Surgery Physician
44,791 active US providers register Surgery Physician as their primary taxonomy. That is 0.5% of every provider in the registry, and the 49th largest of 584 specialties with a page here.
- Taxonomy code
- 208600000X
- Grouping
- Allopathic & Osteopathic Physicians
- Classification
- Surgery
- Active providers
- 44,791
- States covered
- 51 of 51
What the code means
A general surgeon has expertise related to the diagnosis - preoperative, operative and postoperative management - and management of complications of surgical conditions in the following areas: alimentary tract; abdomen; breast, skin and soft tissue; endocrine system; head and neck surgery; pediatric surgery; surgical critical care; surgical oncology; trauma and burns; and vascular surgery. General surgeons increasingly provide care through the use of minimally invasive and endoscopic techniques. Many general surgeons also possess expertise in transplantation surgery, plastic surgery and cardiothoracic surgery.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| California | 4,195 | |
| Texas | 3,070 | |
| Florida | 2,746 | |
| New York | 2,620 | |
| Pennsylvania | 2,376 | |
| Illinois | 1,842 | |
| Michigan | 1,770 | |
| North Carolina | 1,589 | |
| Ohio | 1,572 | |
| Georgia | 1,402 | |
| Massachusetts | 1,146 | |
| New Jersey | 1,136 | |
| Virginia | 1,133 | |
| Arizona | 1,053 | |
| Maryland | 1,010 |
Showing the 15 largest of 51 states with at least one.
Who registers under this code
34,049 of these are people and 10,742 are organisations, so 24% of the code is businesses rather than clinicians. Half of them had registered by 2007, and 4,570 registered in the last five years, 10% of the current population.
That is a slow-growing code, which usually means an established field replacing retirements rather than expanding.
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.
- CHICAGO, IL626
- NEW YORK, NY520
- PHILADELPHIA, PA484
- HOUSTON, TX471
- BOSTON, MA454
- LOS ANGELES, CA358
- BALTIMORE, MD304
- SAINT LOUIS, MO280
- DALLAS, TX278
- BROOKLYN, NY250
What else they list
Providers whose primary code is Surgery Physician 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Student in an Organized Health Care Education/Training Program | 2,995 | 6.7% |
| Surgical Critical Care Physician | 1,296 | 2.9% |
| Vascular Surgery Physician | 1,043 | 2.3% |
| Trauma Surgery Physician | 826 | 1.8% |
| Surgical Oncology Physician | 649 | 1.4% |
| Colon & Rectal Surgery Physician | 536 | 1.2% |
| Specialist | 469 | 1.0% |
| Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) Physician | 387 | 0.9% |
Nearby specialties
Other taxonomies NUCC files under Surgery.
- Vascular Surgery Physician7,657
- Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Physician4,481
- Surgical Oncology Physician2,396
- Surgical Critical Care Physician2,084
- Pediatric Surgery Physician1,708
- Trauma Surgery Physician1,636
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.