Validated Insights Report Released: Nursing Education Market Will Grow Significantly, But Specific Projections Are Complicated

A new report from Validated Insights predicts revenue from nursing education will grow more than 11% annually over the next five years.

According to a newly released report from higher education marketing and research firm Validated Insights, revenue from nursing education programs will see strong growth in the near term, even though overall enrollment projections and trends are murky.

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The steady annual growth in the share of students seeking a future career as a Nurse is in transition. There are opportunities for growth; however, they are in a slightly different set of programs from the traditional high performers, reports higher education marketing firm Validated Insights. For example, accelerated programs like Direct-Entry MSNs and BSN to DNP programs are outperforming the broader and more traditional Nursing Education market. Read the full report at https://validatedinsightsnursingreport.carrd.co/

Previous Validated Insights reports have studied the market for online program management companies (OPM), MBA programs, and trade schools. This report is the first from Validated Insights to examine the nursing education marketplace.

According to this report, nursing education programs generate more than $8.5 billion in annual revenue, representing nearly 3% of all higher education revenue in the country. The report anticipates this to grow significantly, and quickly. By 2030, the nursing education market “is projected to be worth $14.57B - 3.0% of all higher education revenue.” The uptick represents an annual growth rate of just over 11%.

“Financially, nursing education is a very large, very strong market that is positioned for growth,” said Brady Colby, Head of Market Research at Validated Insights and founder of Thirty Two Edu, which was acquired by Validated Insights in 2023. “Beneath the surface, the trendlines are complicated, even counter-indicated in some ways, with an enormous amount of variation in projections based on the type of certification or degree.”

Overall enrollment trendlines for nursing education are also up, as the report found that “If tuition and fees continue to grow at the same rate that they have for the past two decades, Nursing enrollment is projected to grow at an 8.3% CAGR from 2025 to 2030.”

The variation and complexity in the market are apparent. Enrollments and applications in two-year associate degrees nursing programs, for example, are down. Meanwhile, enrollment in bachelor’s degree programs (BSN) has rebounded and saw strong growth in Fall 2024. And that, “From Fall 2023 to Fall 2024, new enrollment in BSN programs jumped 7.1% and was the fastest growing bachelor’s degree in terms of new enrollment absolute growth,” the report stated.

“Even that is complicated,” Colby said, “because while bachelor nursing programs are growing, the RN to BSN pipeline has been in decline. People are enrolling in four-year nursing programs more, but the percentage of college freshmen interested in nursing is dwindling.”

Also on the rise are graduate nursing programs, as the report predicts that master’s (MSN) and doctorate nursing programs (DNP) will grow, although in some cases, inconsistently:

• From Fall 2013 to Fall 2023 online MSN enrollment is estimated to have grown at a 5.9% CAGR. Growth has been decelerating, however. From 2013 to 2018 online MSN enrollment is estimated to have grown at an 8.3% CAGR. From 2018 to 2023, the CAGR had dropped to 5.2%.
• DNP (including PhD in Nursing) enrollment is vastly outperforming the aggregate doctoral/professional market growing at a CAGR of 4.6% from Fall 2019 to Fall 2024 compared to just a 1.2% CAGR for the aggregate market.
• Owing to a complicated and interconnected market, strong growth in some nursing programs is not necessarily good news for individual nursing schools. From the report:
  • The share of Nursing Schools reporting falling enrollment grew from 33% in 2022 to 37% in 2024. Notably, the share of Nursing Schools reporting that enrollment is declining significantly grew from 7% in 2022 to 22% in 2024.
  • The share of Nursing Schools reporting growing enrollment declined from 51% in 2022 to 36% in 2024.

Like previous reports from Validated Insights, the new nursing report explored market and career demands, as well as the education market. Career demand within the nursing market is softening for Registered Nurses. “From 2019 to 2024 the number of persons with a license to be a Registered Nurse increased 16.8% to just over 4.9 million. During that same time, the number of persons employed as a Registered Nurse grew only 7.1%, to just under 3.2 million,” the report stated. And that, “As of 2024, an estimated 65.1% of licensed RNs were employed as an RN, down from 71.0% in 2019.”

“The nursing education market is intricate,” Colby said. “There are a good number of fast-moving trends and implications for each one. Overall, the market is large and growing, but not everywhere and not for everyone or every degree, especially not for programs that institutions have historically relied upon for large and growing enrollments. Nuance and precision are necessary when discussing or operating in this area.”

In addition to the topline report released today, Validated Insights will release a compendium of data related to nursing education, with state and major city data, on April 18. The report and the data will be featured together on the Validated Insights website.

Like its other benchmark education market reports, a report on nursing education will be updated quarterly, along with other timely and relevant information about higher education and the higher education market. To receive future reports from Validated Insights, follow Higher Ed News by VI on LinkedIn.

About Validated Insights

Validated Insights is an agile marketing agency specializing in helping higher education institutions achieve and exceed their goals. With a comprehensive suite of services, including digital marketing, paid search, paid social, and web strategy, Validated Insights delivers data-driven strategies and measurable results. The agency's agile testing approach enables short- and long-term growth through better creative, strategy, media execution and continuous brand building. Validated Insights is the only agency in the higher education space to offer a performance guarantee in KPIs in the first 60 days - and continuous growth beyond that.

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“...the trendlines are complicated, even counter-indicated in some ways, with an enormous amount of variation in projections based on the type of certification or degree.”