Nurse license lookup
RN, LPN and advanced practice licenses are issued by state boards of nursing, and most can be verified in one free place, Nursys, run by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. 518,916 NPPES records carry one of the 18 nurse practitioner taxonomy codes.
Open Nursys license verification →Verify a nurse license, step by step
- Search the nurse on Nursys QuickConfirm by name and state or license number. Note the license type (RN, LPN or APRN), status and expiration.
- Check whether the license is single-state or multistate. A multistate license under the Nurse Licensure Compact allows practice in other compact states.
- If the board does not report to Nursys, use the state board of nursing search. Several states run one search for every health profession: Florida, Ohio, Virginia.
- For a nurse practitioner, confirm national certification with the AANP Certification Board or ANCC, and the NPI in the NPI lookup.
- Read any public discipline on the license record, and search the HHS-OIG exclusion list.
License type and number, status, expiration, whether it is multistate, and public discipline from participating boards. It is free and needs no account.
A board that does not take part is named on the Nursys site; use that board's own search.
Nurse practitioner records per 100,000 residents: the ten highest, D.C. included
Across the 50 states and D.C. the figure is 155. These are NPPES records under the 18 nurse practitioner taxonomy codes by practice state, not a count of licenses: a nurse practitioner licensed in two states has one NPI.
Source: CMS NPPES, primary taxonomy 363L* by practice state, file of Aug 9, 2026 (NPPES files on CMS.gov); 2023 Census population estimates (census.gov).
Common questions
How do I verify a nurse license for free?
Use Nursys QuickConfirm from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, which covers RN and LPN licenses from participating boards, or the state board of nursing search. Both are free.
What is a multistate nurse license?
Under the Nurse Licensure Compact, a nurse whose primary state belongs to the compact can hold one multistate license that allows practice in other compact states. Nursys shows whether a license is multistate.
How do I verify a nurse practitioner?
Check the APRN license on Nursys or the state board of nursing, the national certification with the AANP Certification Board or ANCC, and the NPI in the NPI lookup.
Source: Nursys (NCSBN) (nursys.com); CMS NPPES NPI Registry (npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov). PlainDoctor is not a primary-source verifier. License lookup by state.
Figures on PlainDoctor are read from the federal files each page names (CMS NPPES, Medicare Part D, MIPS, Open Payments; the HHS-OIG exclusion list only as counts) and from Census population estimates, with the file date shown beside them. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of the NPPES file of Aug 9, 2026.