Massage Therapist: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

An individual trained in the manipulation of tissues (as by rubbing, stroking, kneading, or tapping) with the hand or an instrument for remedial or hygienic purposes.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

Among Massage Therapist records, 45,186, or 61.5%, are flagged as sole proprietors. This is a self-reported NPPES field and an imperfect proxy for private practice because it does not by itself establish ownership, employment arrangement, or independent practice.

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 identifiers and should not be treated as a complete census of currently practicing massage therapists.
• - The figures use Massage Therapist as the primary taxonomy, so providers using another primary classification may not appear in this count.
• 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