Medically underserved areas & HPSA profile

Medically Underserved Areas in California

214 Medically Underserved Areas and 1,623 active HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area designations across California.

MUAs
214
Total HPSAs
1,623
Primary care
559
Mental health
518
Dental
546

Lowest-density verdict

Relative to other states and territories, California is in the lowest-density quarter for active designations per resident. Current HRSA Data Warehouse records show 1,623 designations across 58 counties; Los Angeles County has the largest county count at 271; about 58.6% of residents live in a geographic shortage county.

1,623
Active HPSA designations
559
Primary-care shortages
214
Medically underserved areas
58.6%
Residents in a shortage county

Key findings

What the HRSA Data Warehouse does not surface for California on its own pages , computed from the retained designation mirror as of 2026-08-03. Each line carries its own denominator so it can be quoted as it stands.

  1. Los Angeles County holds 16.7% of California's 1,623 active designations (271 of 1,623).

    58 of 58 counties in this profile carry at least one active record; the remainder are zero-active on this release.

  2. 34.4% of California's active designations are primary care.

    Discipline mix from state aggregates: 559 primary care, 518 mental health, 546 dental (denominator 1,623).

  3. Closing California's active designations would take about 1135 additional clinician FTEs, led by primary care.

    HRSA providers_needed summed once per HPSA id across the state: 518 primary care, 200 mental health, 417 dental. Federal gap estimate, not a practising-clinician headcount.

Corpus placement

Where California sits among all 56 states and territories

California carries 1,623 active HPSA designations for a population of 39,538,223, which is 4.1 per 100,000 residents, ranking it 45 of 56 and above 20% of states and territories, against a median of 7.3.

81 of those are county-wide geographic designations; the remainder are facility-, population- or clinic-based, which is why the county map and the designation count answer different questions.

Designation density tracks rural geography as much as unmet need: AK records 134.7 designations per 100,000 residents and NJ 1.5, because a sparsely-settled state accumulates more separate designations to cover the same population. Designations also overlap, so this counts designations, not people. Counted as distinct HRSA designation IDs, the same unit as the totals above. Computed from the designation records and county populations behind this page; states without county population data are given no placement rather than an estimated one.

Medically Underserved Areas
214
Residents in Geographic Shortage Areas
23,154,916
% Residents in Geographic Shortage
58.6%

HRSA Counties Indexed

58

with HPSA / MUA coverage

Discipline Mix

559 / 518 / 546 PC/MH/D

Primary care · Mental health · Dental

% Residents in Geographic Shortage-Designated Counties 58.6%

California HPSA Counties by Care Type

County lists for the three HRSA shortage disciplines searchers ask for by name (dental, primary care, mental health). Counts are live designated-HPSA records in this release, not provider headcounts.

Dental HPSA counties in California

57 counties with at least one active dental designation ; led by Los Angeles (90). Full list (designation count in parentheses): Los Angeles (90) , Fresno (32) , San Diego (27) , Kern (25) , San Bernardino (21) , Orange (19) , Mendocino (18) , Tulare (18) , Riverside (16) , Shasta (16) , Tehama (15) , Lake (14) , Alameda (13) , Santa Clara (13) , Siskiyou (13) , Tuolumne (12) , Kings (11) , Humboldt (10) , Monterey (10) , Santa Barbara (9) ; plus 37 more in the table below.

Primary-care HPSA counties in California

58 counties with at least one active primary-care designation ; led by Los Angeles (96). Full list: Los Angeles (96) , Fresno (33) , Kern (27) , San Diego (25) , San Bernardino (22) , Orange (20) , Tulare (20) , Tehama (16) , Mendocino (15) , Riverside (15) , Kings (14) , Alameda (13) , Lake (13) , Santa Clara (13) , Shasta (13) , Siskiyou (12) , Tuolumne (12) , Monterey (10) , Butte (9) , Imperial (9) ; plus 38 more in the table below.

Mental-health HPSA counties in California

57 counties with at least one active mental-health designation ; led by Los Angeles (85). Full list: Los Angeles (85) , Fresno (31) , San Diego (23) , Kern (22) , San Bernardino (20) , Orange (18) , Tulare (17) , Mendocino (14) , Riverside (14) , Alameda (13) , Kings (13) , Lake (13) , Santa Clara (13) , Tehama (13) , Tuolumne (12) , Shasta (11) , Siskiyou (11) , Monterey (8) , Sacramento (8) , San Francisco (8) ; plus 37 more in the table below.

All counties in California, by total shortage volume

The 40 counties with the most active HPSA designations, of 58 in California. Columns split primary care, mental health, and dental.

# County DesignationsPrimary CareMental HealthDentalMUA
1 Los Angeles 271 96 85 90 MUA
2 Fresno 96 33 31 32 MUA
3 San Diego 75 25 23 27 MUA
4 Kern 74 27 22 25 MUA
5 San Bernardino 63 22 20 21 MUA
6 Orange 57 20 18 19 MUA
7 Tulare 55 20 17 18 MUA
8 Mendocino 47 15 14 18 MUA
9 Riverside 45 15 14 16 MUA
10 Tehama 44 16 13 15 MUA
11 Lake 40 13 13 14 MUA
12 Shasta 40 13 11 16 MUA
13 Alameda 39 13 13 13 MUA
14 Santa Clara 39 13 13 13 MUA
15 Kings 38 14 13 11 MUA
16 Siskiyou 36 12 11 13 MUA
17 Tuolumne 36 12 12 12 MUA
18 Monterey 28 10 8 10 MUA
19 Santa Barbara 26 9 8 9 MUA
20 San Francisco 24 8 8 8 MUA
21 Butte 23 9 7 7 MUA
22 Humboldt 23 6 7 10 MUA
23 Plumas 22 8 7 7 MUA
24 Sacramento 22 7 8 7 MUA
25 Imperial 21 9 7 5 MUA
26 Sonoma 21 7 7 7 MUA
27 Merced 20 8 6 6 MUA
28 El Dorado 18 7 5 6 MUA
29 Del Norte 17 6 6 5 MUA
30 Trinity 17 5 5 7 MUA
31 Lassen 16 5 6 5 MUA
32 Modoc 16 5 5 6 MUA
33 Madera 15 4 5 6 MUA
34 San Benito 14 4 5 5 MUA
35 San Joaquin 13 5 4 4 MUA
36 Yolo 13 4 5 4 MUA
37 Stanislaus 12 5 4 3 MUA
38 Calaveras 11 4 4 3 -
39 Mariposa 11 4 4 3 MUA
40 Yuba 11 3 4 4 MUA

Medically Underserved Areas in California

California carries 214 medically underserved designations covering 53 of the 58 California counties on record here: 172 designated as an underserved area and 42 as an underserved population within an otherwise adequately served area. A lower Index of Medical Underservice (IMU) means greater measured need.

  1. 1 San Diego Service Area 41.8
  2. 2 San Diego Service Area 42.0
  3. 3 Low Inc - Sonoma Valley Service Area 45.9
  4. 4 West Imperial Service Area 46.0
  5. 5 Low Inc - Ridgecrest Service Area 46.2
  6. 6 Low Inc - Felton/West Santa Cruz Service Area 46.7
  7. 7 Low Inc - Fullerton Service Area 46.7
  8. 8 Mssa 203.2/Rio Vista 47.0
  9. 9 San Diego Service Area 47.1
  10. 10 Low Inc - Bolinas/Stinson Beach Service Area 47.2

The 10 lowest-IMU designations on record for California, from the HRSA shortage-designation file. IMU scores the service area, not any individual practice or hospital.

Lowest-density reading for California

Relative to other states and territories, California is in the lowest-density quarter (1,623 active designations). A low state total is not evidence that local access is adequate everywhere: facility and population-group designations can still open NHSC or FQHC geography inside individual counties.

Inspect the 58 indexed counties on this page before treating today's low state rank as a settled access verdict. About 58.6% of residents live in a geographic shortage county.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Medically Underserved Areas are in California? ▼
California has 214 Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs). About 23,154,916 residents (58.6% of the state) live in a county with a geographic HRSA shortage designation. MUA-designated areas qualify for enhanced federal funding and Community Health Center grants.
Which counties in California have dental HPSA designations? ▼
57 California counties carry at least one active dental Health Professional Shortage Area in the current HRSA release: Los Angeles (90), Fresno (32), San Diego (27), Kern (25), San Bernardino (21), Orange (19), Mendocino (18), Tulare (18), Riverside (16), Shasta (16), Tehama (15), Lake (14), Alameda (13), Santa Clara (13), Siskiyou (13), Tuolumne (12), Kings (11), Humboldt (10), Monterey (10), Santa Barbara (9); plus 37 more on the table below. Counts are designated dental HPSA records per county, not a dentist headcount.

Source: HRSA Data Warehouse Not affiliated with HRSA

Choose the next comparison

Use California's designation totals as a starting point, then move to the comparison that answers the next decision without treating a shortage designation as a personal care outcome.

  • Compare California's primary-care shortage record with every other state before drawing conclusions from a raw total; population and geography affect designation counts. Compare states
  • Los Angeles County has the most active HPSA designations in this state profile. Open its county record to inspect the local primary-care, mental-health, and dental breakdown. Open county profile
  • Use the national statistics reference for the source vintage, aggregate context, and methodology behind these state-level figures. Read national context

HRSA designations describe structural provider-shortage criteria and federal-program eligibility. They do not measure appointment availability, insurance coverage, care quality, or an individual patient’s access to care.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Verify with U.S. Census Bureau →

Verify with CMS →

Every figure on PlainHealthAccess is rendered directly from HRSA source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates every county-level HPSA and MUA designation on record for California (CA) and ranks the state's per-capita designation density among all states and territories. Designations describe federal shortage criteria, not appointment availability or care quality for any person. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, review the public data changelog, or report a data issue for this page. Data current as of 2026.