diff --git a/networkx/algorithms/similarity.py b/networkx/algorithms/similarity.py
index 24f303b13c9..7af9c8980fe 100644
--- a/networkx/algorithms/similarity.py
+++ b/networkx/algorithms/similarity.py
@@ -1520,7 +1520,7 @@ def _simrank_similarity_numpy(
         )
 
     if source is not None and target is not None:
-        return newsim[source, target]
+        return float(newsim[source, target])
     if source is not None:
         return newsim[source]
     return newsim