HRSA Counties Indexed
16
with HPSA / MUA coverage
Medically underserved areas & HPSA profile
Medically Underserved Areas in Palau
1 Medically Underserved Areas and 6 active HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area designations across Palau.
- MUAs
- 1
- Total HPSAs
- 6
- Primary care
- 2
- Mental health
- 2
- Dental
- 2
The verdict
According to current HRSA Data Warehouse records, Palau carries 6 active shortage designations across 16 counties; Koror County has the largest county count at 6. About 0.0% of residents live in a geographic shortage county.
- 6
- Active HPSA designations
- 2
- Primary-care shortages
- 1
- Medically underserved areas
- 0.0%
- Residents in a shortage county
Key findings
What the HRSA Data Warehouse does not surface for Palau on its own pages , computed from the retained designation mirror as of 2026-08-15. Each line carries its own denominator so it can be quoted as it stands.
-
Koror County holds 100% of Palau's 6 active designations (6 of 6).
16 of 16 counties in this profile carry at least one active record; the remainder are zero-active on this release.
-
33.3% of Palau's active designations are primary care.
Discipline mix from state aggregates: 2 primary care, 2 mental health, 2 dental (denominator 6).
-
Closing Palau's active designations would take about 13 additional clinician FTEs, led by primary care.
HRSA providers_needed summed once per HPSA id across the state: 6.6 primary care, 1.3 mental health, 5 dental. Federal gap estimate, not a practising-clinician headcount.
Medically Underserved Areas
1
Residents in Geographic Shortage Areas
0
% Residents in Geographic Shortage
0.0%
Discipline Mix
2 / 2 / 2 PC/MH/D
Primary care · Mental health · Dental
% Residents in Geographic Shortage-Designated Counties 0.0%
Palau Shortage Designations by Care Type
How Palau's 6 active HRSA designations split across the three provider categories. According to KFF's May 2026 tracker, Palau has not adopted ACA Medicaid expansion. That policy context does not measure provider supply, appointment availability, or care quality.
Palau HPSA designations by type
Active Health Professional Shortage Area designations, by provider category.
- Primary care
Primary care
2 designations
- Mental health
Mental health
2 designations
- Dental
Dental
2 designations
Palau 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 Palau
16 counties with at least one active dental designation ; led by Koror (2). Full list (designation count in parentheses): Koror (2) , Aimeliik (1) , Airai (1) , Angaur (1) , Hatoboheit (1) , Kayangel (1) , Melekeok (1) , Ngaraard (1) , Ngarchelong (1) , Ngardmau (1) , Ngatpang (1) , Ngchesar (1) , Ngernmlengui (1) , Ngiwal (1) , Peleliu (1) , Sonsorol (1) .
Primary-care HPSA counties in Palau
16 counties with at least one active primary-care designation ; led by Koror (2). Full list: Koror (2) , Aimeliik (1) , Airai (1) , Angaur (1) , Hatoboheit (1) , Kayangel (1) , Melekeok (1) , Ngaraard (1) , Ngarchelong (1) , Ngardmau (1) , Ngatpang (1) , Ngchesar (1) , Ngernmlengui (1) , Ngiwal (1) , Peleliu (1) , Sonsorol (1) .
Mental-health HPSA counties in Palau
16 counties with at least one active mental-health designation ; led by Koror (2). Full list: Koror (2) , Aimeliik (1) , Airai (1) , Angaur (1) , Hatoboheit (1) , Kayangel (1) , Melekeok (1) , Ngaraard (1) , Ngarchelong (1) , Ngardmau (1) , Ngatpang (1) , Ngchesar (1) , Ngernmlengui (1) , Ngiwal (1) , Peleliu (1) , Sonsorol (1) .
All counties in Palau, by total shortage volume
All 16Palau counties, ranked by active HPSA designations across primary care, mental health, and dental. On a narrow screen, this list keeps each county’s total and MUA status visible; the care-type split is available on wider screens.
Medically Underserved Areas in Palau
All 1 MUA designations in Palau, lowest MUA Index first.
| Name | MUA Index |
|---|---|
| Republic of Palau | 42.5 |
Lowest-density reading for Palau
Relative to other states and territories, Palau is in the lowest-density quarter (6 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 16 indexed counties on this page before treating today's low state rank as a settled access verdict. About 0.0% of residents live in a geographic shortage county.
Learn More About Healthcare Shortages
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Medically Underserved Areas are in Palau? ▼
Palau has 1 Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs). About 0 residents (0.0% 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 Palau have dental HPSA designations? ▼
16 Palau counties carry at least one active dental Health Professional Shortage Area in the current HRSA release: Koror (2), Aimeliik (1), Airai (1), Angaur (1), Hatoboheit (1), Kayangel (1), Melekeok (1), Ngaraard (1), Ngarchelong (1), Ngardmau (1), Ngatpang (1), Ngchesar (1), Ngernmlengui (1), Ngiwal (1), Peleliu (1), Sonsorol (1). 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 Palau'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 Palau's primary-care shortage record with every other state before drawing conclusions from a raw total; population and geography affect designation counts. Compare states
- Koror 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 →
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 Palau (PW) 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.