Physical Therapy Assistant: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

(1)Physical therapist assistants are skilled health care providers who are graduates of a physical therapist assistant associate degree program accredited by an agency recognized by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education or Council on Postsecondary Accreditation, who assists the physical therapist in providing physical therapy. The supervising physical therapist is directly responsible for the actions of the physical therapist assistant. The PTA performs physical therapy procedures and related tasks that have been selected and delegated by the supervising physical therapist. Duties of the PTA include assisting the physical therapist in implementing treatment programs, training patients in exercised and activities of daily living, conducting treatments, and reporting to the physical therapist on the patient's responses. In addition to direct patient care, the PTA may also perfo

Reading the sole-proprietor share

Because PTAs provide delegated services under the responsibility of a supervising physical therapist, a sole-proprietor flag should not be read as evidence that a PTA operates an independent clinical practice. The 30.8% share is based on a self-reported NPPES field and is an imperfect proxy for private practice. It does not describe employment arrangements, supervision, workload, or care setting.

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.
• - NPPES records can be updated, deactivated, or reclassified, so counts reflect the active-record snapshot used for this page.
• - NPI records may not map one-to-one to practicing individuals, organizations, or service locations.
• 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