August 28, 2025 — The Florida Center for Nursing (FCN), headquartered at the University of South Florida, has released a comprehensive report forecasting the state’s future health care workforce needs based on current employment and population trends.
The report, Florida Workforce Projections 2022-2037, evaluates Florida’s projected supply and demand of physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, allied health professionals and nursing assistants through 2037, using data collected in partnership with GlobalData, a leading expert in workforce modeling.
Key findings include:
- Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs): A marked decline in supply (-0.9% annually) and an increase in demand (2.3% annually) will lead to a severe statewide shortage, reducing adequacy from 85% in 2022 to 55% by 2037.
- Registered Nurses (RNs): Supply growth is projected to closely match demand, maintaining near-equilibrium adequacy (93%) by 2037, but with regional variation expected.
- Nursing Assistants (CNAs): While supply exceeded demand in 2022, significant declines are expected, leading to statewide shortages by 2026 and severe deficits by 2037 across most regions.
“The value of this data lies in helping us understand the impact of our resources and interventions, and in recognizing the tremendous contributions of Florida’s nursing and health care workforce,” said Rayna Letourneau, PhD, RN, executive director of FCN. “We can’t overlook how diverse and complex our state is — and while the numbers may suggest near-equilibrium for some health care professions, the distribution tells a very different story. This insight is critical to sustaining and strengthening our workforce across all regions of Florida.”
While Florida is making meaningful progress in addressing health care workforce shortages, challenges remain significant given the state’s rapid population growth and aging demographics — underscoring the importance of workforce projections for informing statewide education and training strategies.
“The FCN is providing invaluable data to better understand the supply and demand trends in Florida,” said Usha Menon, PhD, RN, FAAN, FSBM, senior associate vice president at USF Health and dean of the University of South Florida College of Nursing. “This knowledge will allow us to curate our educational programming to meet the most critical needs in our state.”
Visit the FCN website to read the full report
Full report: https://flcntr.org/workforce-projections
-Florida Center for Nursing-
The Florida Center for Nursing is established under state statute (F.S. 464.0195) to research and address issues of supply and demand for nursing, including issues of recruitment, retention, and utilization of nurse workforce resources. For more information, visit flcenterfornursing.org. The Florida Center for Nursing is headquartered at the University of South Florida.
-USF Health-
USF Health’s mission is to envision and implement the future of health. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the Taneja College of Pharmacy, the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, the Biomedical Sciences Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs, and USF Health’s multispecialty physicians group. The University of South Florida is a high-impact global research university dedicated to student success. Over the past 10 years, no other public university in the country has risen faster in U.S. News and World Report’s national university rankings than USF. For more information, visit health.usf.edu
