Who makes up the US dentist workforce? 10 stats to know 

The U.S. dentist workforce is growing, getting younger and becoming more female, while new dental schools are expanding the pipeline of graduates, according to a new report from the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute. 

“The U.S. Dentist Workforce” draws on the latest available data from multiple sources as of November 2026. Most workforce figures are for 2025 and come from the ADA masterfile.

Here are 10 stats to know from the report:

1. The U.S. had 205,088 dentists in 2025, up from 202,400 in 2024 and 163,376 in 2001. Growth had stabilized in recent years as older dentists retired in what the report calls a temporary “surge.” About 79% of dentists, or 161,733, are general practitioners, down slightly from 80% in 2001.
2. A retirement wave is nearly complete. The report found a considerable share of dentists ages 60 and older have left the workforce since 2017, and it expects most baby boomer dentists to have aged out by the late 2020s. Some states still skew older: dentists ages 55 and older make up 45% of Hawaii’s workforce, 43% in New York and 42% in Pennsylvania, compared with 17% in North Dakota and 18% in Montana.
3. The share of dentists who are female rose to 39.4% in 2025 from 16% in 2001. Among dentists younger than 35, 51% are female. The report expects female dentists to become more prominent as new graduates enter the workforce.
4. Pediatric dentistry has grown the most among the eight specialties the report tracks. The number of pediatric dentists rose 126% since 2001, from 4,213 to 9,521, which the report says may be driven in part by the rising share of female dentists. Female dentists make up 58% of pediatric dentists, a majority since 2018, but only 13.2% of oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Orthodontics remains the most prevalent specialty at 10,844 dentists, about 5% of the total workforce.
5. The workforce is more diverse than in 2001 but still does not match the U.S. population. In 2025, 66.2% of dentists were non-Hispanic white, down from 83.1% in 2001. Asian dentists made up 21% of the workforce, compared with 6.6% of the population. Hispanic dentists made up 6.1% of dentists versus 20.5% of the population, and Black dentists made up 3.9% versus 12.3% of the population.
6. The U.S. had about 60 dentists per 100,000 people in 2025, a ratio that has been stable for more than 10 years because the dentist workforce has grown as fast as the population.
7. The gap between urban and rural supply is widening. Urban areas had 65.3 dentists per 100,000 people in 2025, compared with 32.6 in rural areas. The rural ratio was 35.6 dentists per 100,000 people in 2015. The report says the gap may continue to grow because younger dentists are less likely to practice in rural areas.
8. Most states lost ground. From 2015 to 2025, 14 states saw an increase in dentists per 100,000 people, led by North Carolina (up 16.2%), Nevada (up 8.9%) and Hawaii (up 7.1%). The largest declines were in North Dakota (down 13.3%), Connecticut (down 11.1%) and Pennsylvania (down 10.1%). The report cites retirement rates and migration of new dentists between states as factors.
9. There are 79 dental schools in the U.S. as of 2026, including 25 that have opened since 2001. Applications to U.S. dental schools reached 13,657 in 2025, the highest in nearly 20 years and up 22% from 2023. First-year enrollment rose to 7,296 in 2025, including 1,980 students at new schools. The report attributes most of the surge since 2020 to new school openings.
10. A record number of dentists graduated in 2025: 7,015, up 57% in two decades. Female dentists have made up more than half of each graduating class since 2019, reaching 56.4% in 2025. Graduates of historically underrepresented races and ethnicities rose to 18.1% from 11.5% in 2005. The report expects the number of dentists per capita to grow over the next 15 years.