Urgent care has become a substantial part of the U.S. healthcare system. The Urgent Care Association reports more than 185 million patients treated in urgent care settings each year and 15,334 urgent care centers nationwide. The figures below describe the scale, availability, use, and operating patterns of urgent care, with measurement periods kept explicit.
Contents
- The size of the urgent care network
- Patient volume and access
- How people use urgent care
- Age, generation, and usual sources of care
- Hours, wait times, and center operations
- Financial and organizational benchmarks
The size of the urgent care network
The U.S. urgent care footprint has expanded considerably over the past decade. The 2023 Urgent Care Industry White Paper counted 7,220 centers in 2014, 7,983 in 2015, and 8,676 in 2016. The count rose to 9,553 in 2017, 10,484 in 2018, and 11,481 in 2019. It reached 12,392 in 2020, 13,306 in 2021, 14,075 in 2022, and 14,382 in 2023.
The same industry source describes the broader trend as growth from about 9,000 centers in 2016 to about 15,000 in 2024. Its July 2023 count was 14,382 centers, while the Urgent Care Association data page lists 15,334 centers. These totals come from different source publications and measurement points, so they should be read as reported counts rather than a single perfectly synchronized series.
The change from 11,481 centers at the end of 2019 to 14,075 at the end of 2022 also illustrates expansion across a defined period. The 2023 Urgent Care Industry White Paper reported that urgent care centers treated almost 206 million non-emergent cases in 2022. For context, the same white paper reported about 131 million annual emergency department visits.
Access is not evenly described by center count alone. More than 78% of the U.S. population lived within a 10-minute drive of an urgent care center, according to the 2023 Urgent Care Industry White Paper. The source also reported that suburban urgent care growth increased nearly 20% from 2019 to 2022. Among multi-center organizations in the 2023 Finance Benchmarking Report, 55% had centers in both urban and suburban areas.
Patient volume and access
The Urgent Care Association reports that urgent care settings care for more than 185 million patients each year. The 2023 Finance Benchmarking Report provides a more operational view: the median urgent care patient volume was 56 patients per day. That median included 40 provider visits, 5 occupational medicine visits, 4 workers’ compensation visits, 4 nurse visits, and 3 digital health visits.
The component figures show that urgent care activity is not limited to a single type of encounter. Provider visits made up the largest reported part of the median daily volume, while occupational medicine, workers’ compensation, nurse, and digital health visits represented additional service lines. These are median daily figures from the benchmarking report, not a national average for every center.
The 2023 Urgent Care Industry White Paper used a separate calculation: 40 provider visits per day across 14,230 centers implied more than 200 million patient visits per year. Because this is an implication based on the stated daily volume and center count, it is best treated as an industry estimate rather than a direct count of every encounter.
Patient access also depends on when centers are open. More than 67% of centers were open every day of the week, according to the 2023 Urgent Care Industry White Paper. The report separately stated that 18% were closed on weekends and 11% were open every day except Sunday. These categories describe differing schedules and should not be added together without knowing whether the survey categories overlap.
The same report found that 47.1% of patients typically waited 11 to 20 minutes to see a provider. A typical wait is not the same as a guaranteed wait, and the statistic does not describe every location or every visit. It does, however, provide a benchmark for the patient experience reported in the 2023 Finance Benchmarking Report.
How people use urgent care
CDC/NCHS figures cited in the 2023 Urgent Care Industry White Paper show urgent care and retail clinic use among both adults and children in 2021. In that year, 26.5% of adults visited an urgent care or retail health clinic. Among children, 8.4% had two or more urgent care or retail health clinic visits in the prior year.
The same 2021 comparison included other sources of care. A total of 82.3% of adults had visited a doctor’s office, and 91% of children had visited a doctor’s office. For emergency care, 18% of adults visited an emergency department, while 3.6% of children had two or more emergency room visits.
These measures use different thresholds: some report whether a person visited during the year, while the child urgent care and emergency-room measures specify two or more visits. They therefore indicate patterns of use without forming a direct ranking of the settings.
The availability of a regular clinician also matters. About three quarters of consumers had a primary care physician, according to the 2023 Urgent Care Industry White Paper. The report also cited a projected U.S. physician shortage ranging from 37,800 to 124,000 physicians by 2034. That is a forecast range, not a current shortage count, and it helps explain why access statistics may be relevant alongside primary care use.
Age, generation, and usual sources of care
The 2023 Urgent Care Industry White Paper reported marked differences in recent use by generation. About 36% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers said they had used urgent care in the previous six months, compared with 19% of Boomers and Silent Generation members. For visits more than three times in the previous 12 months, the reported shares were 56% for Gen Z, 45% for Millennials, 26% for Boomers, and 22% for the Silent Generation.
Reported satisfaction also differed in that source. Around 80% of Boomers and Silent Generation respondents expressed satisfaction with their healthcare experiences, compared with 54% of Gen Z respondents. These are survey responses and should be interpreted as perceptions among the reported respondent groups, not clinical outcomes.
More recent NCHS Data Brief 558 figures describe the source of usual health care among U.S. adults in 2024. Overall, 90.3% of adults had some source of usual health care. A doctor’s office or health center was the reported source for 77.5%, while an urgent care center or a clinic in a drug store or grocery store was the source for 8.6%.
The 2024 urgent care or retail-clinic share was 8.9% for men and 8.3% for women. By age, the shares were 12.2% among adults ages 18 to 34, 10.5% among adults ages 35 to 49, 6.8% among adults ages 50 to 64, and 3.8% among adults age 65 and older.
| Usual source of care or related measure | 2024 share | Source or population |
|---|---|---|
| Urgent care or clinic in a drug store or grocery store | 8.6% | U.S. adults; NCHS Data Brief 558 |
| Doctor’s office or health center | 77.5% | U.S. adults; NCHS Data Brief 558 |
| VA medical center or VA outpatient clinic | 1.5% | U.S. adults; NCHS Data Brief 558 |
| Hospital emergency room | 1.7% | U.S. adults; NCHS Data Brief 558 |
| Hospital emergency room | 22.0% | Adults ages 18–34; NCHS Data Brief 558 |
| Doctor’s office or health center | 88.8% | Adults age 65 and older; NCHS Data Brief 558 |
The emergency-room figures show why age-specific reporting matters: 1.7% of all adults reported a hospital emergency room as their usual source of care, compared with 22.0% of adults ages 18 to 34. These are usual-source measures from 2024, not annual visit rates.
Hours, wait times, and center operations
Urgent care centers vary in schedule, ownership, service mix, and location. The reported schedule figures show broad daily availability alongside a meaningful minority of centers with weekend limitations: over 67% were open every day, 18% were closed on weekends, and 11% were open every day except Sunday. For someone seeking care, the local center’s schedule remains more useful than a national percentage.
Operating benchmarks also changed across the periods covered by the 2023 Finance Benchmarking Report. Nearly 60% of respondents reported declining patient-per-day numbers compared with 2020–2022. At the same time, 68.5% said revenue per visit stayed consistent from 2020–2022 to 2023, while more than 13% saw a decline in revenue per visit.
The report tracked accounts receivable in several categories. Average days in accounts receivable for all claims fell from 108.3 days in 2020 to 49.9 days in 2022. For patient claims, the figures were 28.4 days in 2020, 31.6 in 2021, and 31.9 in 2022. For non-COVID claims, the figures were 58.8 days in 2020, 51.4 in 2021, and 40.1 in 2022.
The average copayment collection rate at the time of service rose from 72% in 2019 to 76% in 2023. In both 2019 and 2023, 51% of total payer revenue was reimbursed at a global rate, according to the benchmarking report.
Financial and organizational benchmarks
The 2023 Finance Benchmarking Report described how urgent care centers’ expense mix changed between 2018 and 2023. Medical supplies rose from 5.4% of overall expenses in 2018 to 15.2% in 2023. Salary and benefits declined from 61.5% to 47.4%, while rent and lease moved from 10.8% to 9.9%.
Other reported changes were smaller or more specialized. Marketing represented 3.3% of expenses in 2018 and 3.1% in 2023. Computer software and EMR fees moved from 4.2% to 4.4%. Office operating expenses rose from 6.3% to 6.9%, and professional and outsourced services rose from 2.2% to 4.3%. Computer hardware declined from 5.8% to 1.4%.
The report also described shifts in center structure. Combined urgent care and primary care centers increased from 5.1% in 2022 to 45% in 2023. Self-reported high-acuity centers fell from 10.3% to 1%, while hospital-owned or joint-venture centers fell from 52% to 33%. Sole ownership jumped 20% in one year.
Among surveyed centers, 62.3% used a combination of buying and leasing real estate, 23.6% leased their space, and 14.0% bought all of their centers’ real estate. Among leasing centers, 39% wanted three- to five-year terms, 29% wanted nine- to ten-year terms, 16% wanted terms longer than ten years, and 3% wanted one- to two-year terms.
Payer mix was also quantified for 2022. Commercial health plans provided 57.8% of reimbursements, self-pay discounted or full-fee arrangements 18.7%, Medicaid HMO or managed Medicaid 14.2%, Medicaid fee schedule payments 6.5%, Medicare fee schedule payments 6.3%, Medicare HMO or Medicare Advantage 3.3%, employer-paid occupational health 3.1%, TRICARE 3.1%, direct employer contractual agreements 1.0%, and workers’ compensation 6.2%. Separately, 95% of Finance Benchmarking respondents reported reimbursements from the Medicare fee schedule.
Growth expectations were similarly specific. Nearly 70% of urgent care organizations considered acquisition an attractive future growth initiative, while less than 2% considered raising debt capital attractive. If they sold, 83.6% expected a financial investor to be the most likely buyer, 9.6% expected a health system, 5.8% another urgent care operator, and 1.0% some other buyer.
For 2023 financial performance, nearly half of respondents expected the same performance as in 2022, 31% expected better performance, and 21% expected worse performance. These expectations are survey results about anticipated performance, not audited results.