About half of US pharmacy locations belong to 90 firms.
Firms with 5,000 or more staff own 21,300 of the 42,700 pharmacy locations. The rest are spread across about 18,800 firms.
Enquirer Consulting Group
Buyer Map: Independent Pharmacies in the US
Prepared for Pete Shier | American Associated Pharmacies | October 2026
As of Oct 6, 2026. Counts from federal business statistics for 2022 and 2023
AAP's membership is open to independent community pharmacy owners, with one location or several. This page sizes that group of owners in the United States from public federal counts of pharmacy businesses, split by the size of the firm that owns each location. It counts firms and locations, not people, and it says nothing about which of them already belong to AAP.
Pharmacy firms under 500 staff
18,700
Between them they own 20,700 locations, 2022.
Firms under 20 staff
16,700
They own 17,000 locations, close to one each.
Firms with 20 to 499 staff
1,900
Larger single stores and small groups, 3,600 locations.
Locations owned by the largest firms
21,300
90 firms with 5,000 or more staff, about 50% of all US pharmacy locations.
Who owns the country's pharmacies
Every US pharmacy firm with paid staff in 2022, 18,900 firms and 42,700 locations, grouped by how many people the whole firm employs.
| Owner group | Fits AAP's membership rule | Firms | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owners with fewer than 20 staff | Likely, almost all single stores | 16,700 | 17,000 |
| Owners with 20 to 499 staff | Likely, larger single stores and small groups | 1,900 | 3,600 |
| Firms with 500 or more staff | No, mostly chains and other large owners | 200 | 22,100 |
Where the independent locations are
The ten states with the most pharmacy locations owned by firms under 500 staff, 2022, with Ohio added.
| State | Independent locations | All pharmacy locations | Independent share |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 2,800 | 4,300 | 65% |
| California | 2,200 | 4,300 | 50% |
| Texas | 1,600 | 3,200 | 49% |
| Florida | 1,200 | 2,900 | 42% |
| Pennsylvania | 930 | 2,100 | 45% |
| New Jersey | 920 | 1,700 | 55% |
| Michigan | 840 | 1,700 | 50% |
| Georgia | 700 | 1,300 | 52% |
| North Carolina | 660 | 1,500 | 44% |
| Alabama | 560 | 890 | 63% |
| Ohio (ranked 15) | 400 | 1,300 | 31% |
What the counts show
Most independent owners run one store.
16,700 firms with fewer than 20 staff own 17,000 locations. A smaller group of 1,900 owners runs 3,600 locations between them, about 1.9 each.
The independent share changes a lot by state.
In New York it is about 65% of pharmacy locations. In California it is about 50%. In Ohio it is about 31%.
Denominators, definitions and sources
- Firms and locations are from the federal annual statistics of US businesses for 2022, industry 446110, pharmacies and drug stores, employer firms only. A location is one physical site with paid staff. Firm size counts all of a firm's paid staff, in every line of business, in March 2022. 2022 is the newest year published with this split.
- The state table uses the same release's state file. Locations add up to the national figure. A firm with locations in several states counts once in each state.
- Industry 446110 covers retail pharmacies and drug stores, and some long-term care and specialty pharmacies. Mail-order pharmacies are classed under another industry and are not counted.
- The newest federal count, for 2023, shows 41,800 pharmacy and drug store locations in all, against 42,700 in 2022. That count does not split by firm size.
- AAP's membership rule is as AAP's own site states it, read through public search results on Oct 6, 2026. Figures over 100 are rounded on purpose.
The named version of this page, the actual pharmacies inside a row, is built one row at a time. Reply on the thread, or write to my colleague Matthew, your point of contact from here, at matthew@enquirerai.com.
Enquirer Consulting Group | enquirerconsulting.com