Psychiatrists and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners by NYC Borough

Data study

By the Beata Lewis MD practice · Published November 12, 2026

In November 2026, 634 psychiatrists listed a primary practice address in Brooklyn in the federal NPI registry: 23.9 per 100,000 residents, against 182.8 in Manhattan. Psychiatric nurse practitioners with a Brooklyn practice address more than doubled in five years, from 187 to 419, while the number of psychiatrists grew 11%.

Where psychiatric prescribers list their practices

Manhattan had the most psychiatrists per resident of the five boroughs by a wide margin: 182.8 per 100,000, 7.6 times Brooklyn’s 23.9. Brooklyn is home to 30.9% of New York City’s residents but 13.2% of the psychiatrists with a city practice address. Brooklyn’s rate was still above the U.S. figure of 20.1.

Counting psychiatric nurse practitioners too, Brooklyn had 39.6 psychiatric prescribers per 100,000 residents and Manhattan 234.4, a gap of 5.9 times. For child and adolescent psychiatrists, Brooklyn had 2.8 per 100,000 residents (73 in all) and Manhattan 23.7.

Individual providers with an active NPI, counted once each, at their primary practice address in November 2026. Child and adolescent psychiatrists are also counted as psychiatrists, and their rate is per 100,000 residents of all ages. Rates use July 1, 2025 population estimates. Source: CMS NPPES full file, November 2026 (as of November 2, 2026); Census Bureau population estimates, July 1, 2025. Rates are our calculation.

Five years of change: nurse practitioners grew fastest

From November 2021 to November 2026, the number of psychiatric nurse practitioners grew faster than the number of psychiatrists in every borough, in the state and in the U.S. In Brooklyn they went from 187 to 419, up 124%; psychiatrists went from 572 to 634, up 11%. Across the U.S., psychiatric nurse practitioners rose from 24,322 to 64,998, close to the 68,565 psychiatrists.

Individual providers with an active NPI at a primary practice address in each area, in the NPPES files for November 2021 (as of November 7, 2021) and November 2026 (as of November 2, 2026). Source: CMS NPPES full files, November 2021 and November 2026.

What this means if you are looking for a psychiatric prescriber in Brooklyn

• An address is where a prescriber practices, not where patients come from. Many Brooklyn residents see psychiatrists whose offices are in Manhattan, and many visits now happen by video, so a low Brooklyn count does not mean Brooklynites cannot find care. It does mean fewer prescribers list an office in the borough.
• A nurse practitioner is now a common route to a psychiatric prescriber. In 2026, 39.8% of the psychiatric prescribers with a Brooklyn address were nurse practitioners. Our guide to psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners explains how their training and scope differ.
• A registry listing is not an opening. The registry does not say whether anyone is taking new patients, how long the wait is, or whether a clinician still sees patients at that address. Calling the office is the surest way to know.
• You can check any prescriber yourself. The NPI Registry shows a clinician’s listed specialty and address, and New York’s Office of the Professions license search shows whether a license is current. Psychiatric care with the practice in Brooklyn starts with a discovery call.

Method

Every health care provider who bills electronically in the U.S. has a National Provider Identifier (NPI). CMS publishes the whole registry each month as the NPPES full file. CMS keeps only the current month online, so the November 2021 file is the copy archived by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

We counted individual providers (not organizations) whose NPI was active in each file and who listed one of three taxonomy codes in any of their specialty slots: psychiatry (2084P0800X) or child and adolescent psychiatry (2084P0804X), counted together as psychiatrists, and psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner (363LP0808X). Each NPI counts once, at its primary practice location. We placed each ZIP code in a borough with the Census Bureau’s 2020 ZIP code area to county file, using the county that holds most of the ZIP code’s land; ZIP codes for single buildings and post office boxes, which are not on that file, went by their first three digits. Counting only each provider’s primary specialty instead of any specialty lowers the counts slightly and leaves the borough order unchanged.

Rates divide the November 2026 counts by the July 1, 2025 population estimates and the November 2021 counts by July 1, 2021, from the Census Bureau’s county estimates (each borough is a county). A separate check script reads two other NPPES files, from October 2026 and December 2021, with different code and a simpler ZIP code rule, and confirms the headline counts within a small margin.

Limits of the data

• Self-reported and sometimes stale. Providers enter their own addresses and specialties. Some do not update the registry after they move, retire or stop seeing patients, so the counts include some clinicians who no longer practice at the listed address.
• Hospitals and training programs. Clinicians who work at a hospital usually list the hospital’s address. Manhattan has several large academic medical centers, which adds to its count; some doctors in training are also listed under psychiatry.
• One address per provider. We used each provider’s primary practice location. Providers who also see patients at a second office, or only by video, count only at their primary address.
• Listed specialty, not board certification. The taxonomy code is the specialty a provider chooses in the registry. It is not a check of board certification or license status.
• No information on availability. The registry does not show hours, caseloads, waiting times or whether a clinician accepts new patients.
• ZIP codes and borough lines differ slightly. A few ZIP codes cross borough or county lines; each is placed in the borough that holds most of its land.

Sources

• CMS, NPPES Downloadable File, November 2026 full replacement file: download.cms.gov/nppes/NPI_Files.html
• CMS NPPES full file, November 2021, as archived by the National Bureau of Economic Research: NBER NPI archive, November file
• National Uniform Claim Committee, Health Care Provider Taxonomy code set: taxonomy.nucc.org/
• U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to County Relationship File: national relationship file (text)
• U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2025 county and state estimates: co-est2025-alldata.csv

This page reports public registry data. It does not rate or recommend any clinician or type of clinician.

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