HRSA public-data reference
Look up Health Professional Shortage Areas.
Search the shortage designations, HPSA scores, provider-gap context, and federal records behind every state and county.
PlainHealthAccess interprets HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area and Medically Underserved Area records. A designation signals structural access need, not the quality of any clinician or facility.
The national picture
According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Data Warehouse, roughly one in four Americans - 37.4% - lives in a county designated a health-professional shortage area, and the current clinician estimates total about 25,866 additional clinicians.
- 37.4%
- U.S. residents in a shortage area
- 21,166
- Active HPSA designations
- 25,866
- Clinicians needed to close them
- 4,155
- Medically underserved areas
Every figure is derived live from the HRSA Data Warehouse, primary-care, mental-health and dental designations across all 50 states, DC, and US territories.
Key findings
What the HRSA Data Warehouse does not surface for the United States 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.
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The busiest 10% of counties hold 37.9% of all 23,065 active HPSA designations.
Among 3,215 counties with at least one designated record (excluding superseded CT legacy FIPS), the top decile by designation volume concentrates 8,733 records.
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Primary care accounts for 47.4% of the national clinician gap (12,265 of 25,866 FTEs).
providers_needed summed once per HPSA id across primary-care, mental-health, and dental designations, the same additive gap used in the national picture above.
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California carries 4.5× the average state's designation load.
1,623 active designations vs a 359 average across 59 states and territories in this mirror.
See the full national statistics reference → Download the citable CSV or JSON data → Compare the two latest retained HRSA snapshots →
How widespread is the U.S. provider shortage?
Roughly one in four Americans lives in a county that HRSA has designated as a geographic (whole-community) Health Professional Shortage Area. Closing those designations would take thousands of additional clinicians, the gap is deepest in primary care.
Clinicians needed to close every designation
HRSA estimates the practitioners required to lift each shortage designation. Summed nationally by care type, primary care is the deepest gap.
- Primary care
Primary care
12,265 clinicians needed
- Dental
Dental
8,286 clinicians needed
- Mental health
Mental health
5,315 clinicians needed
What this shows Across designated shortage areas with a recorded clinician estimate, the U.S. total is about 25,866 additional clinicians. Primary care carries the largest shortfall.
States with Most HPSAs
View all states →| # | State | Total HPSAs | Primary Care | Mental Health | Dental |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 1,623 | 559 | 518 | 546 |
| 2 | Texas | 1,119 | 394 | 387 | 338 |
| 3 | Alaska | 988 | 330 | 330 | 328 |
| 4 | Missouri | 925 | 340 | 259 | 326 |
| 5 | Michigan | 793 | 274 | 257 | 262 |
| 6 | Illinois | 731 | 296 | 185 | 250 |
| 7 | Kentucky | 701 | 245 | 210 | 246 |
| 8 | Arizona | 649 | 227 | 212 | 210 |
| 9 | Washington | 640 | 219 | 217 | 204 |
| 10 | Florida | 637 | 229 | 204 | 204 |
What to do with this
The shortage map is a starting point, here is how to turn the national picture into something local.
- Find out whether your own county is one of the designated shortage areas behind that 37.4% - search every U.S. county. Find your county
- See which states carry the most of the 21,166 active designations and how yours ranks. State rankings
- Providers can use a county's designation to qualify for National Health Service Corps loan repayment, estimate the award. NHSC estimator
Designations describe structural access across an area, not the availability of any specific provider. HRSA reviews and updates them each quarter.
Your county watchlist
Keep the counties you check in one private list
Save any county profile to keep its HRSA designation snapshot in this browser. Your watchlist can compare two saved snapshots and always links back to each county's current record. Nothing is sent to PlainHealthAccess.
Source review clock
- Current portal snapshot
- Next scheduled source review
- By
We check the HRSA Data Warehouse at least quarterly. A review does not imply that HRSA published a new export; real snapshot changes appear in the release report.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA)?
A Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) is a geographic area, population group, or facility designated by the federal government as having a shortage of primary care, mental health, or dental providers. HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) designates HPSAs based on population-to-provider ratios and other criteria.
What is a Medically Underserved Area (MUA)?
A Medically Underserved Area (MUA) is a county or group of counties, a group of county subdivisions, or a group of urban census tracts in which the population has a shortage of personal health services. MUA designations are based on an Index of Medical Underservice (IMU) that considers physician availability, poverty rates, elderly population, and infant mortality.
Where does PlainHealthAccess data come from?
All data on PlainHealthAccess comes directly from HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HRSA maintains the official HPSA and MUA/MUP designation datasets, which are updated regularly.
How is the HPSA score calculated?
HPSA scores range from 0 to 25 for primary care and mental health, and 0 to 26 for dental health. Higher scores indicate greater need. Scores are calculated based on population-to-provider ratios, distance to the nearest source of care outside the area, percentage of the population below poverty level, and infant mortality rate or water fluoridation status.
Is PlainHealthAccess affiliated with HRSA or the government?
No. PlainHealthAccess is an independent data portal. We make publicly available HRSA data more accessible and searchable. We are not affiliated with HRSA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or any government agency.
About this data
How PlainHealthAccess works, and why you can trust these numbers
What this site is
PlainHealthAccess is a plain-language reference for U.S. healthcare shortage areas. We map HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and Medically Underserved Area (MUA) designations across 3,269 counties, all 50 states and US territories, with every designation traceable to the HRSA Data Warehouse.
Editorial process
- Source. Download the raw HPSA and MUA designation files directly from the HRSA Data Warehouse, covering primary care, mental health, and dental shortage designations.
- Verify. Parse designation type, HPSA severity score, designation status, and county FIPS codes, reproducing HRSA data exactly as published without modification.
- Publish. Aggregate to county- and state-level summaries, all active designations shown, withdrawn or expired ones excluded, so readers can check any county profile against the original HRSA designation.
Editorial independence & corrections
PlainHealthAccess is independent and is not affiliated with HRSA, HHS, or any government agency. Found an error or a stale designation? File a correction via the contact page. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
Frequently asked
What is a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA)?
A Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) is a geographic area, population group, or facility designated by the federal government as having a shortage of primary care, mental health, or dental providers. HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) designates HPSAs based on population-to-provider ratios and other criteria.
What is a Medically Underserved Area (MUA)?
A Medically Underserved Area (MUA) is a county or group of counties, a group of county subdivisions, or a group of urban census tracts in which the population has a shortage of personal health services. MUA designations are based on an Index of Medical Underservice (IMU) that considers physician availability, poverty rates, elderly population, and infant mortality.
Where does PlainHealthAccess data come from?
All data on PlainHealthAccess comes directly from HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HRSA maintains the official HPSA and MUA/MUP designation datasets, which are updated regularly.
How is the HPSA score calculated?
HPSA scores range from 0 to 25 for primary care and mental health, and 0 to 26 for dental health. Higher scores indicate greater need. Scores are calculated based on population-to-provider ratios, distance to the nearest source of care outside the area, percentage of the population below poverty level, and infant mortality rate or water fluoridation status.
Is PlainHealthAccess affiliated with HRSA or the government?
No. PlainHealthAccess is an independent data portal. We make publicly available HRSA data more accessible and searchable. We are not affiliated with HRSA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or any government agency.
Download the designation extract (same CSV as /statistics): hrsa-shortage-designations.csv (CC BY 4.0 derived presentation; upstream HRSA terms still apply).
Every figure on PlainHealthAccess is rendered directly from HRSA source data, no number is typed in by an editor. National gauges and tables on this homepage aggregate the same active HRSA HPSA and MUA designation records used on every county and state page. 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 August 2026.
PlainHealthAccess maps HRSA shortage designations for geographic awareness and does not constitute medical or healthcare policy advice. For assistance finding a provider, contact your state health department or visit HRSA.gov.
Guides & Analysis
Editorial research and plain-language explainers from PlainHealthAccess. Every guide is written to help you read the underlying public data correctly.
Research
Original analysis from PlainHealthAccess, with every statistic derived from its own database. See all research.
Top 10 US States by HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area Count
PlainHealthAccess ranks US states and territories by total HPSA designations across primary care, mental health, and dental discipline tracks, rendered live from the HRSA Bureau of Health Workforce data files.
ResearchTop 10 US States by Population in Health Shortage Area
PlainHealthAccess ranks US states by total population residing in at least one HRSA-designated health professional shortage area, live from federal designation files.
ResearchTop 10 Largest US Counties Designated Medically Underserved
PlainHealthAccess ranks US counties carrying an HRSA Medically Underserved Area designation, sorted by total county population, live from federal MUA files.