After the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, behavioral health coverage has expanded to cover more US citizens. However, access to behavioral health services remains an issue, owing in part to maldistribution of the workforce. The psychiatric workforce, in particular, is in the middle of a professional shortage, which is projected to worsen by 2025. Rural populations appear to be more affected by this shortage than metropolitan populations.

This report maps the precise amount of psychiatrists, child and adolescent psychiatrists (CAPs), geriatric psychiatrists (GPs), and addiction psychiatrists (APs) per county, and tests whether the proportion of these providers varies significantly between urban and rural areas.