The ABPP collaborated with the American Psychological Association’s Center for Workforce Studies on a Datapoint article, published in the March 2024 issue of the APA Monitor on Psychology. It provides a brief visual snapshot of the workforce distribution of board-certified specialists geographically and across specialty areas. It serves as an update to a previous Datapoint article on the same topic from 2017. According to the 2024 report:
In 2023, approximately 4,400 licensed psychologists in the United States (4%) held at least one American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) board certification. Psychologists were most commonly board certified in clinical neuropsychology (30%), clinical psychology (27%), and clinical child and adolescent psychology (7%).
The geographic distribution of board-certified psychologists across states is similar to the distribution of all licensed psychologists. California (427), New York (295), Florida (279), Texas (258), and Ohio (181) had the largest numbers of board-certified psychologists in 2023. However, it is noted that California, New York, Florida, and Texas also had the four highest populations in 2023.
These reports show that since 2017, the percentage of psychologists who get board certified has held steady, but small (4%). Clinical Neuropsychology usurped Clinical Psychology as the most common board-certification, but the geographic distribution of specialists has remained mostly unchanged. Click on the article links for a visual representation of these trends.
APA’s Center for Workforce Studies provides a variety of interactive tools for visualizing the psychologist workforce across states. Of particular interest to readers are their maps depicting the geographic distribution of licensed psychologists, and their state-level psychologist workforce projections.
References
Lin, L., Christidis, P., Stamm, K. (2017, September 1). A look at psychologists’ specialty areas. Monitor on Psychology, 48(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/09/datapoint
Page, C., Stamm, K., Assefa, M., & Khaddouma, A. (2024, March 1). The most and least common specialty areas for licensed psychologists. Monitor on Psychology, 55(2). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/03/top-psychology-specialties
Alexander Khaddouma, PhD, ABPP
Board Certified in Couple and Family Psychology
Editor of On Board with Professional Psychology
Chair of ABPP Communications Committee
Correspondence: akhaddou@hawaii.edu