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

National totals

What this specialty covers

A provider qualified by a Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.), licensed by the State and who practices chiropractic medicine -that discipline within the healing arts which deals with the nervous system and its relationship to the spinal column and its interrelationship with other body systems.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For chiropractors, 43,304 records, or 28.7%, are flagged as sole proprietors in NPPES. This self-reported field is an imperfect proxy for private practice because it does not by itself establish ownership, employment arrangement, office structure, or whether a chiropractor works independently.

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 total counts active NPI records with this taxonomy as primary, not necessarily unique people, practices, or care locations.
• Providers who use another primary taxonomy are outside this count, even if they also practice chiropractic medicine.
• 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