How many doctors practice near you? This interactive map shows doctors per capita by county and by state for the whole United States. Pick any specialty, from primary care and psychiatry to OB-GYN, cardiology and more than 100 others, and see where clinicians are plentiful and where entire counties have none.
Key findings
- 1.20 million physicians (MDs and DOs) list a practice address in the U.S.: about 356 per 100,000 residents.
- 144 counties have no physician at all. About 440,000 people live in them.
- Specialty gaps are far wider. 1,611 counties have no psychiatrist (26.3 million residents), 1,489 have no OB-GYN (21.7 million), and 1,943 have no cardiologist (37.2 million).
- By state, Washington, D.C. (868 per 100k), Massachusetts (528) and Rhode Island (500) have the most physicians per person. Utah and Mississippi (249 each), Wyoming and Idaho (258 each) have the fewest.
How to use the doctors per capita by county map
- Choose a specialty from the menu or the quick picks. Groups such as “Primary care” and “Mental health professionals” combine related specialties.
- Switch between counties and states, and between per 100,000 residents (density) and total (raw count).
- Hover or tap any county for its count, rate and population. Click a state to zoom in.
- Striped counties have none of the selected specialty registered at a local practice address. These are the care deserts.
- The page address updates as you explore, so you can share a link to the exact view you’re looking at.
Where the gaps are: doctors per capita by county
National averages hide how uneven access is. The counties with the most doctors per capita are usually home to major medical centers. Olmsted County, Minnesota, home of the Mayo Clinic, has about 3,700 physicians per 100,000 residents, roughly ten times the national rate. Across much of rural Texas, the Great Plains and the Mountain West, a single family physician may serve a whole county, and specialists are often a long drive away. Texas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Montana account for most of the counties with no physician at all.
The gaps grow as care gets more specialized:
| Specialty | Counties with none | People living there |
|---|---|---|
| Pediatrics | 1,304 | 15.9 million |
| OB-GYN | 1,489 | 21.7 million |
| Psychiatry | 1,611 | 26.3 million |
| Cardiology | 1,943 | 37.2 million |
| Dermatology | 2,142 | 46.2 million |
Other clinicians fill part of the gap. This map counts physicians (MDs and DOs) only; nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists and other clinicians have their own clinicians-per-capita map, and nurse practitioners per physician shows where NPs outnumber doctors.
How we count doctors per capita by county
Every licensed clinician who bills for care in the U.S. has a National Provider Identifier (NPI). We started from the federal NPPES NPI registry (November 2026 release) and kept every active individual provider with a U.S. practice location: 7.5 million people. Each provider is counted once, under their primary specialty (taxonomy code), in the county of their practice address. Only MDs and DOs count as physicians. About 19,000 people registered under a physician specialty code list a credential from another profession (for example nurse practitioner, physician assistant, physical therapist or dentist), so they are left out of the physician counts. Closely related subspecialties are grouped with their main specialty. Population figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2020–2024 five-year estimates.
Keep in mind:
- The NPI registry is self-reported. Some clinicians who have retired or no longer see patients keep an active NPI, so counts run higher than the number of doctors actively practicing.
- Some providers list a billing or headquarters address rather than the clinic where they see patients. That can inflate counts in cities and understate them in the surrounding counties.
- We place each provider in a county using their ZIP code and city. Where a ZIP code spans several counties, we use the county that contains the provider’s city. Virginia’s smaller independent cities share ZIP codes and mailing names with the counties around them, so, like the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, we combine them (for example, James City County & Williamsburg).
- Patients cross county lines for care. A county with no specialist may still be near one in the next county over.
- In small counties, a handful of doctors can produce a very high or very low rate. The rankings below the map therefore only include counties with at least 50,000 residents.
Frequently asked questions
Which state has the most doctors per capita?
Washington, D.C. has the most physicians per resident (about 868 per 100,000), followed by Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. These areas have many large teaching hospitals and medical schools.
Which states have the fewest doctors per person?
Utah, Mississippi, Wyoming and Idaho have the fewest physicians per person, at roughly 249 to 258 per 100,000 residents. That’s about 30% below the national average.
How many U.S. counties have no doctor?
144 counties have no physician registered at a local practice address. Together they are home to about 440,000 people. Many more lack specific specialists: over half of all counties have no psychiatrist and no cardiologist.
How often is this data updated?
The provider registry is refreshed from the latest federal release, and population figures are updated when the Census Bureau publishes new estimates. The current map uses the November 2026 NPI registry.