How many therapists does Polk County have?

A little more than half the providers per resident. In the 2025 provider file, Polk County has 24.1 mental health providers per 10,000 residents. Mecklenburg County has 43.6, North Carolina 35.1 and the US 34.8. Put the other way, there is 1 provider for every 415 Polk residents and 1 for every 230 in Mecklenburg.

Polk sits between its neighbors. Rutherford County, which borders Polk to the east, has 21.7 per 10,000 residents; Henderson County, to the north, has 29.2.

The gap is not among psychologists and psychiatrists. North Carolina’s workforce data counts 4 psychologists and 5 physicians in psychiatry whose main practice is in Polk County. Together that is 4.54 per 10,000 residents, close to Mecklenburg’s 4.69 and above the state’s 3.73. Psychiatry on its own is higher in Polk (2.52) than in Mecklenburg (1.82), though with numbers this small one person more or less moves the rate a lot. That points to the other professions in the federal count (counselors, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists and others) as where Polk is thinner. The state data we could get does not count those professions by county, so we cannot show it directly.

Small numbers, steady over time. Polk County has had between 4 and 7 psychologists in every year from 2000 to 2025, and no psychological associates since 2012.

Shortage designations in both places. Polk County’s low-income residents are part of a federal mental health shortage area that covers 8 western North Carolina counties, with a score of 16. It was designated on November 12, 2020 and last updated on September 22, 2025. Mecklenburg County has no countywide designation, but 4 designations cover low-income residents of groups of Charlotte census tracts, with scores from 16 to 18.

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a program of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, counts mental health providers in the federal National Provider Identifier registry and assigns each one to a county by address. We used its supplemental data release of March 25, 2026, which uses the 2025 registry file.

The North Carolina Health Professions Data System, run by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC Chapel Hill, counts active, licensed health professionals practicing in North Carolina as of October 31 each year, by primary practice location. We used psychologists, psychological associates and physicians in psychiatry, every year on file. Shortage designations come from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s mental health detail file of November 11, 2026.

A script in the site’s code downloads the data and computes every figure on this page; a second script checks the figures against separate copies of the data: a different file format of the same release, other parts of the Sheps Center’s data service, and HRSA’s map service.

Limits

• Neither count is a list of therapists taking new clients. The federal registry relies on providers to keep their own records up to date, and a listed provider may work part-time, have a full caseload or not take insurance.
• County Health Rankings changed how it matches providers to counties in September 2025 and advises against comparing years across the change. Its previous release (2024 file, older method) counted 45 providers in Polk County; we do not treat the difference as growth.
• The state data does not count counselors, clinical social workers or marriage and family therapists by county, so the trend since 2015 is shown only for psychologists and psychiatry.
• Counts are by office address. A provider who sees clients by video is counted where their office is, not where their clients live.
• In a county of Polk’s size, one provider more or less moves the rate per 10,000 residents by about half a point.
• The Polk County count may include this practice, which has a part-time office in Columbus.

Sources

1. Analytic data, supplemental release (Mental Health Providers, CMS NPI file 2025), County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. released March 25, 2026.
2. Mental Health Providers: definition and methods, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. method updated September 24, 2025.
3. NC Health Professions Data System: psychologists, psychological associates and psychiatry, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, UNC Chapel Hill. as of October 31 each year, 2000-2025.
4. Health Professional Shortage Areas, mental health (detail file), HRSA. file of November 11, 2026.

These are population figures for places, not a description of any person, and not medical advice. In a crisis, call or text 988.