Primary Care · 8 min read
The US Primary Care Shortage: What HRSA Data Reveals
HRSA's designation data records where federal criteria identify a primary-care provider shortage. It is a source-grounded reference, not a measure of appointments, insurance coverage, hospital access, or health outcomes.
Use this page to understand the HPSA record, then verify a local designation and available services with HRSA. A designation is not a personal care recommendation and cannot show whether a particular clinician has appointments, accepts insurance, or meets your needs.
The short answer
HRSA's March 2026 summary records 101.7 million people in designated primary medical HPSAs and estimates 17,306 additional practitioners would be needed to remove those designations. These are federal designation measures, not care-access or outcome counts. According to the HRSA Data Warehouse, the live figures below describe federal provider-supply designations, not care quality or appointment availability.
By the numbers
The scope, by the numbers
- 37.4%
- U.S. residents in a shortage area
- 8,233
- Active HPSA designations
- 25,866
- Providers needed to clear them
States with the most active HPSA designations
Total active Health Professional Shortage Area designations across primary care, mental health and dental, HRSA Data Warehouse
- CA
California
1,623 designations
- TX
Texas
1,119 designations
- AK
Alaska
988 designations
- MO
Missouri
925 designations
- MI
Michigan
793 designations
- IL
Illinois
731 designations
- KY
Kentucky
701 designations
- AZ 649
Arizona
649 designations
Find primary-care shortage counties
The 150 counties with the highest primary-care HPSA scores on file. Filter by state, by minimum score, or by name, then open a county for its full designation record.
Showing 150 of 150 counties
Source: HRSA Data Warehouse designation records, the same extract behind every county page here (download it). A HPSA score is HRSA's designation severity on a 0–25 scale for primary-care care; a higher score means HRSA scored the area as a greater shortage. It does not tell you whether a specific provider has an opening, accepts your insurance, or offers the service you need. Confirm care options with an official directory and the provider.
The Scope of the Shortage
HRSA maintains a current registry of Health Professional Shortage Areas. Its quarterly summary for March 31, 2026 lists 8,789 primary medical HPSA designations, covering 101,733,016 people, and estimates 17,306 additional practitioners would be needed to remove those designations.
Those figures describe HRSA designation records and the agency's provider-need estimate. They do not establish how quickly a person can get an appointment, whether a clinician accepts a plan, travel time, hospital capacity, or a community's health outcomes. For a current local record, use HRSA's HPSA Find alongside the local service directories below.
Where the recorded clinician gap is largest
This view summarizes the states with the largest HRSA clinician-needed estimates in the current snapshot. It helps frame the full table below, but it is not a vacancy count or a measure of appointment access.
States with the largest recorded primary-care clinician gap
Sum of HRSA's clinicians-needed estimates for active primary-care HPSA records that report an estimate
- TX
Texas
1,072 clinicians needed
- NY
New York
995 clinicians needed
- WA
Washington
564 clinicians needed
- IL
Illinois
532 clinicians needed
- OH
Ohio
532 clinicians needed
- CA
California
518 clinicians needed
- FL
Florida
483 clinicians needed
- MO
Missouri
482 clinicians needed
Compare primary-care shortage records by state
The interactive table uses this portal's 2026-08-15 HRSA data snapshot. It groups active primary-care HPSA records with a recorded clinicians-needed estimate by state and de-duplicates a designation ID within its state. This keeps the count and the estimate on the same population without treating the result as a vacancy count, a wait-time measure, or evidence that an individual can or cannot obtain care. Filter or sort below; state names open the profile.
| # | State | Primary-care clinicians needed | Designations with estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | 1,072 | 261 |
| 2 | New York | 995 | 84 |
| 3 | Washington | 564 | 65 |
| 4 | Illinois | 532 | 145 |
| 5 | Ohio | 532 | 140 |
| 6 | California | 518 | 113 |
| 7 | Florida | 483 | 118 |
| 8 | Missouri | 482 | 111 |
| 9 | Arizona | 468 | 101 |
| 10 | North Carolina | 461 | 134 |
| 11 | Michigan | 377 | 90 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 337 | 120 |
| 13 | Georgia | 318 | 133 |
| 14 | Tennessee | 306 | 84 |
| 15 | Oklahoma | 299 | 80 |
| 16 | Indiana | 298 | 80 |
| 17 | Maryland | 294 | 40 |
| 18 | Mississippi | 288 | 85 |
| 19 | Virginia | 262 | 105 |
| 20 | Alabama | 246 | 69 |
| 21 | New Mexico | 232 | 33 |
| 22 | Oregon | 217 | 38 |
| 23 | Minnesota | 207 | 91 |
| 24 | Arkansas | 188 | 85 |
| 25 | Louisiana | 165 | 77 |
| 26 | South Carolina | 152 | 61 |
| 27 | West Virginia | 147 | 62 |
| 28 | Puerto Rico | 137 | 21 |
| 29 | Colorado | 131 | 67 |
| 30 | Iowa | 129 | 67 |
| 31 | Nevada | 124 | 27 |
| 32 | Wisconsin | 119 | 54 |
| 33 | Kansas | 118 | 65 |
| 34 | Connecticut | 103 | 22 |
| 35 | Delaware | 98 | 9 |
| 36 | District of Columbia | 95 | 4 |
| 37 | Idaho | 92 | 51 |
| 38 | Pennsylvania | 92 | 50 |
| 39 | Utah | 79 | 23 |
| 40 | Massachusetts | 67 | 22 |
| 41 | Alaska | 52 | 22 |
| 42 | South Dakota | 48 | 50 |
| 43 | Montana | 47 | 48 |
| 44 | Hawaii | 43 | 10 |
| 45 | New Jersey | 41 | 20 |
| 46 | Nebraska | 34 | 41 |
| 47 | Federated States of Micronesia | 33 | 4 |
| 48 | Wyoming | 27 | 24 |
| 49 | Maine | 25 | 27 |
| 50 | Marshall Islands | 18 | 1 |
| 51 | North Dakota | 18 | 28 |
| 52 | American Samoa | 17 | 1 |
| 53 | Rhode Island | 10 | 4 |
| 54 | New Hampshire | 9 | 7 |
| 55 | Palau | 7 | 1 |
| 56 | Guam | 5 | 3 |
| 57 | Virgin Islands | 4 | 3 |
| 58 | Northern Mariana Islands | 3 | 1 |
| 59 | Vermont | 2 | 4 |
For the accompanying ranking, interpretation, and a side-by-side state comparison, see our primary-care clinician-gap analysis by state. For a local designation, use the linked state profile or HRSA's official finder.
How to Read a Primary-Care HPSA State Table
A state table can make a designation snapshot look more precise than it is. Read each column as a federal program measure with a defined unit, then use the linked state profile and HRSA record when a local decision depends on the current status.
Designation counts are record counts
A primary-care HPSA designation can describe a geographic area, a population group, or a facility. The count in this table is a count of distinct active designation IDs in the retained HRSA file, not a count of clinics, clinicians, people, or counties with no available care.
HPSA populations can overlap
Several HPSA records can cover the same resident through different geographies, populations, or facilities. A sum of population served can therefore exceed the number of unique residents. That is why this guide does not use an HPSA population total as a direct measure of unmet need, appointment access, or the number of people who need a new clinician.
Practitioners needed is a designation estimate
The clinicians-needed column summarizes HRSA's published estimate for the primary-care designations that report one. It is useful for comparing the recorded workforce shortfall across states, but it is not a vacancy list, a forecast of hiring, or a count of every type of clinician a community can use.
The ratio is a federal threshold
For a geographic primary-care HPSA, the usual federal threshold is 3,500 residents per full-time-equivalent primary-care physician, with a 3,000-to-1 variant where high-need criteria apply. The threshold is part of HRSA's designation process; it is not a universal standard for whether a person can make an appointment or receive high-quality care.
Status changes need the official record
A later HRSA release can add, remove, or update a record, while a local service situation can change for reasons the designation file does not capture. Use the portal's paired-release comparison to see what changed in retained files, and use HPSA Find for the authoritative current designation.
State Totals Do Not Replace Local Records
A statewide total is useful for comparing the recorded scale of designation activity, but it cannot identify a person's service area, provider availability, or eligibility for a program. The same state can contain geographic, population-group, and facility designations with different boundaries and criteria.
Use the Geographic Unit That Matches the Question
Use a state comparison for a statewide workforce context, a county profile for the portal's county-level reference, and HRSA's official finder for a current designation. None of those sources alone can confirm a clinician's availability, network participation, or the care options appropriate for an individual.
HPSA vs. MUA: Two Different Measures of Underservice
What it tells you: HPSAs identify provider shortages in primary care, dental health, or mental health. MUAs and MUPs are separate HRSA designations for geographic areas or populations with a lack of access to primary care services.
What it does not tell you: Neither designation is an appointment, insurance, transportation, hospital-capacity, care-quality, or outcome measure. Do not treat either label as proof that a specific person can or cannot obtain care.
How to use it: Treat a designation as a prompt to check the underlying HRSA record and local services, not as a diagnosis or a recommendation. PlainHealthAccess summarizes the available designation data; HRSA's finder is the authoritative current lookup.
What Drives the Geographic Maldistribution
HRSA's score methodology is more specific than a simple provider count. Primary-care HPSA scoring includes provider-to-population ratio, poverty, an infant-health index, and travel time to an outside source of care. It is a federal prioritization method, not a complete explanation of why a community has a shortage.
This page summarizes the current designation snapshot used across the site. It does not claim that a shortage worsened or improved because of a particular policy, hiring cycle, or health outcome. For record-level movement between two retained HRSA exports, use the release-change report linked below.
How to See What Changed Between HRSA Releases
PlainHealthAccess retains two compatible HRSA HPSA source snapshots and compares them by stable designation ID. The release-change report shows national adds and absences, and each state profile carries a same-method change band for that state.
What the comparison reports: IDs present in the newer export but not the earlier one, IDs absent from the newer export, and counts of newly designated or no-longer-designated IDs when status fields support that read.
What it does not report: why HRSA changed a record, whether care access improved, appointment wait times, or any causal workforce story. Absent IDs are not automatically labeled "withdrawn." County-level multi-county relationship diffs stay out of scope when the earlier snapshot did not retain those links.
What This Means for You
Step 1, Check your county. Look up your county on PlainHealthAccess to see primary care, dental, and mental health HPSA status and scores.
Step 2, Understand the score's scope. Higher HPSA scores represent higher priority within HRSA's scoring method. They do not predict wait times, insurance acceptance, quality, or a person's individual ability to obtain care.
Step 3, Verify services directly. Check the official designation and contact local service directories rather than assuming that a county-level record represents every neighborhood or provider.
Step 4, Find local services. Use HRSA's Health Center Finder to locate nearby health centers and confirm their services, hours, eligibility, and appointment availability directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Americans live in primary care shortage areas?
HRSA's March 31, 2026 quarterly summary lists 101,733,016 people in designated primary medical HPSAs and estimates 17,306 additional practitioners would be needed to remove those designations. These figures do not measure appointment availability or care quality.
What causes primary care shortages?
The HPSA dataset does not establish a causal explanation. HRSA's primary-care score uses provider-to-population ratio, poverty, an infant-health index, and travel time to an outside source of care.
What is the difference between an HPSA and a MUA?
HPSAs measure provider-to-population ratios, whether there are enough doctors. MUAs use a broader Index of Medical Underservice including poverty, elderly population percentage, infant mortality, and provider availability. An area can be designated as one, both, or neither depending on which criteria it meets.
How does living in a shortage area affect health outcomes?
The HPSA dataset cannot answer that question. It identifies a federal provider-shortage designation; it does not measure a person's health outcome, appointment availability, insurance acceptance, or quality of care.
Can I see whether a primary-care HPSA designation changed recently?
Yes for the published record, not for care outcomes. Open the release-change report for the national ID-level comparison, or a state profile for that state's change band. The comparison describes what moved between two retained HRSA snapshots; it does not explain why.
Sources: HRSA, Health Workforce Shortage Areas; HRSA, Scoring Shortage Designations; HRSA, March 2026 quarterly HPSA summary.
Data snapshot: 2026-08-15. HRSA's live designation data can change after this guide is published.