This is a quantitative study of historical-social feature, aiming at Espírito Santo State´s nursing university courses configuration. Objective: to present the ongoing nursing university courses in the state of Espírito Santo (ES); to analyze their distribution among public and private institutions according to the administrative dependence and to discuss the influence of socio-historical issues in the creation of these courses. In 1976, the first nursing university course was created in the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo UFES (Espírito Santo´s Federal University). The creation of the second nursing course in this state occurred in 2000, 25 years after the creation of UFES´ course. In the 2001-2006 periods, 12 nursing university courses were created in ES, totalizing a quantitative of 14 courses. In 2007, the state offered 1.630 annual vacancies in nursing university courses: 1.520 (93,25%) in private universities and 110 (6,75%) in public ones.
Nursing; History of Nursing; Nursing Schools; Brazil