How Many Dentists Are in Each State?
174,935 dentists hold active NPI registrations across all 50 states and DC, about 5.1 per 10,000 residents. Supply is uneven: District of Columbia has 8.3 dentists per 10K residents while South Dakota has 3.1. Counts refresh weekly from the federal NPI registry; population is the Census Bureau’s latest vintage estimate.
National dentist supply snapshot
Dentists per 10,000 residents, ranked
All 50 states and DC, ranked by supply density rather than raw count, so small states compare fairly with large ones. States with deep license enrichment link to their full dental market page. For which practices are DSO-affiliated, see DSO affiliation by state.
| Rank | State | Per 10K residents | NPI-registered dentists |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 8.3 | 579 |
| 2 | Massachusetts | 7.5 | 5,334 |
| 3 | Hawaii | 6.8 | 979 |
| 4 | Connecticut | 6.8 | 2,520 |
| 5 | Alaska | 6.3 | 464 |
| 6 | California | 6.2 | 24,274 |
| 7 | New Jersey | 6.1 | 5,797 |
| 8 | Colorado | 6.1 | 3,643 |
| 9 | Oregon | 6.0 | 2,577 |
| 10 | Washington | 5.8 | 4,678 |
| 11 | New York | 5.8 | 11,661 |
| 12 | Maryland | 5.7 | 3,585 |
| 13 | Montana | 5.7 | 654 |
| 14 | New Hampshire | 5.6 | 799 |
| 15 | Virginia | 5.4 | 4,820 |
| 16 | Nebraska | 5.4 | 1,092 |
| 17 | Illinois | 5.4 | 6,882 |
| 18 | Iowa | 5.3 | 1,726 |
| 19 | Michigan | 5.3 | 5,353 |
| 20 | Utah | 5.3 | 1,864 |
| 21 | Minnesota | 5.1 | 2,989 |
| 22 | Vermont | 5.1 | 330 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | 5.1 | 3,041 |
| 24 | Pennsylvania | 5.1 | 6,632 |
| 25 | Maine | 4.9 | 698 |
| 26 | Wyoming | 4.9 | 290 |
| 27 | Idaho | 4.9 | 996 |
| 28 | Kentucky | 4.9 | 2,260 |
| 29 | North Carolina | 4.8 | 5,329 |
| 30 | North Dakota | 4.7 | 375 |
| 31 | Kansas | 4.6 | 1,373 |
| 32 | Nevada | 4.6 | 1,513 |
| 33 | Ohio | 4.6 | 5,452 |
| 34 | Arizona | 4.6 | 3,492 |
| 35 | Rhode Island | 4.5 | 507 |
| 36 | New Mexico | 4.5 | 961 |
| 37 | Texas | 4.5 | 14,326 |
| 38 | Oklahoma | 4.4 | 1,833 |
| 39 | Louisiana | 4.4 | 2,045 |
| 40 | Florida | 4.4 | 10,292 |
| 41 | South Carolina | 4.4 | 2,430 |
| 42 | Missouri | 4.3 | 2,680 |
| 43 | Indiana | 4.1 | 2,864 |
| 44 | West Virginia | 4.1 | 718 |
| 45 | Tennessee | 4.1 | 2,965 |
| 46 | Georgia | 4.0 | 4,483 |
| 47 | Mississippi | 3.8 | 1,135 |
| 48 | Alabama | 3.6 | 1,893 |
| 49 | Arkansas | 3.5 | 1,096 |
| 50 | Delaware | 3.5 | 369 |
| 51 | South Dakota | 3.1 | 287 |
Methodology
Dentist counts are individual providers in the federal NPI registry (NPPES) whose primary taxonomy is one of the ten dentist classifications, with deactivated registrations removed. Dental hygienists, dental assistants, and organizational NPIs are excluded. NPI registration is not the same as holding an active clinical license, so these are registration counts; per-state license detail lives on the state market pages for the 42 license-enriched states plus DC. Population denominators are the US Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates (NST-EST2025), as of 2025-07-01. The ratio measures registered supply density, not access to care: formal shortage designations are HRSA dental HPSA determinations, which weigh factors beyond headcount.
Common questions
How many dentists are there in the United States?
174,935 dentists hold active registrations in the federal NPI registry across all 50 states and DC, about 5.1 for every 10,000 residents. This counts individual providers with dentist taxonomies (general dentists plus the recognized specialties); dental hygienists, dental assistants, and practice organizations are excluded. NPI registration is not the same as an active clinical license, so this is a registration count, not a licensure count.
Which state has the most dentists?
California has the most NPI-registered dentists at 24,274. Raw counts track population size, which is why the ranking on this page uses dentists per 10,000 residents instead: it shows supply density rather than state size.
Which state has the highest dentist-to-population ratio?
District of Columbia has the highest ratio at 8.3 dentists per 10,000 residents. South Dakota has the lowest at 3.1. The national figure is 5.1.
What counts as a dentist in these figures?
Individual providers in the federal NPI registry whose primary taxonomy is one of the ten dentist classifications: general dentist, pediatric dentist, oral surgery, orthodontics, endodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics, dental public health, and the two oral and maxillofacial diagnostic specialties. Dental hygienists, dental assistants, and organizational registrations are excluded, and deactivated NPIs are removed. Counts refresh weekly from the NPPES bulk file.
Where does the population data come from?
Population denominators are the US Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates (NST-EST2025), as of 2025-07-01. Dentist counts refresh weekly; population updates annually when the Census Bureau publishes the next vintage.
Does a low ratio mean a dental shortage?
Not by itself. The ratio measures registered supply density, not access to care. Formal shortage designations come from HRSA's dental Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) program, which also weighs poverty rates, travel distance, and provider capacity. A state can have a modest statewide ratio with adequate urban access and severe rural shortage at the same time.
Who uses this data
Dentist counts are one signal in a larger dental market dataset. The same public sources power territory and acquisition intelligence for the teams that work with dental practices every day.
Territory trigger feeds, license expiration alerts, and practice profiles for reps who sell into dental offices.
DSO acquisition teamsDSO affiliation mapping and practice-level signals for buy-side sourcing.
Practice brokersRetirement-age and license signals for finding practices likely to transition.
Our data sourcesEvery dataset behind these numbers: NPPES, state dental boards, Medicaid fee schedules, CMS, and OIG exclusions.