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The Doula Access Index, 2026
How easy is it to hire a doula where you live? We ranked every state (plus DC) by listed doula practices per 100,000 residents — a simple, comparable measure of doula access across America, built from our directory of 9,002 doulas. Nationally there are about 2.65 listed doulas per 100,000 people; 19 states beat that rate. (Journalists & bloggers: cite freely with a link — CSV below.)
Every state, ranked by doula access
Vermont tops the index at 6.01 listed doulas per 100k residents — families there have the country's best odds of finding support close to home. The top five: Vermont, Utah, Oregon, Idaho, Washington.
| # | State | Listed doulas | Per 100k residents |
| 1 | Vermont | 39 | 6.01 |
| 2 | Utah | 178 | 5.08 |
| 3 | Oregon | 213 | 4.99 |
| 4 | Idaho | 92 | 4.6 |
| 5 | Washington | 353 | 4.44 |
| 6 | Rhode Island | 49 | 4.41 |
| 7 | New Hampshire | 62 | 4.4 |
| 8 | Maine | 59 | 4.2 |
| 9 | Colorado | 244 | 4.1 |
| 10 | Massachusetts | 292 | 4.09 |
| 11 | Wyoming | 23 | 3.91 |
| 12 | New Jersey | 331 | 3.48 |
| 13 | Minnesota | 196 | 3.38 |
| 14 | Connecticut | 121 | 3.29 |
| 15 | North Carolina | 351 | 3.18 |
| 16 | California | 1,232 | 3.12 |
| 17 | Michigan | 316 | 3.12 |
| 18 | Indiana | 199 | 2.87 |
| 19 | Delaware | 29 | 2.76 |
| 20 | Iowa | 84 | 2.59 |
| 21 | Georgia | 284 | 2.54 |
| 22 | Missouri | 158 | 2.53 |
| 23 | Tennessee | 179 | 2.48 |
| 24 | Wisconsin | 147 | 2.47 |
| 25 | Florida | 576 | 2.46 |
| 26 | Ohio | 290 | 2.44 |
| 27 | Pennsylvania | 316 | 2.42 |
| 28 | South Carolina | 131 | 2.39 |
| 29 | Montana | 27 | 2.37 |
| 30 | Alaska | 17 | 2.3 |
| 31 | Kansas | 66 | 2.22 |
| 32 | Virginia | 189 | 2.14 |
| 33 | Illinois | 268 | 2.11 |
| 34 | Arizona | 159 | 2.1 |
| 35 | South Dakota | 19 | 2.05 |
| 36 | New York | 399 | 2.01 |
| 37 | Oklahoma | 81 | 1.98 |
| 38 | New Mexico | 42 | 1.97 |
| 39 | Texas | 606 | 1.94 |
| 40 | District of Columbia | 13 | 1.85 |
| 41 | Maryland | 114 | 1.82 |
| 42 | Arkansas | 56 | 1.81 |
| 43 | Alabama | 93 | 1.8 |
| 44 | Kentucky | 81 | 1.77 |
| 45 | Louisiana | 79 | 1.72 |
| 46 | Nebraska | 34 | 1.7 |
| 47 | North Dakota | 12 | 1.51 |
| 48 | Nevada | 45 | 1.38 |
| 49 | Mississippi | 31 | 1.05 |
| 50 | Hawaii | 15 | 1.04 |
| 51 | West Virginia | 12 | 0.68 |
Cite this data
This dataset is free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Suggested citation:
Methodology
We count the doula practices in our continuously maintained national directory — public business listings filtered to genuine doula practices — and divide each state's count by its population (US Census 2024 estimates), scaled to 100,000 residents. Counts reflect listed practices, not individual practitioners: group practices and agencies count once, so states with large agencies may have more working doulas than the index suggests. Treat every number as a floor — a state can only have more doulas than we've listed, not fewer.