Best degree programs for Nurse Midwives, ranked by enrollment
1 college programs and 22 schools train Nurse Midwives. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $134,040 median wage, 7,920 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
1 college programs at 22 schools train nurse midwives, graduating 530 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery. The job pays a median of $134,040 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About nurse midwives
Diagnose and coordinate all aspects of the birthing process, either independently or as part of a healthcare team. May provide well-woman gynecological care. Must have specialized, graduate nursing education.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
1 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 51.3807 | 530 | 100.0% | 22 | $71,623 | $25,750 |
Top 22 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frontier Nursing University Versailles, KY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 294 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | — | — | — |
| 2 | University of Cincinnati - Main Campus Cincinnati, OH Public · 1 feeder programs | 46 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 75% | — | 85% |
| 3 | Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 30 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 94% | $14,854 | 6% |
| 4 | Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Lubbock, TX Public · 1 feeder programs | 24 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | — | — | — |
| 5 | Thomas Jefferson University Philadelphia, PA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 20 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 69% | $26,034 | 81% |
| 6 | Baylor University Waco, TX Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 16 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 80% | $35,682 | 51% |
| 7 | Oregon Health & Science University Portland, OR Public · 1 feeder programs | 13 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | — | — | — |
| 8 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 12 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 97% | $22,055 | 5% |
| 9 | Seattle University Seattle, WA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 11 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 76% | $31,900 | 77% |
| 10 | SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Brooklyn, NY Public · 1 feeder programs | 10 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | — | — | — |
| 11 | Bethel University Saint Paul, MN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 9 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 71% | $25,225 | 88% |
| 12 | New York University New York, NY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 9 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 88% | $29,023 | 9% |
| 13 | Loyola University New Orleans New Orleans, LA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 8 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 59% | $22,906 | 93% |
| 14 | Shenandoah University Winchester, VA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 8 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 67% | $27,455 | 77% |
| 15 | Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY Public · 1 feeder programs | 8 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 76% | — | 49% |
| 16 | Fairfield University Fairfield, CT Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 4 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 84% | $36,845 | 33% |
| 17 | Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 2 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 87% | $27,976 | 37% |
| 18 | George Washington University Washington, DC Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 2 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 84% | $29,789 | 47% |
| 19 | East Carolina University Greenville, NC Public · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 63% | — | 89% |
| 20 | Marquette University Milwaukee, WI Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 83% | $25,376 | 81% |
| 21 | University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA Public · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 85% | — | 58% |
| 22 | University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT Public · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery | 65% | — | 86% |
What nurse midwives earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohiolimited | $127,730 | 180 | 0.62× | 2 | 48 |
| Texaslimited | $123,380 | 290 | 0.40× | 2 | 40 |
| Pennsylvaniamoderate | $119,990 | 320 | 1.04× | 3 | 33 |
| Tennesseelimited | $116,980 | 330 | 1.96× | 1 | 30 |
| New Yorkmoderate | $144,510 | 360 | 0.73× | 3 | 27 |
| Oregonlimited | $146,900 | 240 | 2.41× | 1 | 13 |
| Washingtonlimited | $158,970 | 170 | 0.92× | 1 | 11 |
| Minnesotalimited | $134,810 | 410 | 2.70× | 1 | 9 |
| Louisianalimited | $119,280 | 60 | 0.64× | 1 | 8 |
| Virginialimited | $135,710 | — | — | 1 | 8 |
| Connecticutlimited | $130,790 | 150 | 1.71× | 1 | 4 |
| District of Columbialimited | $101,450 | 70 | 2.02× | 1 | 2 |
| North Carolinalimited | $126,040 | 240 | 0.95× | 1 | 1 |
| Utahlimited | $130,930 | 140 | 1.55× | 1 | 1 |
| Wisconsinlimited | $133,070 | 200 | 1.32× | 1 | 1 |
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Provide prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, or newborn care to patients.
- Monitor fetal development by listening to fetal heartbeat, taking external uterine measurements, identifying fetal position, or estimating fetal size and weight.
- Document patients' health histories, symptoms, physical conditions, or other diagnostic information.
- Provide patients with direct family planning services, such as inserting intrauterine devices, dispensing oral contraceptives, and fitting cervical barriers, including cervical caps or diaphragms.
- Prescribe medications as permitted by state regulations.
- Develop and implement individualized plans for health care management.
- Explain procedures to patients, family members, staff members or others.
- Order and interpret diagnostic or laboratory tests.
Skills
- Speaking4.1
- Active Listening4.1
- Critical Thinking4.1
- Active Learning4.0
- Monitoring4.0
- Reading Comprehension4.0
- Writing3.9
- Learning Strategies3.3
Knowledge areas
- Medicine and Dentistry4.8
- Psychology4.3
- Customer and Personal Service4.2
- English Language4.2
- Biology4.1
- Sociology and Anthropology3.8
Abilities
- Written Comprehension4.3
- Problem Sensitivity4.1
- Oral Expression4.1
- Deductive Reasoning4.1
- Oral Comprehension4.1
- Inductive Reasoning4.0
Core activities
- Assisting and Caring for Others4.9
- Documenting/Recording Information4.8
- Getting Information4.8
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events4.7
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems4.6
- Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge4.6
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Nurse Midwive
Job zone 5 of 5 · SVP 8.0 and above- Typical entry education
- Master's degree
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 1 majors mapped to Nurse Midwives1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 51.3807Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Nurse Midwive?+
Master's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery, which awarded 530 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Nurse Midwive?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Registered Nursing. Together they graduate about 530 people a year.
How much do nurse midwives earn?+
The median is $134,040 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $93,620 at the 10th percentile to $188,320 at the 90th. 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 nurse midwives growing?+
BLS projects a +11.1% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, much faster than average, with roughly 500 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
22 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 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 nurse midwives work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Nurse Midwife, Staff Nurse Midwife, Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM), Staff Certified Nurse Midwife among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 29-1161.
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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