How many psychiatrists are there in the United States?

There are 120,793 psychiatric prescribers in the federal provider registry: 58,615 psychiatrists with an MD, 5,137 with a DO, and 57,041 psychiatric nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners are 47.2% of the total . Nationally that is 35.5 prescribers per 100,000 people.

Subspecialties

Subspecialty	Clinicians	Share
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner	56,679	46.9%
Psychiatry	54,934	45.5%
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry	7,227	6%
Geriatric Psychiatry	760	0.6%
Addiction Psychiatry	632	0.5%
Forensic Psychiatry	476	0.4%
Psychosomatic Medicine	317	0.3%
Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Psychiatry	40	0%

Every state, ranked

State	Total	MD	DO	NP	Child	Per 100k
California	13,767	8,940	593	4,216	964	34.9
New York	11,449	6,956	348	4,109	798	57.6
Texas	7,965	3,437	288	4,231	458	25.5
Florida	7,677	2,698	291	4,664	283	32.8
Massachusetts	5,178	2,898	102	2,161	308	72.6
Pennsylvania	4,610	2,608	374	1,613	381	35.2
Ohio	4,301	1,650	209	2,441	286	36.2
Maryland	3,990	1,600	75	2,312	251	63.7
Illinois	3,846	2,185	144	1,503	251	30.3
New Jersey	3,546	1,548	180	1,809	210	37.3
North Carolina	3,322	1,715	125	1,473	166	30.1
Washington	3,158	1,245	76	1,827	121	39.7
Virginia	3,126	1,454	123	1,544	217	35.5
Arizona	2,913	864	156	1,870	119	38.4
Georgia	2,801	1,336	77	1,387	136	25.1
Michigan	2,772	1,530	318	917	149	27.3
Connecticut	2,471	1,324	58	1,085	218	67.2
Colorado	2,463	1,011	136	1,311	186	41.3
Tennessee	2,355	714	54	1,584	76	32.6
Oregon	2,049	763	93	1,187	110	48
Minnesota	2,002	926	93	977	91	34.6
Missouri	1,816	960	115	739	149	29.1
Kentucky	1,755	516	51	1,186	72	38.2
Wisconsin	1,721	949	75	692	123	28.9
Indiana	1,613	672	60	879	80	23.3
South Carolina	1,496	873	87	535	93	27.3
Louisiana	1,395	614	31	749	84	30.3
Alabama	1,058	485	44	529	53	20.5
Iowa	1,021	330	96	590	50	31.5
Utah	1,007	384	56	567	80	28.7
Kansas	977	372	56	545	37	32.9
Mississippi	901	263	25	612	25	30.6
Nevada	856	270	69	514	31	26.2
Maine	832	308	69	455	57	59.2
Oklahoma	825	419	86	317	57	20.1
Arkansas	807	339	30	435	40	26.1
District of Columbia	749	519	22	207	68	106.7
Rhode Island	742	434	23	282	88	66.7
New Mexico	741	331	14	395	47	34.8
New Hampshire	739	287	18	432	30	52.4
Nebraska	615	258	18	338	23	30.7
Hawaii	525	346	36	143	54	36.3
Idaho	483	150	24	308	18	24.1
Delaware	440	153	17	270	17	41.8
West Virginia	438	230	27	180	14	24.7
Montana	402	148	21	232	13	35.3
Vermont	349	209	11	128	26	53.8
Alaska	325	130	15	179	25	43.9
North Dakota	266	104	14	146	16	33.4
South Dakota	246	113	12	121	15	26.6
Wyoming	164	47	2	115	3	27.9

Best and worst covered states

Access varies enormously. Per head of population, the best-covered state has roughly 5.3 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
Mississippi	67.9%	612	288
Kentucky	67.6%	1,186	567
Tennessee	67.3%	1,584	768
Arizona	64.2%	1,870	1,020
Idaho	63.8%	308	174
Delaware	61.4%	270	170
Florida	60.8%	4,664	2,989
Nevada	60%	514	339
New Hampshire	58.5%	432	305
Maryland	57.9%	2,312	1,675

The 25 cities with the most psychiatrists

City	Clinicians
New York, NY	3,652
Los Angeles, CA	1,386
Houston, TX	1,334
Chicago, IL	1,299
Boston, MA	1,155
Philadelphia, PA	1,077
Baltimore, MD	981
San Francisco, CA	980
Brooklyn, NY	972
Seattle, WA	901
San Diego, CA	885
Phoenix, AZ	856
Portland, OR	853
Miami, FL	785
Dallas, TX	760
Washington, DC	738
Austin, TX	695
San Antonio, TX	673
Atlanta, GA	596
Columbus, OH	592
Bronx, NY	582
Denver, CO	573
Nashville, TN	546
Pittsburgh, PA	527
Sacramento, CA	509

How the workforce is changing

29,548 of the 120,793 prescribers on the registry (24.5%) registered in the last five years, and 6,115 in the last twelve months. The nurse practitioner side is newer: 45% of psychiatric NPs registered in the last five years, against 5.6% of MD psychiatrists.

Of clinicians who record a gender, 62.9% 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 2026-11-02.