Recreation Therapist: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

A recreation therapist uses recreational activities for intervention in some physical, social or emotional behavior to bring about a desired change in that behavior and promote the growth and development of the patient.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For Recreation Therapist records, the sole-proprietor share indicates how many records report that status in NPPES, not how many recreation therapists work in private practice. It is a self-reported NPPES field and an imperfect proxy because it may be incomplete, outdated, or reflect an ownership or billing arrangement rather than the therapist's actual work setting.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.
• - NPI records do not necessarily equal unique employed recreation therapists, patient capacity, or total workforce size.
• - A primary taxonomy is a registry classification and may not capture every professional who provides recreation therapy.
• 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