Market rankings · Health care
Top markets for urgent care and walk-in clinics
Every U.S. metro area, small-town market and county, ranked by the Groundwork market score for urgent care and walk-in clinics. The score weighs household spending per clinic, households per business, population growth and spending power.
- Listings in the U.S.
- 6,781
- 1,634 chain locations (24%)
- Official establishments
- 10,042
- +32.0% since 2019
- Household spending a year
- $166.4B
- On medical and dental services
- Listings per 10k households
- 0.5
- Spending per listing: $24.5M
A site report maps the urgent care and walk-in clinics on map listings around the address by name and distance, and the spending within reach.
Free10 actions over 3 days, no cardSurvey estimates 2020–2024 · population estimates 2025 · official business counts 2023 · map listings September 2026 · Data credits · How we measure
What this means
The U.S. has 6,781 urgent care and walk-in clinics on map listings as of September 2026. Chain locations make up 24% of them. That is 0.5 per 10,000 households.
At $1,288 per household, households in the U.S. spend about $166.4B a year on medical and dental services. That works out to $24.5M per clinic. The spending figure covers all medical and dental services, not only urgent care and walk-in clinics.
In 2023, official counts showed 10,042 businesses with payroll in the U.S. classed as freestanding emergency and urgent care centers, up 32.0% from 2019. They employ 196,178 people, with $12.5B in annual payroll.
The Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro area has the highest market score for urgent care and walk-in clinics among 197 scored metro areas, at 92. In the 10 highest-scoring metro areas, the median spending per clinic is 63% above the U.S. figure, and the median rate of listings per household is 30% below the U.S. rate.
Top markets
These tables (CSV)Ranked by the Groundwork market score, which weighs household spending per competitor, households per business with payroll, population growth and spending power against every other market of the same kind. How the score works.
Top metro areas of 1 million people or more
| Market | Score | Listings | Per 10k households | Spending per listing | Population growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 82 | 71 | 0.5 | $34.1M | +2.6% |
| 5Richmond, VA | 81 | 15 | 0.3 | $43.1M | +5.5% |
| 6Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | 80 | 37 | 0.3 | $49.4M | +4.1% |
| 7Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 79 | 78 | 0.5 | $32.3M | +3.3% |
| 10San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 77 | 34 | 0.5 | $36.2M | −0.6% |
| 11San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 76 | 60 | 0.3 | $49.1M | −2.4% |
| 13Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | 76 | 36 | 0.4 | $34.8M | +5.4% |
| 16St. Louis, MO-IL | 75 | 46 | 0.4 | $37.4M | −0.2% |
| 18Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI | 73 | 27 | 0.4 | $35.6M | 0.0% |
| 21Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | 72 | 19 | 0.4 | $32.4M | +3.0% |
| 23Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | 71 | 15 | 0.3 | $42.7M | +3.8% |
| 25Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 71 | 84 | 0.4 | $33.6M | +2.3% |
| 27Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 70 | 38 | 0.4 | $33.2M | +3.2% |
| 28Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI | 70 | 26 | 0.6 | $25M | +2.8% |
| 31Providence-Warwick, RI-MA | 68 | 26 | 0.4 | $32.5M | +2.1% |
Top 50 metro areas
Too few small-town markets have 5 or more urgent care and walk-in clinics on map listings to rank them against each other.
Top 25 counties
| Market | Score | Listings | Per 10k households | Spending per listing | Population growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Dane County, WI | 91 | 5 | 0.2 | $78.8M | +4.9% |
| 2St. Charles County, MO | 88 | 6 | 0.4 | $44.5M | +4.9% |
| 3Denver County, CO | 84 | 9 | 0.3 | $53.5M | +3.2% |
| 4Polk County, IA | 84 | 6 | 0.3 | $51.5M | +4.8% |
| 5Pinal County, AZ | 83 | 5 | 0.3 | $41M | +25.4% |
| 6Loudoun County, VA | 82 | 8 | 0.6 | $30.5M | +6.4% |
| 7King County, WA | 80 | 44 | 0.5 | $34.9M | +3.1% |
| 8Washington County, MN | 80 | 7 | 0.7 | $26.6M | +6.9% |
| 9Anoka County, MN | 80 | 9 | 0.7 | $24.7M | +4.7% |
| 10Larimer County, CO | 79 | 7 | 0.5 | $30.8M | +4.8% |
| 11San Mateo County, CA | 78 | 9 | 0.3 | $52.8M | −2.5% |
| 12Chester County, PA | 78 | 8 | 0.4 | $38.9M | +4.2% |
| 13Hennepin County, MN | 78 | 24 | 0.4 | $37.1M | +0.2% |
| 14Plymouth County, MA | 78 | 10 | 0.5 | $29.2M | +3.5% |
| 15Contra Costa County, CA | 77 | 10 | 0.2 | $68M | +0.3% |
| 16Hudson County, NJ | 77 | 8 | 0.3 | $49.9M | +1.8% |
| 17Orange County, NY | 77 | 5 | 0.4 | $36.5M | +4.2% |
| 18Dakota County, MN | 77 | 12 | 0.7 | $24.3M | +3.9% |
| 19Alameda County, CA | 76 | 19 | 0.3 | $52.1M | −2.6% |
| 20Santa Clara County, CA | 76 | 34 | 0.5 | $35.3M | −0.9% |
| 21Pierce County, WA | 75 | 12 | 0.3 | $41.8M | +2.5% |
| 22Worcester County, MA | 75 | 12 | 0.4 | $36.9M | +3.7% |
| 23Denton County, TX | 75 | 15 | 0.4 | $33.1M | +16.9% |
| 24Thurston County, WA | 75 | 5 | 0.4 | $32.6M | +2.8% |
| 25Suffolk County, MA | 74 | 7 | 0.2 | $62.4M | +0.1% |
Scored: 197 metro areas, 0 small-town markets and 325 counties, each with at least 5 urgent care and walk-in clinics on map listings (counties: 10,000 people or more). Spending per listing is all household spending on medical and dental services over the listings: demand for each competitor, not revenue. Each market has its own page, reached from its state below.
Excel · free with an account
Every market in one Excel file
Urgent care and walk-in clinics figures for all 387 metro areas, 538 small-town markets, 3,144 counties and 51 states: the Groundwork market score and rank, map listings and chains, household spending, businesses with payroll, employees and payroll, one-person businesses, SBA-backed loans, population, income and home value, each linked to its page. Sorted, filterable and ready to screen.
Urgent care and walk-in clinics by state
Every market in each state ranked, with the state’s highest-scoring metro area.
- AlabamaTop metro area: Huntsville metro area · 53
- AlaskaTop metro area: Anchorage metro area · 35
- ArizonaTop metro area: Tucson metro area · 56
- ArkansasTop metro area: Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro area · 60
- CaliforniaTop metro area: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area · 77
- ColoradoTop metro area: Denver-Aurora-Centennial metro area · 80
- ConnecticutTop metro area: Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford metro area · 72
- DelawareNo scored metro area
- District of ColumbiaTop metro area: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area · 48
- FloridaTop metro area: Lakeland-Winter Haven metro area · 75
- GeorgiaTop metro area: Augusta-Richmond County metro area · 35
- HawaiiTop metro area: Urban Honolulu metro area · 36
- IdahoTop metro area: Boise City metro area · 68
- IllinoisTop metro area: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro area · 64
- IndianaTop metro area: Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood metro area · 76
- IowaTop metro area: Des Moines-West Des Moines metro area · 92
- KansasTop metro area: Wichita metro area · 54
- KentuckyTop metro area: Lexington-Fayette metro area · 39
- LouisianaTop metro area: Shreveport-Bossier City metro area · 44
- MaineTop metro area: Portland-South Portland metro area · 82
- MarylandTop metro area: Lexington Park metro area · 36
- MassachusettsTop metro area: Worcester metro area · 77
- MichiganTop metro area: Kalamazoo-Portage metro area · 72
- MinnesotaTop metro area: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metro area · 82
- MississippiTop metro area: Gulfport-Biloxi metro area · 42
- MissouriTop metro area: St. Louis metro area · 75
- MontanaTop metro area: Billings metro area · 40
- NebraskaTop metro area: Omaha metro area · 76
- NevadaTop metro area: Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas metro area · 66
- New HampshireTop metro area: Manchester-Nashua metro area · 63
- New JerseyTop metro area: Trenton-Princeton metro area · 58
- New MexicoTop metro area: Albuquerque metro area · 48
- New YorkTop metro area: Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh metro area · 75
- North CarolinaTop metro area: Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro area · 66
- North DakotaNo scored metro area
- OhioTop metro area: Cincinnati metro area · 63
- OklahomaTop metro area: Oklahoma City metro area · 38
- OregonTop metro area: Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro area · 44
- PennsylvaniaTop metro area: Reading metro area · 71
- Rhode IslandTop metro area: Providence-Warwick metro area · 68
- South CarolinaTop metro area: Greenville-Anderson-Greer metro area · 61
- South DakotaNo scored metro area
- TennesseeTop metro area: Chattanooga metro area · 53
- TexasTop metro area: Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro area · 67
- UtahTop metro area: Ogden metro area · 72
- VermontNo scored metro area
- VirginiaTop metro area: Richmond metro area · 81
- WashingtonTop metro area: Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area · 79
- West VirginiaTop metro area: Huntington-Ashland metro area · 52
- WisconsinTop metro area: Madison metro area · 91
- WyomingNo scored metro area
Related business types
- Doctors, dentists and clinics1,091,367 listings
- Dentists and orthodontists169,203 listings
- Primary care and pediatrics93,457 listings
- Chiropractors69,552 listings
- Physical therapy69,260 listings
- Optometrists and eye care53,116 listings
Questions
Which metro areas have the highest market score for urgent care and walk-in clinics?
The top 5 are Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA (92); Madison, WI (91); Portland-South Portland, ME (82); Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI (82); and Richmond, VA (81). The score compares each of 197 scored metro areas with the others for urgent care and walk-in clinics.
How many urgent care and walk-in clinics are in the U.S.?
Map listings as of September 2026 show 6,781 urgent care and walk-in clinics in the U.S. 1,634 of them (24%) are chain locations. The listings count urgent care and walk-in clinics. Official counts show 10,042 businesses with payroll classed as freestanding emergency and urgent care centers in 2023, up 32.0% from 2019.
How much do U.S. households spend on medical and dental services?
About $166.4B a year, or $1,288 per household. Spread across the 6,781 urgent care and walk-in clinics on map listings, it comes to $24.5M per clinic. That spending covers all medical and dental services, which urgent care and walk-in clinics share with other businesses in the trade. It is estimated from the incomes of the 129,209,336 households in the U.S. and national spending patterns by income.
What is the Groundwork market score?
The Groundwork market score runs from 0 to 100 and compares a market with others of its kind for one business type: states with states, metro areas with metro areas, small-town markets and counties with their own. It weighs household spending per competitor (35%), households per business with payroll (25%), population growth (20%) and spending power (20%), each ranked against those peers. A higher score means that, taken together, the market has more household spending and more households for each business already there, faster population growth and more spending per household than similar markets. It describes a market, not any one site or deal. Markets with fewer than 5 map listings of the type, and counties under 10,000 people, aren’t scored, since a few businesses can swing their figures.
How can I see the market around a specific site?
Run a Groundwork site report on an address anywhere in the U.S. It maps the urgent care and walk-in clinics on map listings near the site and sizes the households and spending within the distance you choose. New accounts get 10 actions over 3 days, no card.
All business types and every U.S. market · How we measure
Screening a site or an acquisition?
A site report maps the competitors on map listings near an address and sizes the households and spending around it.
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures are estimates for research only. Not investment or real estate advice.