15.1 Million Americans Lack County-Level General Surgeon Access
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Washington – September 28, 2026 -- More than 15 million Americans live in one of 1,180 US counties with no general surgeon, according to a national analysis unveiled at the ACS Clinical Congress 2026 and published simultaneously in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
Study maps 12 surgical specialties across all 3,144 US counties for the first time
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill identified 201,394 surgeons practicing nationwide as of April 2025, equal to 59.2 surgeons per 100,000 people. Of the country's 3,144 counties, 951 (30%) had no identified surgeon in any of the 12 specialties, affecting 9.6 million people, while 1,180 counties (38%) had no general surgeon, affecting 15.1 million.