In 2023, approximately 4,400 licensed psychologists in the United States (4%) held at least one American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) board certification.1 Psychologists were most commonly ABPP board certified in clinical neuropsychology (30%), clinical psychology (27%), and clinical child and adolescent psychology (7%).
According to a 2021 APA survey, the most common self-reported primary areas of specialty among licensed psychologists were clinical psychology (44%), clinical child and adolescent psychology (11%). Behavioral and cognitive is the third most common specialty (10%) and counseling is 10%.2
Number of board certified psychologists by state
The geographic distribution of board-certified psychologists across states is similar to the distribution of all licensed psychologists.3 California (427), New York (295), Florida (279), Texas (258), and Ohio (181) had the largest numbers of board-certified psychologists in 2023.4 California, New York, Florida, and Texas also had the four highest populations in 2023.5
Specialty areas
1 American Board of Professional Psychology. (2023). ABPP directory. ABPP provides certification of doctoral-level licensed psychologists who demonstrate competence in various specialty areas. Retired psychologists were excluded. The authors acknowledge David Cox and Rob Davis for assistance with obtaining data. This report includes 15 specialty boards and one subspecialty board fully affiliated with ABPP in 2023, as well as two new boards in the process of affiliating with ABPP.
2 American Psychological Association. (2022). 2021 survey of health service psychologists [Unpublished special analysis]. A self-reported specialty is separate from formal demonstration of competency in the specialty area. APA recognizes specialties via the Commission for the Recognition of Specialties and Subspecialties in Professional Psychology (CRSSPP). CRSSPP specialties may have different names from ABPP specialties. This report includes 17 specialties recognized by CRSSPP at the time of survey data collection (Spring 2021).
3 National Center for the Analysis of Healthcare Data. (2022). Enhanced state licensure data [Unpublished special analysis]. Only doctoral-level psychologists with active licenses were included.
4 States were based on addresses listed as residence/office in the ABPP Directory.
5 U.S. Census. (2022, December). Annual estimates of the resident population for the United States, regions, states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2022 (NST-EST2022-OP).
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