Networkx in Python - draw node attributes as labels outside the node

You have access to the node positions in the 'pos' dictionary. So you can use matplotlib to put text wherever you like. e.g.

In [1]: import networkx as nx

In [2]: G=nx.path_graph(3)

In [3]: pos=nx.spring_layout(G)

In [4]: nx.draw(G,pos)

In [5]: x,y=pos[1]

In [6]: import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

In [7]: plt.text(x,y+0.1,s='some text', bbox=dict(facecolor='red', alpha=0.5),horizontalalignment='center')
Out[7]: <matplotlib.text.Text at 0x4f1e490>

I like to create a nudge function that shifts the layout by an offset.

import networkx as nx
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def nudge(pos, x_shift, y_shift):
    return {n:(x + x_shift, y + y_shift) for n,(x,y) in pos.items()}

G = nx.Graph()
G.add_edge('a','b')
G.add_edge('b','c')
G.add_edge('a','c')

pos = nx.spring_layout(G)
pos_nodes = nudge(pos, 0, 0.1)                              # shift the layout

fig, ax = plt.subplots(1,2,figsize=(12,6))
nx.draw_networkx(G, pos=pos, ax=ax[0])                      # default labeling
nx.draw_networkx(G, pos=pos, with_labels=False, ax=ax[1])   # default nodes and edges
nx.draw_networkx_labels(G, pos=pos_nodes, ax=ax[1])         # nudged labels
ax[1].set_ylim(tuple(i*1.1 for i in ax[1].get_ylim()))      # expand plot to fit labels
plt.show()

In addition to Aric's answer, the pos dictionary contains x, y coordinates in the values. So you can manipulate it, an example might be:

pos_higher = {}
y_off = 1  # offset on the y axis

for k, v in pos.items():
    pos_higher[k] = (v[0], v[1]+y_off)

Then draw the labels with the new position:

nx.draw_networkx_labels(G, pos_higher, labels)

where G is your graph object and labels a list of strings.