Interactive tool

HPSA Score Lookup

Place a published HPSA score in the national designation distribution by discipline, then optionally screen the population-to-provider ratio criterion.

HRSA's public tools return a bare score. This page places that score among currently designated HPSAs (21,166 designations, de-duplicated by HPSA id, vintage August 2026) and separately estimates the ratio criterion. Neither result is an official designation. See our methodology for how the retained file is used.

Step 0 · place a published score

Where does this HPSA score sit?

Enter an integer score from a designation record. Placement is the share of that discipline's currently designated HPSAs scoring at or below the number you enter, not population share, not care quality, and not program eligibility. Example: 21 sits above 96.7% of primary-care designations but only 82.2% of dental ones.

Updates as you type.

Full distribution table and method note: what counts as a high HPSA score.

Step 1 · ratio screen (optional)

Describe the service area

Optional companion to the score lookup above. Use full-time-equivalent providers and the resident population served. The result updates as you type.

Resident population of the service area being evaluated. Enter the actual whole-person count; it does not need to be rounded.

Count physicians, NPs, and PAs delivering primary care as FTEs (one quarter-time clinician equals 0.25).

Used only as a high-need flag. Areas with 20% or more in poverty use the lower 3,000:1 threshold.

How the score lookup works

The placement panel reads every currently designated HPSA with a recorded score in the retained HRSA file (21,166 designations after de-duplicating by HPSA id), groups them by discipline, and reports the share scoring at or below the integer you enter. Medians on this vintage are 16 primary care, 17 mental health, and 17 dental. A mid-teens score is typical rather than severe; the same number is not equally high across disciplines because the distributions differ.

How the ratio screen works

A geographic primary-care HPSA designation from HRSA generally requires a population-to-provider ratio of at least 3,500 people per full-time-equivalent primary-care provider. Where an area shows high need (for example 20 percent or more of the population below the poverty line), HRSA may designate at a ratio of 3,000 people per provider. The tool divides the population you enter by the provider FTEs you enter, then compares the result to those thresholds.

The band shown is a guide only. The official HPSA score (0 to 25 for primary care) is a weighted index that also accounts for the percent of the population below the federal poverty level, travel time or distance to the nearest source of accessible care outside the area, and the infant mortality rate or low-birth-weight rate. A higher HPSA score generally signals greater need and affects funding and recruitment priorities. The interactive placement above and the full table at what counts as a high HPSA score answer the interpretation question the public lookup tools leave open.

This calculator does not pull live HRSA data and does not produce an official designation. For a binding determination, work with your State Primary Care Office and review the criteria at HRSA's shortage-designation pages. For guidance only, not medical or eligibility advice.

Source: HRSA Data Warehouse PlainHealthAccess is not affiliated with HRSA or any government agency

Every figure on PlainHealthAccess is rendered directly from HRSA source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Score placement is derived from designated HPSA records de-duplicated by HPSA id in the retained HRSA snapshot. The ratio screen applies HRSA's published population-to-provider threshold (3,500:1 general, 3,000:1 high-need) entirely in your browser. Saved scenarios stay in your browser and are never submitted anywhere. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, review the public data changelog, or report a data issue for this page.