How many psychiatrists are there in the United States?

There are 118,005 psychiatric prescribers in the federal provider registry: 57,011 psychiatrists with an MD, 5,005 with a DO, and 55,989 psychiatric nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners are 47.4% of the total . Nationally that is 34.7 prescribers per 100,000 people.

Subspecialties

Subspecialty	Clinicians	Share
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner	55,634	47.1%
Psychiatry	53,450	45.3%
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry	7,037	6%
Geriatric Psychiatry	731	0.6%
Addiction Psychiatry	610	0.5%
Forensic Psychiatry	461	0.4%
Psychosomatic Medicine	306	0.3%
Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Psychiatry	39	0%

Every state, ranked

State	Total	MD	DO	NP	Child	Per 100k
California	13,453	8,710	579	4,146	940	34.1
New York	11,144	6,749	343	4,016	767	56.1
Texas	7,768	3,321	280	4,159	449	24.8
Florida	7,544	2,629	280	4,612	276	32.3
Massachusetts	5,047	2,817	100	2,114	303	70.7
Pennsylvania	4,489	2,536	364	1,575	373	34.3
Ohio	4,194	1,607	203	2,383	275	35.3
Maryland	3,895	1,562	72	2,258	245	62.2
Illinois	3,760	2,131	145	1,470	245	29.6
New Jersey	3,480	1,500	178	1,793	204	36.6
North Carolina	3,245	1,657	122	1,457	160	29.4
Washington	3,087	1,205	76	1,797	118	38.8
Virginia	3,074	1,421	121	1,527	213	34.9
Arizona	2,855	840	154	1,838	118	37.7
Georgia	2,732	1,303	73	1,355	132	24.4
Michigan	2,718	1,487	305	919	140	26.8
Connecticut	2,412	1,286	57	1,066	212	65.6
Colorado	2,396	976	131	1,284	181	40.2
Tennessee	2,304	698	53	1,550	77	31.9
Oregon	1,990	737	89	1,158	106	46.6
Minnesota	1,968	906	90	967	89	34
Missouri	1,776	941	113	721	145	28.4
Kentucky	1,709	502	48	1,157	71	37.2
Wisconsin	1,679	926	68	680	119	28.2
Indiana	1,575	649	60	864	77	22.7
South Carolina	1,457	846	83	527	92	26.6
Louisiana	1,362	600	31	730	81	29.6
Alabama	1,034	475	40	519	53	20
Utah	1,007	389	55	563	80	28.7
Iowa	983	316	92	570	47	30.3
Kansas	945	353	55	533	36	31.8
Mississippi	873	256	25	591	25	29.7
Nevada	837	268	68	498	31	25.6
Maine	816	301	68	447	57	58.1
Oklahoma	808	406	86	314	57	19.7
Arkansas	789	331	29	426	37	25.5
District of Columbia	740	513	22	204	67	105.4
New Mexico	732	324	14	393	46	34.4
Rhode Island	722	419	23	277	86	64.9
New Hampshire	718	276	18	422	29	51
Nebraska	597	252	16	328	22	29.8
Hawaii	514	338	36	140	53	35.5
Idaho	466	146	24	295	18	23.3
Delaware	432	149	17	266	17	41.1
West Virginia	423	219	26	177	13	23.9
Montana	393	144	20	228	13	34.6
Vermont	343	206	10	126	25	52.9
Alaska	322	130	15	176	24	43.5
North Dakota	257	101	14	140	14	32.3
South Dakota	243	111	12	120	15	26.3
Wyoming	161	46	2	113	3	27.4

Best and worst covered states

Access varies enormously. Per head of population, the best-covered state has roughly 5.4 times as many psychiatric prescribers as the worst.

Where nurse practitioners carry the most of the load

In some states psychiatric nurse practitioners are the majority of prescribers. This matters for cost, since NPs generally charge less than physicians, and for scope, since supervision requirements differ by state.

State	NP share	NPs	Physicians
Kentucky	67.7%	1,157	550
Mississippi	67.7%	591	281
Tennessee	67.3%	1,550	751
Arizona	64.4%	1,838	994
Idaho	63.3%	295	170
Delaware	61.6%	266	166
Florida	61.1%	4,612	2,909
Nevada	59.5%	498	336
New Hampshire	58.8%	422	294
Washington	58.2%	1,797	1,281

The 25 cities with the most psychiatrists

City	Clinicians
New York, NY	3,553
Los Angeles, CA	1,336
Houston, TX	1,304
Chicago, IL	1,264
Boston, MA	1,128
Philadelphia, PA	1,041
Baltimore, MD	955
San Francisco, CA	955
Brooklyn, NY	948
San Diego, CA	878
Seattle, WA	874
Phoenix, AZ	842
Portland, OR	820
Miami, FL	786
Dallas, TX	742
Washington, DC	729
Austin, TX	671
San Antonio, TX	659
Atlanta, GA	577
Bronx, NY	573
Columbus, OH	570
Denver, CO	561
Nashville, TN	539
Pittsburgh, PA	515
Saint Louis, MO	499

How the workforce is changing

29,106 of the 118,005 prescribers on the registry (24.7%) registered in the last five years, and 6,171 in the last twelve months. The nurse practitioner side is newer: 45.2% of psychiatric NPs registered in the last five years, against 5.6% of MD psychiatrists.

Of clinicians who record a gender, 63% are women.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure on this page is counted directly from the CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System, the federal registry every US healthcare provider must join to bill insurance. We refresh it weekly and count only individual clinicians whose primary taxonomy is psychiatry or psychiatric-mental health nursing.

Two caveats worth stating plainly. Being on the registry is not the same as actively practising: some records belong to clinicians who have retired, moved or changed speciality, and the registry has no field for any of that. And a practice address tells you where someone is based, not where they are licensed — a psychiatrist practising by video can treat patients anywhere they hold a licence, which is often several states.

Population figures are US Census Bureau estimates. Last recalculated 2026-11-12.