Genetic Counselor (M.S.): how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

A masters trained health care provider who collects and interprets genetic family histories; assesses the risk of disease occurrence or recurrence; identifies interventions to manage or ameliorate disease risk; educates about inheritance, testing, management, prevention, ethical issues, resources, and research; and counsels to promote informed choices and adaptation. Certification was established in 1993 by the American Board of Genetic Counseling and prior to that by the American Board of Medical Genetics. Requirements for experience, licensure, and job responsibilities vary among the states.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 15.2% of records are flagged as sole proprietors in NPPES. This is a self-reported field and an imperfect proxy for private practice because it does not show whether a counselor works independently, is employed by a larger organization, or provides services through another 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 may not equal unique practicing genetic counselors, and an NPI can reflect an individual or an organization.
• Taxonomy, enrollment status, and address information can change, so these counts describe the available NPI data rather than service volume or employment relationships.
• 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