How many massage therapists are in the United States? Why does it even matter?

Knowledge removes the blinders from our eyes and allows us to see our professional landscape. If we want meaningful change to occur within our industry, we must have a map to help us navigate our way.

Ultimately, I do not have a concrete answer, but I estimate we have about 100,000 to 150,000 licensed massage therapists actively practicing.

81,030 are employees, 30% to 50% work for a franchise, and the remainder are employed by other companies.

20,000 to 70,000 working as self-employed LMTs.

If you think my estimation is incorrect help me, see where I am blind.

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How many massage therapists are in the United States according to the ABMP and Zippia?

In 2019 the ABMP reported that 334,219 LMTs were in the industry. As of 2020 this number increased by an estimated 44,475 due to graduates entering the workforce, raising the total to 378,694 licensed massage therapists. The research indicates that this is not a representation of the total number of practicing LMTs, simply the graduates who received a license. In their analysis they believe the number may be 20% fewer.

(https://www.abmp.com/…/how-many-massage-therapists-are….)

If we use Zippia’s estimate for the number of practicing massage therapists, it brings our workforce to a total of 105,687 LMTs.

Zippia uses the following calculation to determine how LMTs remain in the workforce according to the number of years they have been in the industry.

Less than 1 year 23%

1-2 years 30%

3-4 years 13%

5-7 years 16%

8-10 years 6%

11+ years 12%

(https://www.zippia.com/massage-therapist-jobs/demographics/)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics states there were 107,240 LMTs in 2019, and 81,030 in 2021. These stats do not include self-employed LMTs.

(https://www.bls.gov/oes/2019/may/oes319011.htm)

(https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes319011.htm)

What do we know about the number of LMTs in the industry? We know that as of 2020 Envy claims to have had 35,000 practitioners employed by them, and Elements had 3,000.

(https://massagetherapy.nv.gov/…/Item15b2021MassageProfe…)

According to Franchisechatter dot com, as of 2022 the estimated number of franchise locations is 2,261. Massage Envy owns an estimated 1,112 locations (49.18% of all franchise facilities) in the United States.

If the remaining 1,112 franchise locations had an average of 15 LMTs per facility it would increase the total by additional 16,680. Bringing the total estimated LMTs employed by the chains to 54,680. This would be an estimated 16.3% of our workforce if we did actually have 334,219 active LMTs in 2019.

If we use Zippia’s 105,687 estimate for the number of practicing massage therapists, the LMT’s employed by the chains would be an estimated 51.73%.