{
    "question": "How many dentists are there in the US?",
    "answer": "There were 205,088 professionally active dentists in the US in 2025, per the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute, which counts them from the ADA masterfile. That is 60.0 dentists per 100,000 people, up from 163,376 (57.3 per 100,000) in 2001. Women are 39.4% of dentists, up from 16.0% in 2001.",
    "period": "2025",
    "key_numbers": [
        {
            "value": "205,088",
            "label": "Professionally active dentists in the US",
            "note": "ADA Health Policy Institute, 2025",
            "stat": "dental-marketing/us-professionally-active-dentists"
        },
        {
            "value": "60.0",
            "label": "Dentists per 100,000 people",
            "note": "ADA HPI, 2025; 57.3 in 2001",
            "stat": "dental-marketing/dentists-per-100k"
        },
        {
            "value": "135,665",
            "label": "Dental practice establishments",
            "note": "Census County Business Patterns 2023, cited by ADA HPI",
            "stat": "dental-marketing/us-dental-practice-establishments"
        },
        {
            "value": "1,057,600",
            "label": "People employed in offices of dentists",
            "note": "BLS, Sep 2026, preliminary; all staff, not only dentists",
            "stat": "dental-marketing/offices-of-dentists-employment"
        },
        {
            "value": "39.4%",
            "label": "Share of dentists who are women",
            "note": "ADA HPI, 2025; 16.0% in 2001"
        }
    ],
    "tables": [
        {
            "id": "totals-2025",
            "title": "US dentists, key counts (2025 unless stated)",
            "columns": [
                "Measure",
                "Value"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "Professionally active dentists",
                    "205,088"
                ],
                [
                    "Dentists per 100,000 people",
                    "60.0"
                ],
                [
                    "Share who are women",
                    "39.4%"
                ],
                [
                    "Share whose practice area is an ADA-recognized specialty",
                    "21.2%"
                ],
                [
                    "Dental practice establishments (2023)",
                    "135,665"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "dentists-total",
                "per-100k",
                "women-share",
                "specialist-share",
                "establishments"
            ],
            "note": "Professionally active means licensed, not retired, living in the 50 states or DC, with a primary occupation in private practice, teaching, the armed forces, other federal services, state or local government, a hospital, residency or a dental organization. The establishments count is from the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns for 2023, as cited on the ADA's dental practice research page.",
            "source": "ada"
        },
        {
            "id": "by-area",
            "title": "US dentists by practice area, 2025",
            "columns": [
                "Practice area",
                "Dentists"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "General practice",
                    "161,733"
                ],
                [
                    "Orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics",
                    "10,844"
                ],
                [
                    "Pediatric dentistry",
                    "9,521"
                ],
                [
                    "Oral and maxillofacial surgery",
                    "7,482"
                ],
                [
                    "Endodontics",
                    "5,738"
                ],
                [
                    "Periodontics",
                    "5,480"
                ],
                [
                    "Prosthodontics",
                    "3,568"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "area-general",
                "area-orthodontics",
                "area-pediatric",
                "area-oral-surgery",
                "area-endodontics",
                "area-periodontics",
                "area-prosthodontics"
            ],
            "note": "A dentist with certificates in two areas is counted in both, so across all 13 practice areas in the ADA file the total (about 206,000) is more than 205,088. Smaller specialties (public health, pathology, radiology, anesthesiology, oral medicine, orofacial pain) have under 1,000 dentists each.",
            "source": "ada"
        },
        {
            "id": "by-age",
            "title": "US dentists by age, 2025",
            "columns": [
                "Age group",
                "Share of dentists"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "Under 35",
                    "17.4%"
                ],
                [
                    "35-44",
                    "26.3%"
                ],
                [
                    "45-54",
                    "22.5%"
                ],
                [
                    "55-64",
                    "18.6%"
                ],
                [
                    "65 and older",
                    "15.2%"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "age-under-35",
                "age-35-44",
                "age-45-54",
                "age-55-64",
                "age-65-plus"
            ],
            "note": "Ages are estimated from dental school graduation year where the ADA masterfile has no birth year.",
            "source": "ada"
        },
        {
            "id": "by-state-count",
            "title": "The 10 states with the most dentists, 2025",
            "columns": [
                "State",
                "Dentists",
                "Per 100,000 people"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "California",
                    "30,647",
                    "77.9"
                ],
                [
                    "Texas",
                    "16,761",
                    "52.9"
                ],
                [
                    "New York",
                    "14,286",
                    "71.4"
                ],
                [
                    "Florida",
                    "12,635",
                    "53.9"
                ],
                [
                    "Illinois",
                    "8,511",
                    "66.9"
                ],
                [
                    "New Jersey",
                    "7,385",
                    "77.3"
                ],
                [
                    "Pennsylvania",
                    "7,007",
                    "53.7"
                ],
                [
                    "North Carolina",
                    "6,557",
                    "58.6"
                ],
                [
                    "Michigan",
                    "5,883",
                    "58.1"
                ],
                [
                    "Massachusetts",
                    "5,849",
                    "81.8"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "state-california",
                "state-texas",
                "state-new-york",
                "state-florida",
                "state-illinois",
                "state-new-jersey",
                "state-pennsylvania",
                "state-north-carolina",
                "state-michigan",
                "state-massachusetts"
            ],
            "note": "Dentists are placed by business address where known. Rates use Census population estimates as published in the ADA file.",
            "source": "ada"
        },
        {
            "id": "per-capita-states",
            "title": "Most and fewest dentists per 100,000 people, by state, 2025",
            "columns": [
                "State",
                "Per 100,000 people",
                "Dentists"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "District of Columbia",
                    "100.9",
                    "700"
                ],
                [
                    "Massachusetts",
                    "81.8",
                    "5,849"
                ],
                [
                    "Hawaii",
                    "80.4",
                    "1,152"
                ],
                [
                    "California",
                    "77.9",
                    "30,647"
                ],
                [
                    "Alaska",
                    "77.9",
                    "574"
                ],
                [
                    "South Carolina",
                    "45.0",
                    "2,509"
                ],
                [
                    "Delaware",
                    "44.9",
                    "476"
                ],
                [
                    "Mississippi",
                    "43.5",
                    "1,285"
                ],
                [
                    "Arkansas",
                    "40.8",
                    "1,270"
                ],
                [
                    "Alabama",
                    "40.6",
                    "2,109"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "rate-dc",
                "rate-massachusetts",
                "rate-hawaii",
                "rate-california",
                "rate-alaska",
                "rate-south-carolina",
                "rate-delaware",
                "rate-mississippi",
                "rate-arkansas",
                "rate-alabama"
            ],
            "note": "Top five and bottom five of the 50 states and DC. The US rate is 60.0.",
            "source": "ada"
        },
        {
            "id": "jobs-bls",
            "title": "Dentist jobs and dental office employment, BLS",
            "columns": [
                "Measure",
                "Number",
                "Period"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "Dentist jobs (all employers and self-employed)",
                    "161,400",
                    "2025"
                ],
                [
                    "Projected dentist jobs",
                    "170,400",
                    "2035"
                ],
                [
                    "People employed in offices of dentists",
                    "1,048,400",
                    "Sep 2024"
                ],
                [
                    "People employed in offices of dentists",
                    "1,049,100",
                    "Sep 2025"
                ],
                [
                    "People employed in offices of dentists",
                    "1,057,600",
                    "Sep 2026 (preliminary)"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "bls-dentist-jobs",
                "bls-dentist-jobs-2035",
                "office-emp-sep-2024",
                "office-emp-sep-2025",
                "office-emp-sep-2026"
            ],
            "note": "Dentist jobs are from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (2025 is the base year of its 2025-35 projections; its employer breakdown lists 12% of dentists as self-employed). Offices of dentists employment is the Current Employment Statistics series 'All employees, offices of dentists', seasonally adjusted: every employee of the offices, not only dentists.",
            "source": "bls"
        },
        {
            "id": "history",
            "title": "Professionally active US dentists, every year since 2001",
            "columns": [
                "Year",
                "Dentists",
                "Per 100,000 people",
                "Women"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "2001",
                    "163,376",
                    "57.3",
                    "16.0%"
                ],
                [
                    "2002",
                    "165,657",
                    "57.6",
                    "17.0%"
                ],
                [
                    "2003",
                    "167,524",
                    "57.7",
                    "17.9%"
                ],
                [
                    "2004",
                    "169,756",
                    "58.0",
                    "18.9%"
                ],
                [
                    "2005",
                    "171,575",
                    "58.1",
                    "19.9%"
                ],
                [
                    "2006",
                    "172,629",
                    "57.9",
                    "20.6%"
                ],
                [
                    "2007",
                    "176,116",
                    "58.5",
                    "21.7%"
                ],
                [
                    "2008",
                    "178,384",
                    "58.7",
                    "22.3%"
                ],
                [
                    "2009",
                    "181,370",
                    "59.1",
                    "23.1%"
                ],
                [
                    "2010",
                    "183,192",
                    "59.2",
                    "23.7%"
                ],
                [
                    "2011",
                    "186,083",
                    "59.7",
                    "24.7%"
                ],
                [
                    "2012",
                    "188,866",
                    "60.1",
                    "25.9%"
                ],
                [
                    "2013",
                    "191,376",
                    "60.4",
                    "26.7%"
                ],
                [
                    "2014",
                    "192,263",
                    "60.2",
                    "27.4%"
                ],
                [
                    "2015",
                    "195,755",
                    "60.8",
                    "28.3%"
                ],
                [
                    "2016",
                    "196,465",
                    "60.6",
                    "29.1%"
                ],
                [
                    "2017",
                    "198,513",
                    "60.8",
                    "30.4%"
                ],
                [
                    "2018",
                    "199,482",
                    "60.7",
                    "31.8%"
                ],
                [
                    "2019",
                    "200,417",
                    "60.7",
                    "32.9%"
                ],
                [
                    "2020",
                    "201,115",
                    "60.7",
                    "34.0%"
                ],
                [
                    "2021",
                    "201,923",
                    "60.8",
                    "35.2%"
                ],
                [
                    "2022",
                    "202,535",
                    "60.6",
                    "36.7%"
                ],
                [
                    "2023",
                    "202,303",
                    "60.1",
                    "37.7%"
                ],
                [
                    "2024",
                    "202,400",
                    "59.5",
                    "38.5%"
                ],
                [
                    "2025",
                    "205,088",
                    "60.0",
                    "39.4%"
                ]
            ],
            "note": "From the ADA HPI file 'Supply of Dentists in the U.S.: 2001-2025'. The ADA says 2023-2025 values should be read with caution because of changes in how the masterfile is maintained.",
            "source": "ada"
        }
    ],
    "sources": [
        {
            "name": "Health Policy Institute research and data",
            "publisher": "American Dental Association, Health Policy Institute",
            "type": "industry",
            "url": "https://www.ada.org/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Occupational Outlook Handbook",
            "publisher": "US Bureau of Labor Statistics",
            "type": "official",
            "url": "https://www.bls.gov/"
        }
    ],
    "content_changed_on": "2026-10-30",
    "page_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/dental-marketing/number-of-dentists",
    "csv_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/dental-marketing/number-of-dentists.csv"
}