We appreciate you taking the time to help America’s Health Rankings better understand our audiences. Your feedback will allow us to optimize our website and provide you with additional resources in the future. Thank you.
Please select one option which best describes your profession or field of expertise
Journalist or media professional
Health Policy Professional
Public health professional (state, local, or community level)
Having health care providers available when and where people need them is key to improving health outcomes. Primary care providers, mental health providers, specialists and other members of the health care workforce play a critical role
in helping individuals access preventive services, manage chronic conditions and gain referrals to specialists. For example, the availability of primary care has numerous benefits,
including higher quality of care and improved prevention.
Recent data analyzed by America’s Health Rankings® show encouraging growth across many areas of the health care workforce. However, these workforce gains are not equally distributed across geographic areas, meaning gaps and shortcomings persist in many communities. Data that document these gaps can help identify opportunities for community programs and partnerships to strengthen access to care and improve outcomes.
Growing Provider Workforce Across Several Types of Care
The number of providers is increasing across several areas of health care.
Provider availability increased across all provider types analyzed, though gains varied widely.* The number of mental health providers grew the most, rising 57% nationally between September 2018 and September 2025. The number of primary care providers increased 39% over the same period, followed by the number of geriatric clinicians at 33% and the number of dental care providers at 15%. The number of pediatricians rose 16% between September 2019 and September 2024, while the number of women’s health providers rose 2% between 2019 and 2024.
These trends suggest that communities across the country are expanding the number of clinicians trained to meet the health care needs of children, adults and older adults.
*To make comparisons meaningful, specific provider rates were calculated relative to the population most likely to use each type of care. For example, geriatric clinicians were measured per 100,000 adults age 65 and older, pediatricians were measured per 100,000 children ages 0-21 and women’s health providers were measured per 100,000 females age 15 and older. Other provider rates, including mental health providers, primary care providers and dental care providers, were measured per 100,000 population, as these provider types serve a broad patient population.
Gaps in Provider Numbers Persist by Geographic Area
However, growth has not occurred evenly across the country. States in New England — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont — had some of the highest provider rates in September 2025. Massachusetts, for example, had the highest number of primary care providers in the nation. Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island all ranked among the leading states for the number of providers across primary care and mental health services.
By comparison, several Southern states continue to face workforce challenges. Texas, Georgia and Alabama ranked among the states with the lowest primary care and mental health provider rates.
These geographic differences were especially pronounced for mental health providers. Although nationally the number of mental health providers grew more than the number of primary care providers between September 2018 and September 2025, it also showed that mental health providers had the largest state-level gap among the provider types analyzed. In September 2025, Alaska had 5.0 times as many mental health providers per 100,000 residents as Alabama.
More Providers Can Support Access, but Challenges Remain
The number of providers in a community is an important component of access to care. Yet having more providers does not necessarily mean that care is accessible to everyone who needs it. Understanding where providers are located and what barriers may exist to accessing them is an important part of improving health outcomes.
lived in areas with a shortage of mental health professionals in 2025, and only 27.3% of mental health care needs were met nationally, meaning many Americans faced mental health challengeswithout clinical care.
Funding Community-Based Care to Improve Maternal Health Outcomes
Women’s health providers are also unevenly distributed across the country. While there were 47.8 obstetricians, gynecologists and midwives nationally per 100,000 females age 15 and older in September 2024, concentration ranged from 105.1 providers in Alaska to 29.0 providers in Alabama. Further, 3.7% of women ages 15-44 live in a maternity care desert — a county with no birth centers, certified nurse midwives, family practice physicians, obstetricians or hospitals that provide obstetric care.
Recent data analyzed by America’s Health Rankings also show that some maternal and infant health outcomes continue to worsen. Maternal mortality increased 36% between 2014-2018 and 2019-2023, while infant mortality remained high at approximately 5.5 deaths per 1,000 live births nationally. Differences persisted or worsened between different racial/ethnic and maternal age groups. Provider availability can impact health outcomes — data show improving access to maternity care could significantly reduce maternal and pregnancy-related mortality, as an estimated 87%
of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.
These findings reinforce the importance of looking beyond the number of physicians when considering how to improve access to maternal health care. A holistic view of provider availability becomes especially important when looking at states like Alaska, which had the highest number of women’s health providers at 105.1. However, Alaska ranked No. 48 in the nation for adequate prenatal care in 2023, meaning for 66.6% of live births in Alaska in 2023, mothers received prenatal care beginning in the first four months of pregnancy with the appropriate number of visits for the infant's gestational age.
Beyond physicians, many women receive primary care and pregnancy-related support from a broader care team. Community-based professionals, including doulas, can also play an important role in supporting healthy pregnancies by helping expectant parents get trusted information, understand care options and connect with health care and community resources.
To help address gaps in maternal health care, the United Health Foundation has invested more than $7 million in grant partnerships
across the United States to expand access to maternal and infant health services and strengthen the doula workforce. These grants connect pregnant people with doulas and other community-based supports. Separately, the Foundation’s broader Health Care Scholars United program aims to fund scholarships for 10,000 current and future health care professionals by 2033 to improve health care access and outcomes. Through the program, the United Health Foundation supports scholarships for students studying in nursing, pharmacy, mental health and other health fields.
As communities work to improve maternal and infant health outcomes, particularly among populations with the greatest need, doulas and other community-based health care professionals can be key parts of strategies to connect families with support throughout pregnancy and beyond.
Explore State-Level Data on Provider Availability and Access to Care
America’s Health Rankings data show that the number of providers varies across specialties, patient populations and geographic areas. At the same time, a range of factors influence access to care beyond workforce capacity, including affordability, geography and workforce distribution. Detailed state-level data can help health leaders and policymakers better understand where there is progress, identify persistent gaps and develop targeted strategies to improve access to care in their communities.
