Abstract: “Will we have a nursing shortage?” A simple enough question, but one which is challenging to answer. Throughout the United States, nursing workforce centers tackle this question by collecting and analyzing data from a variety of sources. However, taking those data to the next step to determine the existence of a nursing shortage is difficult because there is a wide range of ways to calculate shortage and project into the future. This paper describes different methods for calculating supply and demand, the limitations of each, and how they could be used in a state depending on the source and availability of data.