Anesthesiology Physician: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

An anesthesiologist is trained to provide pain relief and maintenance, or restoration, of a stable condition during and immediately following an operation or an obstetric or diagnostic procedure. The anesthesiologist assesses the risk of the patient undergoing surgery and optimizes the patient's condition prior to, during and after surgery. In addition to these management responsibilities, the anesthesiologist provides medical management and consultation in pain management and critical care medicine. Anesthesiologists diagnose and treat acute, long-standing and cancer pain problems; diagnose and treat patients with critical illnesses or severe injuries; direct resuscitation in the care of patients with cardiac or respiratory emergencies, including the need for artificial ventilation; and supervise post-anesthesia recovery.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, the reported 14.3% sole-proprietor share is the portion of active records with Anesthesiology Physician as the primary taxonomy that report sole proprietor in NPPES. It is an imperfect proxy for private practice because the field is self-reported and does not fully describe ownership, employment, group, or contracting arrangements.

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.
• - These are active NPPES NPI records with this taxonomy listed as primary, not a census of practicing anesthesiologists, jobs, full-time equivalents, or patient volume.
• - NPPES records can be updated, added, or deactivated, and state counts reflect the reported NPI location rather than necessarily where all services are delivered.
• 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