Pastoral Counselor: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, the 50.1% share means that 50.1% of active NPI records with Pastoral Counselor as the primary taxonomy are flagged as sole proprietors in NPPES. Because that flag is a self-reported NPPES field, it is an imperfect proxy for private practice and does not by itself confirm ownership, employment status, or how care is delivered.

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.
• NUCC has not published an official definition for this taxonomy, so the label is a classification rather than a complete description of services.
• The total covers active NPI records with this taxonomy as primary, not necessarily unique practicing counselors, full-time equivalents, or patient volume.
• 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