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

National totals

What this specialty covers

A physician who specializes in the general practice of diagnosing, treating, and managing patients with a variety of illnesses and conditions.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 7,726 of 27,921 active records, or 27.7%, are marked as sole proprietors in NPPES. The field is self-reported and is an imperfect proxy for private practice because it does not by itself establish ownership, employment status, or current clinical activity.

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 administrative records and may not equal unique physicians or current clinical activity.
• - The primary taxonomy is the classification selected in NPPES and may not capture every service a physician provides.
• 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