Optician
10,660 active US providers register Optician as their primary taxonomy. That is 0.1% of every provider in the registry, and the 128th largest of 584 specialties with a page here.
- Taxonomy code
- 156FX1800X
- Grouping
- Eye and Vision Services Providers
- Classification
- Technician/Technologist
- Specialization
- Optician
- Active providers
- 10,660
- States covered
- 51 of 51
What the code means
Opticians help fit eyeglasses and contact lenses, following prescriptions from Ophthalmologists and Optometrists. They also help customers decide which eyeglass frame or contact lenses to buy.
Definition quoted verbatim from the NUCC Health Care Provider Taxonomy code set, version 25.1. Not paraphrased.
Where they are
Counted by practice location, not by mailing address or by licence state. A provider practising across a state line is counted where they practise.
| State | Providers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| New York | 1,599 | |
| Florida | 967 | |
| Ohio | 829 | |
| California | 594 | |
| Texas | 495 | |
| Georgia | 400 | |
| New Jersey | 385 | |
| Massachusetts | 381 | |
| Pennsylvania | 364 | |
| Kentucky | 342 | |
| Virginia | 330 | |
| Connecticut | 303 | |
| South Carolina | 302 | |
| North Carolina | 239 | |
| Arizona | 212 |
Showing the 15 largest of 51 states with at least one.
Who registers under this code
6,950 of these are people and 3,710 are organisations, so 35% of the code is businesses rather than clinicians. Half of them had registered by 2014, and 3,549 registered in the last five years, 33% of the current population.
That is close to the pace of the registry as a whole.
Where the practices are
By practice-location city. City counts are noisier than state counts, because a large employer files one address for many providers.
- BROOKLYN, NY209
- NEW YORK, NY101
- MIAMI, FL89
- ROCHESTER, NY69
- HOUSTON, TX52
- PHILADELPHIA, PA46
- STATEN ISLAND, NY44
- BRONX, NY43
- CHICAGO, IL41
- HIALEAH, FL40
What else they list
Providers whose primary code is Optician most often carry these secondary taxonomies as well. This is the closest thing the registry has to a map of which specialties overlap in practice, and it is not published anywhere else.
| Also listed | Providers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Eyewear Supplier | 620 | 5.8% |
| Contact Lens Fitter | 137 | 1.3% |
| Contact Lens Technician/Technologist | 136 | 1.3% |
| Optometrist | 134 | 1.3% |
| Optometric Technician | 28 | 0.3% |
| Technician/Technologist | 27 | 0.3% |
| Ophthalmic Technician/Technologist | 25 | 0.2% |
| Durable Medical Equipment & Medical Supplies | 24 | 0.2% |
Nearby specialties
Other taxonomies NUCC files under Technician/Technologist.
Looking up a specific provider
These counts come from the monthly NPPES file. To check one provider, use their NPI: the lookup reads the live registry and shows whether the identifier is still active, which the monthly file cannot tell you about the last few weeks.
Counts from npidata_pfile_20050523-20260712.csv, built 2026-08-09. Primary taxonomy only, deactivated identifiers excluded.