Community/Retail Pharmacy: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

A pharmacy where pharmacists store, prepare, and dispense medicinal preparations and/or prescriptions for a local patient population in accordance with federal and state law; counsel patients and caregivers (sometimes independent of the dispensing process); administer vaccinations; and provide other professional services associated with pharmaceutical care such as health screenings, consultative services with other health care providers, collaborative practice, disease state management, and education classes.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

The sole-proprietor share is the percentage of active Community/Retail Pharmacy NPI records with a sole-proprietor flag, not a census of independently owned or private-practice pharmacies. Because the flag is a self-reported NPPES field, it is an imperfect proxy and may not reflect an entity's full ownership, legal, or operating arrangement.

By state

New NPI registrations by year

Counts reflect the year each NPI was first issued, among records still active today. The final year is partial: this data covers through 2026-01-11.

Data notes

• The sole-proprietor field is self-reported by the provider in NPPES and is an imperfect proxy for private practice.
• A sole-proprietor count shown as <11 is suppressed: the true value is below 11, which could include zero.
• NPI records are administrative identifiers, so the count does not necessarily equal the number of physical pharmacy locations or distinct businesses.
• The count covers active records with this primary taxonomy and does not measure dispensing volume, patient volume, or the full range of services provided.
• Providers are counted once, by their primary taxonomy code only.

Source: CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Dissemination file, FOIA-disclosable public data under CMS-6060-N. Aggregated by Hero EMR on 2026-08-03; deactivated NPIs excluded; specialty assigned from the primary taxonomy code (NUCC 25.1). Counts below 11 are suppressed. Individual providers are never published. All provider data pages.

Common questions