Percentage of Nurses Who Are Men Has Tripled Since 1970

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that men are increasingly becoming nurses but that women continue to dominate the profession. According to the data, in 1970 men made up 2.7 percent of all registered nurses nationwide. In 2011, the percentage of nurses that were men more than tripled to 9.7 percent. So today, one of every 10 nurses is a man. Among nurse anesthetists, 41 percent were male. All told, there are about 330,000 male nurses in the U.S.

While men are still a small percentage of all nurses, male nurses earn more money than women nurses. In 2011, women nurses had average earnings of $51,100 while male nurses had average earnings of $60,700.