| The average age for RNs has climbed steadily
in recent years resulting in a greater proportion of nurses in the
older age brackets who are approaching retirement age. Three factors
contribute to this aging of the RN workforce:
- the decline in number of nursing school graduates
- the higher average age of recent graduating classes
- the aging of the existing pool of licensed nurses
Graduates of associate degree programs, the largest source of new
RNs, are on average 33 years old when they graduate, considerably
older than in 1980 when the average age of a new associate degree
graduate was 28. The result has been a significant decline in the
proportion of RNs under the age of 30. Between 1980 and 2000, that
proportion declined from 25 percent to 9 percent. (See Chart 1)
This slowing of new, young entrants coupled with an accelerating
retirement rate for older RNs will produce a national supply of
nurses that in 2020 will not only be older but no larger than the
supply projected for 2005. The number of new licenses in nursing
is projected to be 17 percent lower in 2020 than in 2002, while
the loss from the RN license pool due to death and retirement is
projected to be 128 percent higher.
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