How many psychiatrists are there in the United States?

There are 125,129 psychiatric prescribers in the federal provider registry: 61,586 psychiatrists with an MD, 5,336 with a DO, and 58,207 psychiatric nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners are 46.5% of the total . Nationally that is 36.8 prescribers per 100,000 people.

Subspecialties

Subspecialty	Clinicians	Share
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner	57,819	46.2%
Psychiatry Physician	57,659	46.1%
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Physician	7,596	6.1%
Geriatric Psychiatry Physician	786	0.6%
Addiction Psychiatry Physician	681	0.5%
Forensic Psychiatry Physician	500	0.4%
Psychosomatic Medicine Physician	334	0.3%
Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Physician	44	0%

Every state, ranked

State	Total	MD	DO	NP	Child	Per 100k
California	14,247	9,366	615	4,248	1,019	36.1
New York	11,854	7,280	363	4,174	829	59.7
Texas	8,144	3,580	297	4,257	485	26
Florida	7,900	2,845	298	4,731	296	33.8
Massachusetts	5,356	3,044	106	2,187	339	75.1
Pennsylvania	4,792	2,737	386	1,653	401	36.6
Ohio	4,467	1,733	220	2,513	299	37.6
Maryland	4,166	1,686	77	2,399	260	66.5
Illinois	4,011	2,304	150	1,541	269	31.6
New Jersey	3,623	1,616	181	1,818	213	38.1
North Carolina	3,441	1,795	128	1,507	174	31.2
Washington	3,263	1,297	79	1,877	129	41
Virginia	3,211	1,529	127	1,551	225	36.4
Arizona	2,996	906	164	1,903	125	39.5
Michigan	2,886	1,613	328	938	150	28.5
Georgia	2,867	1,385	80	1,400	141	25.6
Connecticut	2,579	1,400	62	1,113	226	70.2
Colorado	2,553	1,058	142	1,347	190	42.9
Tennessee	2,446	764	57	1,622	78	33.8
Oregon	2,130	802	99	1,223	120	49.9
Minnesota	2,087	989	96	995	100	36
Missouri	1,918	1,022	120	773	155	30.7
Kentucky	1,811	534	50	1,224	74	39.5
Wisconsin	1,805	1,006	83	711	134	30.3
Indiana	1,672	713	62	895	84	24.1
South Carolina	1,561	925	89	546	99	28.5
Louisiana	1,455	661	32	761	92	31.6
Alabama	1,121	524	49	548	54	21.7
Iowa	1,064	346	98	614	48	32.8
Utah	1,058	410	60	588	88	30.2
Kansas	1,006	391	59	552	37	33.9
Mississippi	934	276	27	630	28	31.7
Nevada	891	281	72	535	30	27.3
Maine	867	318	74	475	58	61.7
Oklahoma	852	434	93	322	60	20.8
Arkansas	836	357	27	449	42	27.1
District of Columbia	796	547	26	222	71	113.3
Rhode Island	786	461	24	298	90	70.7
New Mexico	773	354	13	405	51	36.3
New Hampshire	754	296	18	437	31	53.5
Nebraska	646	273	19	353	25	32.2
Hawaii	551	368	35	148	57	38.1
Idaho	500	160	25	314	20	25
Delaware	458	165	18	275	18	43.5
West Virginia	456	240	29	186	15	25.8
Montana	422	159	20	242	17	37.1
Vermont	372	224	10	137	27	57.4
Alaska	331	133	17	180	26	44.7
North Dakota	281	110	16	153	20	35.3
South Dakota	261	119	14	127	16	28.2
Wyoming	162	50	2	110	5	27.6

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	67.6%	1,224	584
Mississippi	67.5%	630	303
Tennessee	66.3%	1,622	821
Arizona	63.5%	1,903	1,070
Idaho	62.8%	314	185
Nevada	60%	535	353
Delaware	60%	275	183
Florida	59.9%	4,731	3,143
New Hampshire	58%	437	314
Iowa	57.7%	614	444

The 25 cities with the most psychiatrists

City	Clinicians
New York, NY	3,783
Los Angeles, CA	1,467
Houston, TX	1,384
Chicago, IL	1,362
Boston, MA	1,198
Philadelphia, PA	1,135
Baltimore, MD	1,045
San Francisco, CA	1,019
Brooklyn, NY	1,002
Seattle, WA	932
San Diego, CA	928
Portland, OR	887
Phoenix, AZ	878
Washington, DC	785
Miami, FL	769
Dallas, TX	760
Austin, TX	711
San Antonio, TX	688
Atlanta, GA	622
Columbus, OH	615
Bronx, NY	604
Denver, CO	590
Nashville, TN	565
Pittsburgh, PA	545
Tucson, AZ	542

How the workforce is changing

29,865 of the 125,129 prescribers on the registry (23.9%) registered in the last five years, and 5,861 in the last twelve months. The nurse practitioner side is newer: 44.8% of psychiatric NPs registered in the last five years, against 5.1% of MD psychiatrists.

Of clinicians who record a gender, 62.6% 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 2026-09-16.