Pharmacist: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

An individual licensed by the appropriate state regulatory agency to engage in the practice of pharmacy. The practice of pharmacy includes, but is not limited to, assessment, interpretation, evaluation, and implementation, initiation, monitoring or modification of medication and or medical orders; the compounding or dispensing of medication and or medical orders; participation in drug and device procurement, storage, and selection; drug administration; drug regimen reviews; drug or drug-related research; provision of patient education and the provision of those acts or services necessary to provide medication therapy management services in all areas of patient care.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 98,316 records, or 33.5%, have the NPPES sole-proprietor field marked yes. This field is self-reported and is an imperfect proxy for private practice because it does not directly show a pharmacist's work setting, employment arrangement, or ownership structure.

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.
• The totals cover active NPIs with Pharmacist as the primary taxonomy, not every pharmacist-related record or a complete census of people and locations.
• Enumeration year shows when an NPI was first issued, not how many pharmacists entered practice or how active they are now.
• 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