Short answer
The US had 1,032,365 active physicians in 2024, according to the AAMC's 2025 physician workforce data, of whom 866,460 provide direct patient care, about 304 active physicians per 100,000 people. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 862,800 physician and surgeon jobs in 2025. CMS's free Doctors and Clinicians file lists 736,817 physicians who billed Medicare in the past year (October 2026), with specialty, practice group and address.
- 1,032,365 active physicians in 2024 (AAMC): 38.7% women, 23.9% aged 65 or older, 25.6% international medical graduates.
- Internal medicine (104,708) and family practice (98,056) are the largest specialties among Medicare-billing physicians.
- Only 42.2% of physicians were in private practice in 2024, down from 60.1% in 2012 (AMA).
- 43.9% of Medicare-billing physicians bill through a group of 500 or more clinicians; 8.8% bill with no group.
- California has the most Medicare-billing physicians (88,996), followed by New York (57,015) and Texas (56,396).
On this page
This page is for anyone who needs the number of doctors in America, and for companies that sell to them: medical devices and supplies, EHR and practice software, billing and revenue cycle services, staffing, pharmaceuticals, and financial and insurance services for physicians. It sets out each official count and why they differ, breaks physicians down by specialty, state and practice size, shows how to download the list, and explains who buys. For the hospitals many of them work in, see our list of hospitals.
How many doctors there are in the US
| Source | Count | Date | What it counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAMC, U.S. Physician Workforce Data Dashboard | 1,032,365 active physicians | 2024 | MDs and DOs working more than 20 hours a week, from AMA data; residents and fellows excluded |
| of which in direct patient care | 866,460 | 2024 | Active physicians whose main activity is patient care |
| Bureau of Labor Statistics | 862,800 jobs | 2025 | Physician and surgeon jobs in the occupation |
| CMS Doctors and Clinicians file | 736,817 physicians | October 2026 | Physicians enrolled in Medicare with Medicare claims in the last 12 months (our count of physician specialties) |
| Census County Business Patterns, NAICS 6211 | 218,066 establishments | 2023 | Offices of physicians with paid employees |
The AAMC figure is the standard answer. It equals 304 active and 255 direct patient care physicians per 100,000 people. Massachusetts and DC have the most physicians per person; Idaho has the fewest active physicians per person, and Mississippi the fewest in direct patient care.
Why the counts differ
- Who counts as active. The AAMC counts physicians working at least 20 hours a week in any role, including research, teaching and administration, and leaves out retired physicians and residents still in training.
- Jobs versus people. BLS counts jobs in the occupation, not individual physicians.
- Medicare billing. The CMS file lists only physicians enrolled in Medicare who billed it in the last year. Specialties that rarely treat Medicare patients are undercounted: the file has 12,853 physicians whose primary specialty is pediatric medicine.
- Licenses. State medical board counts run higher still, because a physician can hold licenses in several states and keep them while not practicing.
- Offices are not doctors. Census counts 218,066 physician office locations, which employ 2,771,935 people in all, physicians and staff together.
Doctors by specialty
| Primary specialty | Physicians billing Medicare, October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Internal medicine | 104,708 |
| Family practice | 98,056 |
| Emergency medicine | 45,970 |
| Anesthesiology | 45,268 |
| Diagnostic radiology | 35,144 |
| Obstetrics and gynecology | 34,634 |
| Psychiatry | 28,536 |
| General surgery | 23,513 |
| Orthopedic surgery | 23,399 |
| Hospitalist | 23,285 |
| Cardiology | 21,026 |
| Neurology | 18,763 |
| Ophthalmology | 18,384 |
| Gastroenterology | 16,003 |
| Dermatology | 13,630 |
Our count of unique NPIs in CMS's Doctors and Clinicians national file, by primary specialty. Nurse practitioners (286,578 in the same file), physician assistants (139,839) and other non-physician clinicians are excluded.
619,914 of the physicians list an MD credential and 85,373 a DO; 30,630 list none. 273,807 (37.2%) are women, close to the AAMC's 38.7% for all active physicians.
Doctors by state
| State | Physicians billing Medicare, October 2026 |
|---|---|
| California | 88,996 |
| New York | 57,015 |
| Texas | 56,396 |
| Florida | 52,040 |
| Pennsylvania | 35,608 |
| Illinois | 32,116 |
| Ohio | 29,536 |
| New Jersey | 25,297 |
| North Carolina | 24,651 |
| Massachusetts | 24,516 |
A physician who practices in several states is counted in each, so state totals add up to 817,356.
How doctors practice
The AMA's Physician Practice Benchmark Survey shows the shift from small, physician-owned practices to large employers:
| Practice arrangement, 2024 | Share of physicians |
|---|---|
| Private practice (wholly owned by physicians) | 42.2% (60.1% in 2012) |
| Practice owned by a hospital or health system | 34.5% (23.4% in 2012) |
| Employed or contracted directly by a hospital | 12.0% |
| Private equity-owned practice | 6.5% |
| Practice with 10 or fewer physicians | 47.4% (61.4% in 2012) |
| Practice with 50 or more physicians | 18.3% |
| Solo practice | 11.9% |
| Owner or part owner of their practice | 35.4% |
CMS's file shows the same concentration. It links each physician to the groups they bill through and gives each group's number of enrolled clinicians:
| Largest group a physician bills through (all clinicians) | Physicians | Share |
|---|---|---|
| No group | 65,033 | 8.8% |
| 2 to 9 clinicians | 49,638 | 6.7% |
| 10 to 49 | 80,424 | 10.9% |
| 50 to 99 | 51,432 | 7.0% |
| 100 to 499 | 167,028 | 22.7% |
| 500 or more | 323,261 | 43.9% |
48,902 groups include at least one physician, and 31,607 of them have 2 to 9 clinicians. The largest in the file are the Southern California Permanente Medical Group (11,293 clinicians, 8,242 of them physicians), Permanente Medical Group Inc (10,996 and 8,594), Cleveland Clinic (7,090 and 3,907), North Shore-LIJ Medical PC (6,440 and 4,126) and New York University (6,134 and 3,921).
Census figures for physician offices tell the small-practice side: 118,597 of the 218,066 offices (54.4%) have fewer than five employees, and 3,396 have 100 or more.
How to get a list of doctors
| List | Format | Key fields |
|---|---|---|
| CMS Doctors and Clinicians national downloadable file | Free CSV (about 900 MB), refreshed monthly | NPI, name, gender, credential, medical school and graduation year, primary and secondary specialties, telehealth, group name and ID, number of group members, practice address and phone |
| NPI Registry (NPPES) | Free web search and API | Every provider with a National Provider Identifier, including those who don't bill Medicare: name, taxonomy (specialty), practice and mailing addresses |
| State medical board license lookups | Web search, varies by state | License status, type and expiry, disciplinary actions |
| AAMC workforce dashboard | Web tables | Counts by specialty and state; no names |
The CMS file has one row per physician, group and address, so deduplicate on NPI to count people and on the group ID to count practices. The list names no practice managers or buyers.
Who buys inside a medical practice
As general guidance:
| What you sell | Small private practice | Large group or hospital-owned practice |
|---|---|---|
| EHR, scheduling and patient engagement software | The practice administrator and a physician owner | The CIO or CMIO, through IT governance |
| Billing and revenue cycle services | The practice administrator or office manager | The vice president of revenue cycle |
| Medical supplies and equipment | The office manager, often through a group purchasing organization | Supply chain or value analysis committees |
| Staffing and recruiting | The physician owners | Physician recruitment and HR |
| Financial and insurance products for the physician | The physician personally | The physician personally |
With 34.5% of physicians in hospital-owned practices and 12.0% employed directly by hospitals, many practice purchases are made by a health system, not the practice. Selling to the physician personally (financial planning, insurance, continuing education) is the exception: there, the CMS list is the list of buyers.
Worked example: billing services for Texas cardiology practices
Illustrative example. The company, its price and its rates are invented; the counts come from CMS's Doctors and Clinicians file for October 2026.
The seller: Pulse Revenue (pulserev.example) runs billing and collections for independent specialty practices, at an illustrative $60,000 a year per practice.
- Count the market. The CMS file lists 1,433 cardiologists who billed Medicare in Texas. 199 groups with 2 to 49 clinicians include at least one of them (389 cardiologists in all), and 165 cardiologists bill with no group.
- Narrow it. Pulse Revenue sets aside groups owned by health systems, which it identifies from the group names and websites, and keeps the independent practices.
- Do the arithmetic. If an illustrative 300 accounts remain and 6% take a meeting, that's 18 meetings. Winning a quarter gives 4 or 5 practices, about $270,000 a year.
- Find the buyer. The CMS file names the physicians and the group but not the practice administrator. Finding that person and what's changed (a payer dispute, a new location, a billing manager leaving) is the slow part; Bebop finds the contacts and researches each practice in the list.
Next step: profile each target practice with the account research template, and for physicians in training see our list of medical schools.
Sources
- U.S. Physician Workforce Data Dashboard: 2025 key findings, Association of American Medical Colleges, accessed 30 October 2026
- U.S. Physician Workforce Data Dashboard: methods, Association of American Medical Colleges, accessed 30 October 2026
- Occupational Outlook Handbook: Physicians and Surgeons, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed 30 October 2026
- Doctors and Clinicians: National Downloadable File, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, updated 2 October 2026
- Doctors and Clinicians data dictionary, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, accessed 30 October 2026
- Physician Practice Characteristics in 2024 (Policy Research Perspectives), American Medical Association, 2025
- County Business Patterns 2023 (NAICS 6211), US Census Bureau, 2025
- NPI Registry, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, NPPES, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many doctors are in the US?
1,032,365 active physicians in 2024, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, of whom 866,460 provide direct patient care. That's about 304 active physicians per 100,000 people. The count includes MDs and DOs working at least 20 hours a week and excludes residents in training. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 862,800 physician and surgeon jobs in 2025.
How many doctors are there per person in the US?
About 304 active physicians per 100,000 people in 2024, or one for every 330 or so, according to the AAMC. Counting only physicians in direct patient care, it's 255 per 100,000. Massachusetts and the District of Columbia have the most physicians per person; Idaho has the fewest active physicians per person and Mississippi the fewest in direct patient care.
What is the most common type of doctor?
Internal medicine and family medicine. Among physicians who billed Medicare in the year to October 2026, 104,708 list internal medicine and 98,056 family practice as their primary specialty, according to CMS. Emergency medicine (45,970) and anesthesiology (45,268) come next. BLS employment figures also put family medicine and general internal medicine among the largest physician occupations.
How many doctors are in private practice?
42.2% of physicians were in private practice, meaning a practice wholly owned by physicians, in 2024, according to the AMA's Physician Practice Benchmark Survey. That's down from 60.1% in 2012. 34.5% worked in hospital-owned practices, 12.0% directly for hospitals and 6.5% in private equity-owned practices. Only 35.4% had an ownership stake in their practice.
Where can I get a list of doctors?
Download CMS's Doctors and Clinicians national file from the Provider Data Catalog. It's a free CSV, refreshed monthly, listing every clinician who billed Medicare in the last year with NPI, name, specialty, medical school, practice group and address; 736,817 are physicians. For providers who don't bill Medicare, search the free NPI Registry. State medical boards confirm license status.
How many doctors are women?
38.7% of active physicians in 2024 were women, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. In CMS's October 2026 Doctors and Clinicians file, 273,807 of the 736,817 physicians who billed Medicare (37.2%) are women. The AAMC also reports that 23.9% of active physicians are 65 or older and 25.6% graduated from medical schools outside the US.