Recreation Therapist
2,619 active US providers register Recreation Therapist as their primary taxonomy. That is 0.03% of every provider in the registry, and the 260th largest of 584 specialties with a page here.
- Taxonomy code
- 225800000X
- Grouping
- Respiratory, Developmental, Rehabilitative and Restorative Service Providers
- Classification
- Recreation Therapist
- Active providers
- 2,619
- States covered
- 51 of 51
What the code means
A recreation therapist uses recreational activities for intervention in some physical, social or emotional behavior to bring about a desired change in that behavior and promote the growth and development of the patient.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 356 | |
| California | 296 | |
| Utah | 241 | |
| Texas | 176 | |
| Florida | 128 | |
| New York | 118 | |
| North Carolina | 99 | |
| Illinois | 71 | |
| Pennsylvania | 67 | |
| Washington | 62 | |
| Ohio | 62 | |
| Georgia | 62 | |
| Indiana | 55 | |
| Arizona | 53 | |
| Virginia | 52 |
Showing the 15 largest of 51 states with at least one.
Who registers under this code
2,499 of these are people and 120 are organisations, so 5% of the code is businesses rather than clinicians. Half of them had registered by 2020, and 1,252 registered in the last five years, 48% of the current population.
That is a fast-growing code. A population where a large share registered recently is either a genuinely expanding field or a category NPPES added late, and the taxonomy definition above usually tells you which.
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.
- GRAND RAPIDS, MI51
- SAN ANTONIO, TX47
- PHOENIX, AZ42
- SALT LAKE CITY, UT36
- STERLING HEIGHTS, MI35
- LOS ANGELES, CA31
- LONG BEACH, CA26
- MINNEAPOLIS, MN25
- GAINESVILLE, FL23
- SAN DIEGO, CA23
What else they list
Providers whose primary code is Recreation Therapist 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Behavior Technician | 16 | 0.6% |
| Music Therapist | 15 | 0.6% |
| Specialist | 13 | 0.5% |
| Recreational Therapist Assistant | 12 | 0.5% |
| Counselor | 11 | 0.4% |
| Health Educator | 10 | 0.4% |
| Massage Therapist | 10 | 0.4% |
| Behavior Analyst | 10 | 0.4% |
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.