Bureau of Labor Statistics Chiropractor Data: Salary, Employment & Job Outlook (2026 Guide)

How Much Do Chiropractors Make? The Official BLS Numbers

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for chiropractors was $79,000 as of May 2024, which works out to about $37.98 per hour. Half of American chiropractors earn more than that figure, and half earn less.

The spread around that median is wide, and it's the part most summaries leave out. The lowest-earning 10% of chiropractors made under $44,780, while the top 10% cleared $149,990. That is a more than three-fold gap between the bottom and top of the profession. Earnings climb with years in practice, geography, and especially ownership: chiropractors who own or co-own a practice tend to out-earn associates substantially.

How chiropractor pay compares with similar professions

How Many Chiropractors Are in the U.S.?

There were 57,200 chiropractor jobs in the United States in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is the most current official count. BLS projects that number to reach 62,600 by 2034, adding 5,400 positions over the decade.

If you've seen a smaller figure floating around, here's why: BLS publishes two different counts, and they measure different things.

Both numbers are correct; they simply answer different questions. When journalists cite "the number of chiropractors in America," the 57,200 total-employment figure is the right one, because more than a third of the profession works for themselves and would be invisible in payroll data.

For scale: that works out to roughly 17 chiropractors for every 100,000 Americans, though the concentration varies enormously by state. The upper Midwest has more than double the national rate, as the state data below shows.

Chiropractor Salary by State: The BLS Map

Pay varies dramatically by state, and not in the direction most people guess. The highest published average wage isn't in California or New York. It's in Alaska, at $134,020, followed by Arkansas, Nevada, Oklahoma, and New Jersey. Meanwhile some of the states with the most chiropractors per capita (Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota) pay below the national average. That's a classic supply-and-demand signature.

Top-paying states for chiropractors

States employing the most chiropractors

*California's wage estimate was not released by BLS for this period. LQ = location quotient (1.0 = national average concentration). Payroll employment only.

Where chiropractic is most concentrated

Relative to total jobs, no region embraces chiropractic like the upper Midwest. North Dakota has 2.25× the national concentration of chiropractors, with Nebraska and Iowa close behind at 2.21×. There's history behind that: the world's first chiropractic school opened in Davenport, Iowa, in 1897, and the Midwest has trained a disproportionate share of D.C.s ever since.

Highest-Paying Cities for Chiropractors

Metro-level data reveals even sharper contrasts than state figures. Anchorage tops the nation at nearly $150,000, while Chicago, one of the largest chiropractic job markets, averages just $60,960.

Source: BLS OEWS May 2023, top-paying metropolitan areas for occupation 29-1011.

Where Chiropractors Work, and Who Pays Best

Chiropractic remains a profession of small practices. Per the BLS, 61% of chiropractors work in offices of chiropractors and 35% are self-employed, meaning roughly 24 in 25 work in a private-practice setting rather than a hospital or health system.

The irony in the pay data: the rare hospital-employed chiropractor earns the most. General medical and surgical hospitals paid an average of $125,870, about 40% above the private-office average, but employed only about 100 chiropractors nationwide.

Source: BLS OEWS May 2023 industry profile, occupation 29-1011. Payroll employees only.

Job Outlook: One of Healthcare's Faster-Growing Professions

BLS projects chiropractor employment to grow 10% between 2024 and 2034, more than three times the 3% average for all U.S. occupations, and ahead of the 8% average for healthcare diagnosing and treating practitioners as a group.

BLS attributes the growth to two forces. First, demand for drug-free, non-surgical pain treatment continues to rise as patients and physicians alike look for alternatives to opioids and back surgery. Second, an aging population means more neuromusculoskeletal and joint problems, the exact conditions chiropractors treat. The agency projects about 2,800 job openings per year through 2034, counting both new positions and replacement of retiring practitioners.

Frequently Asked Questions

About This Data

This page compiles chiropractor statistics from two Bureau of Labor Statistics programs. National medians, workforce counts, and 2024-34 projections come from the Occupational Outlook Handbook (May 2024 wage data; last modified August 2025). State, metro, industry, and percentile detail comes from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2023 release, the most recent cycle for which BLS published full static state highlight tables. Each figure is labeled with its survey year. OEWS covers payroll employees only; self-employed practitioners are excluded from wage estimates. We re-verify this page against BLS.gov after each annual OEWS release.

Primary sources

• U.S. BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Chiropractors (bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/chiropractors.htm)
• U.S. BLS, OEWS Occupational Employment and Wages, 29-1011 Chiropractors, May 2023 (bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes291011.htm)
• U.S. BLS, Employment Projections 2024-34, National Employment Matrix 29-1011 (data.bls.gov/projections)
• U.S. BLS, OEWS Data Tables, all states, XLSX (bls.gov/oes/tables.htm)