Healthcare Insights
Top 25 medical specialties by number of healthcare providers
Whether you are healthcare practitioner, a healthcare system executive, or someone who provides goods and services to the healthcare industry, understanding the distribution of providers among leading medical specialties can help you identify opportunities for growth and service line expansion.
We analyzed more than 2.5 million healthcare providers tracked in the Definitive Healthcare PhysicianView product to identify the number of healthcare providers by medical specialty. Nurses and providers without an identified specialty were excluded from our analysis.
The table below lists the top medical specialties by number of active healthcare providers.
| Rank | Medical specialty title | Number of healthcare providers | Explore dataset |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Physician Assistant | 196,201 | Explore |
| 2 | Therapy - Physical Therapist | 169,320 | Explore |
| 3 | Social Worker - Licensed Clinical Social Worker | 154,480 | Explore |
| 4 | Family Practice | 131,150 | Explore |
| 5 | Internal Medicine | 129,849 | Explore |
| 6 | Psychology - Clinical Psychologist | 115,337 | Explore |
| 7 | Pediatric Medicine | 70,822 | Explore |
| 8 | Chiropractic | 67,156 | Explore |
| 9 | Emergency Medicine | 65,270 | Explore |
| 10 | Optometry | 56,487 | Explore |
| 11 | Anesthesiology - Anesthesiologist | 52,348 | Explore |
| 12 | Psychiatry | 51,431 | Explore |
| 13 | Therapy - Occupational Therapist | 46,170 | Explore |
| 14 | Obstetrics/Gynecology | 45,997 | Explore |
| 15 | Radiology - Diagnostic Radiology | 38,771 | Explore |
| 16 | Therapy - Speech Language Pathologist | 37,991 | Explore |
| 17 | Hospitalist | 34,762 | Explore |
| 18 | Surgery - General Surgery | 30,845 | Explore |
| 19 | Surgery - Orthopedic Surgery | 27,446 | Explore |
| 20 | Cardiology - Cardiologist | 24,811 | Explore |
| 21 | Neurology | 23,998 | Explore |
| 22 | Ophthalmology | 21,196 | Explore |
| 23 | Podiatry | 19,757 | Explore |
| 24 | Dietitian/Nutrition Professional | 19,617 | Explore |
| 25 | Gastroenterology | 17,754 | Explore |
Fig. 1 Data is from the Definitive Healthcare PhysicianView product and sourced from proprietary research, the NPI Registry and Physician Compare. Only specialties with at least 100 providers reporting a birth year are included. Data accessed September 2025.
What are the most common medical specialties?
The most common medical specialties by healthcare providers were physician assistants (n=196,201), followed by physical therapists (n=169,320) and licensed clinical social workers (n=154,480).
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