Doctors and Clinicians by State (2026)
The CMS National Downloadable File lists 1,637,594 doctors and other clinicians who take part in Medicare, about 737,399 of them physicians. California has the most (153,779) and Wyoming the fewest (4,648) among states and D.C.; a clinician who practices in several states is counted in each.
Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), “National Downloadable File (Doctors and Clinicians)”. Data updated October 2, 2026.
Ten highest values
Doctors and cliniciansThe full table below is the text version of this chart. It shows the highest values only; it does not say which places are better or worse.
All states and territories
56 rowsTerritories appear when the source lists at least one provider there. An empty cell means the source has no value to calculate it from, not zero.
How we calculated this
We use the CMS National Downloadable File (Doctors and Clinicians) and Facility Affiliation Data. A clinician is counted in a state when the file lists a practice location in that state or an affiliation with a hospital there, so the state counts add up to more than the national total of distinct clinicians. "Physicians" are clinicians whose CMS specialty is a physician specialty; nurse practitioners, physician assistants, dentists, therapists and other non-physician specialties are not counted as physicians.
Data sources and dates
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS): “National Downloadable File (Doctors and Clinicians)”, updated October 2, 2026.
Limits of the data
Only clinicians in the Medicare file are counted; doctors who do not enroll in Medicare are missing. Counts are not full-time equivalents and say nothing about how many doctors there are per resident: this page uses no population figures.
Every figure is a count, sum or average of values in the official files above; none is estimated. Read the about page for how this site works and data freshness for when each source was last refreshed.
Download and cite
Download the table as CSV One row per row of the table, English column names, no totals row.
Cite this page
US Patient Guide. “Doctors and Clinicians by State (2026).” Computed from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), “National Downloadable File (Doctors and Clinicians)” (data updated October 2, 2026). https://uspatientguide.com/statistics/clinicians-by-state/
See the providers in each state
Common questions
How many doctors are there in the United States?
The CMS file lists about 737,399 physicians among 1,637,594 clinicians (updated October 2, 2026).
Which state has the most doctors and clinicians?
California, with 153,779.