Doctor shortage areas are places the federal government has officially designated as having too few clinicians for the population. These Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) exist for primary care, dental care and mental health care, and they decide where National Health Service Corps clinicians serve, where loan repayment is offered, and where Medicare pays doctors a bonus. Our map shows, for every county, the share of residents who live in a geographic shortage area.
Map: residents living in a primary care shortage area
Switch the map to dental or mental health care with the buttons above it. The full picture, including the areas with the greatest need and how many clinicians it would take to end each shortage, is on our shortage areas page.
How doctor shortage areas are designated
HRSA designates a geographic primary care HPSA when there are too few full-time primary care physicians for the population (generally fewer than one per 3,500 people, or one per 3,000 where needs are high) and nearby care is hard to reach. Shortages can also be designated for population groups (for example low-income or Medicaid-eligible residents) or for facilities such as community health centers, rural health clinics, tribal health facilities and prisons. Each designation gets a score showing how severe it is.
Why doctor shortage areas matter
- Patients in shortage areas wait longer and travel farther for care.
- Clinicians who work there can qualify for loan repayment (opens in a new tab) and, in geographic primary care shortage areas, a 10% Medicare bonus. See your first job after residency.
- Policymakers use designations to target funding.
Related maps
- Doctors per capita by county
- Psychiatrist shortage by county
- Disability by county and the specialists who treat it
Sources
HRSA Health Professional Shortage Areas (opens in a new tab) (designated status); population from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2020–2024. Residents in shortage areas count geographic designations (whole counties, county subdivisions and census tracts).