Medically underserved areas & HPSA profile

Medically Underserved Areas in Utah

22 Medically Underserved Areas and 180 active HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area designations across Utah.

MUAs
22
Total HPSAs
180
Primary care
61
Mental health
61
Dental
58

Lower-middle density verdict

Utah sits in the lower-middle quarter by active designations per resident. According to current HRSA Data Warehouse records, its 29 counties carry 180 active shortage designations; San Juan County has the largest county count at 29, while about 60.7% of residents live in a geographic shortage county.

180
Active HPSA designations
61
Primary-care shortages
22
Medically underserved areas
60.7%
Residents in a shortage county

Key findings

What the HRSA Data Warehouse does not surface for Utah 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.

  1. 33.9% of Utah's active designations are primary care.

    Discipline mix from state aggregates: 61 primary care, 61 mental health, 58 dental (denominator 180).

  2. Closing Utah's active designations would take about 164 additional clinician FTEs, led by primary care.

    HRSA providers_needed summed once per HPSA id across the state: 79 primary care, 60 mental health, 25 dental. Federal gap estimate, not a practising-clinician headcount.

  3. San Juan County holds 16.1% of Utah's 180 active designations (29 of 180).

    29 of 29 counties in this profile carry at least one active record; the remainder are zero-active on this release.

HRSA state registry desk

Utah designation file stamps

HPSA-VOL
180
MUA-COUNT
22
PC/MH/DH
61/61/58
RANK
36/56
DENSITY
MID-LOW
BOOK
29 counties

Lead discipline: primary-care. Photo-finish peer: Nevada (173HPSAs).

Corpus placement

Where Utah sits among all 56 states and territories

At 5.5 designations per 100,000 residents, built from 180 active HPSA records over 3,271,616 people, Utah lands at rank 36 of 56, trailing the 7.3 median but still ahead of 36% of the field.

26 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
22
Residents in Geographic Shortage Areas
1,987,315
% Residents in Geographic Shortage
60.7%

HRSA Counties Indexed

29

with HPSA / MUA coverage

Discipline Mix

61 / 61 / 58 PC/MH/D

Primary care · Mental health · Dental

% Residents in Geographic Shortage-Designated Counties 60.7%

Utah Shortage Designations by Care Type

How Utah's 180 active HRSA designations split across the three provider categories. According to KFF's May 2026 tracker, Utah has adopted ACA Medicaid expansion. That policy context does not measure provider supply, appointment availability, or care quality.

Utah HPSA designations by type

Active Health Professional Shortage Area designations, by provider category.

designations
Source HRSA Data Warehouse, designated HPSAs As of 2026

Utah 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 Utah

26 counties with at least one active dental designation ; led by San Juan (9). Full list (designation count in parentheses): San Juan (9) , Washington (6) , Salt Lake (5) , Garfield (3) , Iron (3) , Sanpete (3) , Sevier (3) , Emery (2) , Millard (2) , Piute (2) , Tooele (2) , Uintah (2) , Wayne (2) , Weber (2) , Beaver (1) , Box Elder (1) , Cache (1) , Carbon (1) , Daggett (1) , Davis (1) ; plus 6 more in the table below.

Primary-care HPSA counties in Utah

25 counties with at least one active primary-care designation ; led by San Juan (10). Full list: San Juan (10) , Salt Lake (6) , Washington (6) , Garfield (3) , Iron (3) , Sanpete (3) , Sevier (3) , Tooele (3) , Box Elder (2) , Carbon (2) , Emery (2) , Piute (2) , Uintah (2) , Wayne (2) , Weber (2) , Cache (1) , Daggett (1) , Davis (1) , Duchesne (1) , Grand (1) ; plus 5 more in the table below.

Mental-health HPSA counties in Utah

29 counties with at least one active mental-health designation ; led by San Juan (10). Full list: San Juan (10) , Washington (7) , Salt Lake (6) , Weber (5) , Sevier (4) , Davis (3) , Garfield (3) , Iron (3) , Sanpete (3) , Tooele (3) , Utah (3) , Box Elder (2) , Cache (2) , Carbon (2) , Emery (2) , Millard (2) , Piute (2) , Uintah (2) , Wayne (2) , Beaver (1) ; plus 9 more in the table below.

All counties in Utah, by total shortage volume

All 29Utah 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.

#CountyDesignationsMUA
1San Juan29MUA
2Washington19MUA
3Salt Lake17MUA
4Sevier10MUA
5Garfield9MUA
6Iron9-
7Sanpete9MUA
8Weber9MUA
9Tooele8-
10Emery6MUA
11Piute6MUA
12Uintah6MUA
13Wayne6MUA
14Box Elder5-
15Carbon5MUA
16Davis5MUA
17Millard5-
18Utah5MUA
19Cache4-
20Daggett3MUA
21Duchesne3-
22Grand3MUA
23Kane3MUA
24Rich3MUA
25Beaver2-
26Juab2MUA
27Morgan2-
28Summit1-
29Wasatch1-

Medically Underserved Areas in Utah

All 22 MUA designations in Utah, lowest MUA Index first.

Name MUA Index
Low Inc - Grand County 0.0
Poverty & Migrant Population 0.0
San Juan Service Area 41.0
Piute 45.1
Low Inc - Davis Service Area 52.2
West Juab Service Area 52.6
East Carbon Service Area 53.0
Enterprise Service Area 54.7
Low Income - Salt Lake Service Area 54.7
Sanpete 54.9
Wayne Service Area 57.7
Kane Service Area 57.7
Emery Service Area 58.0
Weber Service Area 58.5
Dixie Service Area 58.8
Daggett Service Area 58.8
Low Inc - Sevier County 60.1
Low-income Of Garfield Co. 60.2
Rich County 60.5
Glendale Service Area 61.3
Uintah Service Area 61.3
Midvale Service Area 61.3

Lower-middle density reading for Utah

Utah sits below the national mid-pack by designations per resident with 180 active records across 29 counties. A moderate footprint still matters: a single high-score dental or mental-health record can open program geography even when the state total looks small next to denser peers.

About 60.7% of residents live in a geographic shortage county. Use the county ranking below to see which localities drive that share.

Nationwide states with similar HRSA shortage footprints

Two peer sets for Utah: total active HPSA designations and Medically Underserved Area counts, ranked against every other state and territory.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Medically Underserved Areas are in Utah? ▼
Utah has 22 Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs). About 1,987,315 residents (60.7% 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 Utah have dental HPSA designations? ▼
26 Utah counties carry at least one active dental Health Professional Shortage Area in the current HRSA release: San Juan (9), Washington (6), Salt Lake (5), Garfield (3), Iron (3), Sanpete (3), Sevier (3), Emery (2), Millard (2), Piute (2), Tooele (2), Uintah (2), Wayne (2), Weber (2), Beaver (1), Box Elder (1), Cache (1), Carbon (1), Daggett (1), Davis (1); plus 6 more on the table below. Counts are designated dental HPSA records per county, not a dentist headcount.
Are there doctor shortages in Utah? ▼
Yes. Utah has 180 Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), including 61 in primary care, 61 in mental health, and 58 in dental care. About 60.7% of Utah residents live in a county that HRSA has designated as a geographic (whole-community) shortage area; additional residents are covered by population-group and facility designations counted separately.

Source: HRSA Data Warehouse Not affiliated with HRSA

Choose the next comparison

Use Utah'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 Utah's primary-care shortage record with every other state before drawing conclusions from a raw total; population and geography affect designation counts. Compare states
  • San Juan 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 Utah (UT) 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.