $7,750 |
Top 25 schools in Illinois
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 24 of the 46 schools in this state.
All 46 schools in Illinois
Every school in Illinois with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| William Rainey Harper College | Palatine | Public | 615 | 1 |
| College of Lake County | Grayslake | Public | 564 | 1 |
| Illinois Central College | East Peoria | Public | 504 | 1 |
| Moraine Valley Community College | Palos Hills | Public | 427 | 2 |
| City Colleges of Chicago - Malcolm X College | Chicago | Public | 406 | 1 |
| Rock Valley College | Rockford | Public | 301 | 1 |
| Oakton College | Des Plaines | Public | 279 | 1 |
| McHenry County College | Crystal Lake | Public | 264 | 1 |
| Southwestern Illinois College | Belleville | Public | 238 | 1 |
| Lincoln Land Community College | Springfield | Public | 219 | 1 |
| Kaskaskia College | Centralia | Public | 218 | 1 |
| Heartland Community College | Normal | Public | 207 | 1 |
| College of DuPage | Glen Ellyn | Public | 201 | 1 |
| Lake Land College | Mattoon | Public | 199 | 1 |
| Midwest Technical Institute - Illinois | Springfield | Private for-profit | 189 | 1 |
What nursing assistants earn in Illinois
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $42,260. Illinois pays above the national figure.
Concentrated here: Illinois employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.
Metro areas in Illinois
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Nursing Assistants page.
How to become a Nursing Assistant
Job zone 3 of 5 · SVP 6.0 to < 7.0- Typical entry education
- Postsecondary nondegree award
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in Illinois
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 3 majors mapped to Nursing Assistants3 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 51.2601Health Aide
- 51.3902Nursing Assistant/Aide and Patient Care Assistant/Aide
- 51.3999Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants, Other
Common questions
Answers for people weighing nursing assistants programs in Illinois.
What degree do you need to become a Nursing Assistant?+
Postsecondary nondegree award is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Nursing Assistant/Aide and Patient Care Assistant/Aide, which awarded 7,164 degrees in Illinois in 2024-25, 96.3% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Nursing Assistant?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 3 programs to this occupation. The largest are Practical Nursing, Health Aides/Attendants/Orderlies. Together they graduate about 7,438 people a year in Illinois.
How much do nursing assistants earn in Illinois?+
The median is $45,960 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 8.8% above the U.S. median of $42,260. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for nursing assistants growing?+
BLS projects a +2.3% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 204,100 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in Illinois?+
46 institutions in Illinois reported graduates from at least one of the 3 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do nursing assistants work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Nursing Assistant, Certified Nurses Aide (CNA), Patient Care Assistant (PCA), Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 31-1131.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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