California’s dominance is the clearest signal in this week’s CMS NPI registry data: the state accounts for 1,706 providers, or 18% of the 9,704 records reviewed for 2026-W32. The broader surge is equally striking. More than half of the records—5,015 new records—were added this week, while 5,582 records carry a 2026 enumeration year. Together, the figures point to a behavioral health market expanding rapidly, with new workforce supply and organizational activity arriving at the same time.

California Leads a Concentrated Market

California is well ahead of Texas, which recorded 665 providers, and Florida, with 654 providers. Michigan followed with 469, while Ohio and New York posted 419 and 416, respectively. North Carolina, Colorado, Illinois and Pennsylvania rounded out the next tier, with 407, 307, 305 and 264 providers.

The pattern reflects more than population size. California’s extensive behavioral health infrastructure and large pediatric population support substantial registration activity. Florida’s position is especially familiar to ABA operators: its Medicaid reimbursement program, autism service demand and concentration of school-age children create strong incentives for practitioners and clinics to enroll. The year-to-date entries reinforce the same geography. California recorded 1,029 new providers in 2026, followed by Texas at 383, Florida at 337 and Michigan at 320. States outside the leading markets appear in the data, but at much smaller volumes, underscoring uneven national capacity.

RBTs Anchor the Workforce

Registered Behavior Technicians were the largest primary-taxonomy group, with 2,783 RBTs, representing 29% of primary taxonomy records. Mental health counselors accounted for 1,701, clinical social workers for 1,622, and speech-language pathologists for 872. BCBAs numbered 624, or 6%.

These categories overlap rather than form mutually exclusive groups. A provider can hold multiple taxonomies, and 1,917 providers had a second taxonomy while 760 providers had a third. The 91 dual BCBA-RBT providers illustrate a familiar career path: many practitioners begin as RBTs, then advance to BCBA certification while retaining the earlier designation. RBTs also remain underrepresented in federal registry data compared with the broader workforce, making the BCBA count more visible than a simple headcount of ABA personnel might suggest.

The workforce is predominantly female, with women accounting for 6,627 individuals, or 80%. Men represented 1,314, or 16%, while 327 providers, or 4%, were listed as nonbinary. That distribution aligns with behavioral health’s close ties to education, caregiving and other traditionally female-dominated professions.

Recent Entries Drive the Surge

The enrollment-year data should not be read as a cumulative count of all providers in the registry. It shows when this week’s records were originally enumerated. Most are recent, but older years appear when an established provider’s record is updated. The contrast is still revealing: 2026 contributed 5,582 records, compared with 476 records from 2025, 431 records from 2024 and 461 records from 2023. The concentration in recent years signals both new practitioners entering the field and clinics expanding their provider rosters to meet demand that has accelerated since around 2019.

Chains and Networks Surface Repeatedly

Repeated organization names show how expansion is being operationalized. AUDIOLOGY SERVICES COMPANY USA, LLC appeared 26 times, reflecting a multi-location structure rather than a single practice. CABARRUS ROWAN COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS, INC. appeared 7 times, while NORTHERN LAKES COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH AUTHORITY appeared 6 times. ACTION BEHAVIOR CENTERS THERAPY LLC appeared 3 times; its presence is notable because the company is a prominent private-equity-backed ABA chain known for opening and acquiring locations. BlueSprig also appears through provider records tied to its network.

The combined picture is of a field scaling on two tracks: thousands of individual clinicians and technicians entering or updating their registry records, alongside organizations building larger, multi-site platforms. The result is greater potential supply, but also more payer and credentialing complexity. For clinic operators, the challenge is no longer simply finding demand; it is converting a fast-growing, multidisciplinary workforce into supervised, billable and reliably reimbursed care.