As designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a primary care health professional shortage area (HPSA) is a geographic area, population group, or facility where residents have inadequate access to basic medical care because too few primary care physicians service that population.  As of December 31, 2022, more than 98.5 million Americans lived in HRSA-designated primary care HPSAs.  With over 32.8 million residents living in primary care shortage areas, the twelve-state Southeast accounted for one-third of the U.S. population who lived in primary care HPSAs as of 12/31/22.  The HRSA estimates that to eliminate this shortage, Southeast region HPSAs would need nearly 5,300 additional primary care physicians.  A deeper examination of 12/31/22 HRSA data reveals the following state-level view of the Southeast's primary care shortage:

The Southeast's Primary Care Shortage

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortage
AL	129	2,863,772	354
AR	127	1,105,866	144
FL	306	7,688,768	1,745
GA	247	3,369,911	683
KY	253	2,043,331	319
LA	183	2,590,723	298
MS	181	2,035,170	330
NC	222	3,216,821	498
SC	106	1,989,936	209
TN	148	2,582,889	304
VA	149	2,536,647	261
WV	120	787,032	138
Region	2,171	32,810,866	5,283
U.S.	8,294	98,537,257	17,065
% of U.S.	26.2%	33.3%	31.0%

(1) Designated Geographic, Population Group, and Facility HPSAs with a primary care shortage

(2) Population of designated HPSAs

(3) Primary Care practitioners needed to remove HPSA Designation

Source:  Designated HPSA Quarterly Summary, 12/31/22 (HRSA)