Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How chiropractic practices use video and market themselves, and the evidence behind it: our own read of 327 U.S. chiropractic homepages; how many chiropractors and offices there are and what they earn; what The Joint Corp.'s filings show about new patients and marketing; who sees a chiropractor and why; what Medicare pays and how much it pays in error; what studies of chiropractic TikTok and YouTube video found; the Florida, Texas, California, New York, FTC and HIPAA rules on ads and testimonials; and where six popular chiropractic numbers came from.
31.2% of 327 U.S. chiropractic practice homepages we read on November 1, 2026 showed a video player, and 14.1% of them a muted background clip (our measurement). (Mark Studios)See details
76.8% of those homepages linked to Facebook, but only 11.0% embedded a YouTube player and 25.7% linked to a YouTube channel. (Mark Studios)See details
BLS counted about 61,700 chiropractor jobs in 2025, while private chiropractic offices held flat at 38,952, +0.1% since 2019. (BLS; our calculation)See details
11.0 percent of U.S. adults saw a chiropractor in 2022 (NHIS); the popular 35 million figure is Gallup's 2016 estimate of 35.5 million adults, with no children counted. (NCCIH; Gallup)See details
The Joint Chiropractic saw 797,100 new patients in 2025, 16.7% fewer than in 2024, and new patients per clinic fell 41.8% from 2021. (The Joint Corp. 10-K; our calculation)See details
99% of chiropractors in a 2022 survey named patient referral as a new-patient source and 57% their website; 21% used reception-area video. (Dynamic Chiropractic)See details
Measured marketing spend is 3.0% of collections in a 2025 chiropractor survey and 1.1% of revenue for the Census group that includes chiropractors, well below the rules of thumb vendors cite. (Chiropractic Economics; Census; our calculation)See details
96.7% of the top 300 #chiropractic TikTok videos rated very poor on the DISCERN quality tool in April 2026; 41.6% of the accounts were chiropractors. (JMPT)See details
Medicare's improper payment rate for chiropractic was 33.6% for 2022-23 claims, and it paid about $27.00 for the most common adjustment in 2024. (CMS)See details
The claim that chiropractic is the third largest health profession fails against BLS counts: 61,700 chiropractor jobs against 325,200 pharmacists in 2025. (BLS)See details
How many chiropractic websites show video?
About three in ten. On November 1, 2026 we opened the homepages of 400 U.S. chiropractic practices drawn at random from OpenStreetMap, the open map database, and 31.2% of the 327 we could read showed a video player (our measurement). The frame was every U.S. chiropractor mapped in OpenStreetMap with a website, 1,811 distinct practice websites. Of the 400 sampled, 3 asked crawlers to stay away in robots.txt and were not visited, 9 showed a bot wall, 43 failed to load and 18 were no longer chiropractic sites.
Much of that video is decoration rather than patient education. 14.1% of the homepages played a muted background video that starts on its own, and 19.0% carried a video file hosted on the practice's own site; seven of those were the same stock clip supplied by one chiropractic website vendor. 13.5% embedded a video from YouTube, Vimeo or a similar host. Of the pages with any video, 53.9% used only self-hosted files.
On the homepage (327 readable U.S. chiropractic practice sites, Nov 1, 2026)
Third-party scheduling tool (Jane, ChiroTouch and others)
23.2%
New-patient offer (special, price, free consultation or exam)
22.3%
Chiropractors point patients to Facebook far more than to video. Homepages linked to Facebook 7.0 times as often as they embedded a YouTube player (our calculation), though one in four linked to a YouTube channel. Jane was the most common third-party scheduler, on 26 homepages, ahead of ChiroTouch on 12. A hand check of 30 random sites agreed with the automatic video classification on 93.3% of them (28 of 30); the two misses led us to fix the rules before counting.
OpenStreetMap is volunteer-mapped, so this is a random sample of U.S. chiropractic practices that someone mapped with a website, not of all practices. One chain website stands for many mapped offices and counts once. The per-site results are in homepages.csv and the summary in crawl-summary.json.
How many chiropractors and chiropractic offices are there?
BLS counted about 61,700 chiropractor jobs in the U.S. in 2025, counting the self-employed (BLS). About 36% of those jobs were self-employment (BLS) and 57% were employee jobs in offices of chiropractors (BLS). Counting wage and salary jobs only, chiropractors held 39,630 jobs in May 2025 (BLS), up 13.2% from 35,010 in May 2019 (BLS; our calculation).
BLS projects employment to grow 9 percent from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average for all occupations (BLS), to 67,000 jobs (BLS), with about 2,600 openings a year (BLS). The profession is aging: Fifty-eight percent of chiropractors in the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners' 2024 survey of 3,876 practitioners were 50 or older (NBCE), and the board says about 60% are eligible to retire or will be by 2035 (NBCE).
The number of offices has not grown. BLS's Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages counted an annual average of 38,952 private offices of chiropractors in 2025 (BLS), against 38,927 in 2019 (BLS), a change of +0.1% (our calculation), and down from 39,387 in 2024 (BLS). The count was 39,358 in 2022 (BLS). Those offices employed 145,300 people in 2025 (BLS), up from 140,043 in 2019 (BLS), at average pay of $44,432 per job (BLS), up from $35,388 (BLS).
Most offices are small. Of the 39,913 offices with employees in 2023, 28,936 had fewer than 5 employees (U.S. Census Bureau) and 8,391 had 5 to 9 (U.S. Census Bureau). Together they employed 150,066 people in March 2023 (U.S. Census Bureau). In the 2022 Economic Census, 38,230 of 38,673 firms ran a single location (U.S. Census Bureau); 443 multi-location firms ran 1,333 offices (U.S. Census Bureau), up from 321 firms in 2017 (U.S. Census Bureau). The four largest firms took 1.3% of receipts in 2022 (U.S. Census Bureau), against 0.9% in 2017 (U.S. Census Bureau), and the 50 largest 4.4% (U.S. Census Bureau). Franchised clinics count as separate firms, so a chain like The Joint shows up as hundreds of small businesses.
Chiropractors themselves report the same picture. In the NBCE's 2024 survey, 49% worked in a solo office (NBCE), 36% in a multi-chiropractor office (NBCE) and 12% in a multidisciplinary facility (NBCE). 55% were sole proprietors (NBCE), down from 64.5% in 2019 (NBCE), and 23% were associates or employees (NBCE). 30% were women (NBCE). 36% practised in urban areas of more than 100,000 people (NBCE).
What chiropractors earn and bill
The median wage for a wage and salary chiropractor was $79,200 in May 2025 (BLS), with a mean of $90,520 (BLS) and a median hourly wage of $38.08 (BLS). The 10th percentile earned $43,460 (BLS), the 75th $105,050 (BLS) and the 90th $146,080 (BLS). In May 2019 the median was $70,340 (BLS) and the mean $85,010 (BLS). Those figures leave out practice owners: the NBCE's 2024 respondents, most of them owners, reported median income from practice of $125,000 (NBCE). Of the 39,630 wage and salary chiropractors, 36,460 worked in offices of other health practitioners (BLS), at a median of $78,560 (BLS).
Offices of chiropractors with employees took in $16.36 billion in 2024, up 2.0% from 2023, per the Census Bureau's Annual Integrated Economic Survey (U.S. Census Bureau). That is 14.3% more than the $14.32 billion of 2019 in current dollars (U.S. Census Bureau; our calculation), after a dip to $13.71 billion in 2020 (U.S. Census Bureau). The Economic Census measured $15.88 billion in 2022 (U.S. Census Bureau) and $13.43 billion in 2017 (U.S. Census Bureau). Businesses with no employees added about $1.90 billion in 2024.
Chiropractors in the NBCE survey said private pay or cash made up 41% of reimbursements in 2024, ahead of private insurance (NBCE); Medicare and Medicaid together fell to 11% from 14% in 2019 (NBCE). The average respondent spent 37 hours a week on patient care (NBCE) and provided 100 patient visits a week (NBCE). 55% of their patients were women (NBCE), 44% were adults aged 31 to 64 (NBCE), and 73% of chiropractors called their focus general practice (NBCE). 71% used electronic health records daily (NBCE).
Florida
Florida had more wage and salary chiropractors than any other state in May 2025, 3,220 (BLS), at a median wage of $84,280 (BLS) and a mean of $91,920 (BLS). Texas had 2,840 (BLS), at a median of $87,520 (BLS); California 2,760 (BLS), at a median of $75,470 (BLS); Illinois 2,190 (BLS); and Pennsylvania 1,770 (BLS). In May 2019 Florida was second, with 2,750 (BLS).
The Florida Department of Health counted 6,905 in-state active licensed chiropractic physicians at the end of fiscal year 2024-25 (Florida Department of Health), up from 6,396 two years earlier (Florida Department of Health). BLS counted 2,828 private offices of chiropractors in Florida in 2025 (BLS), up from 2,626 in 2019 (BLS), with average pay of $47,710 per job (BLS). Census counted 2,937 Florida offices with employees in 2023 (U.S. Census Bureau) and 2,269 chiropractic businesses with no employees in 2024 (U.S. Census Bureau).
What does the largest chiropractic chain disclose about patients and marketing?
Per clinic, new patients fell 41.8% from 2021 to 2025 (our calculation). The "industry" figure beside each year is a trade-magazine survey that The Joint repeats in its filings (The Joint Corp. 10-K); it moves from 291 to 468 between editions, so treat it as a rough benchmark. In 2019 The Joint's clinics averaged 326 patient visits a week (The Joint Corp. 10-K).
The company's own patient survey, run by WestGroup Research, found 36% of new patients in 2024 had never seen a chiropractor before, up from 16% in 2013 (The Joint Corp. 10-K); the series reached 27% in 2021 (The Joint Corp. 10-K).
How the chain pays for marketing
Franchisees pay a national marketing fee of 2.0% of gross sales on top of a 7.0% royalty (The Joint Corp. 10-K). That fund took in $10,451,281 in 2025 (The Joint Corp. 10-K). The company's own advertising outside the fund was just $0.6 million (The Joint Corp. 10-K). In the second quarter of 2026, after a national campaign began late in 2025, selling and marketing rose 40.3% (The Joint Corp. 10-Q) while sales at comparable clinics fell 2.8% (The Joint Corp. 10-Q). In 2019 the company spent $2,292,628 on advertising (The Joint Corp. 10-K) and $6,913,709 on selling and marketing (The Joint Corp. 10-K). The filings describe radio, digital media, community events and an online and social media presence; none of them reports a figure for video.
IMAC Holdings, a smaller listed operator that has since closed or sold its clinics, earned only 5% of 2019 revenue from chiropractic (IMAC Holdings 10-K) and 3% in 2021 (IMAC Holdings 10-K). It spent $1,238,352 on advertising and marketing in 2019, on local TV, digital and celebrity endorsers (IMAC Holdings 10-K), about $1,325,000 in 2021 (IMAC Holdings 10-K) and $1,100,000 in 2022 (IMAC Holdings 10-K). It ran 17 medical clinics and 4 chiropractic studios at the end of 2021 (IMAC Holdings 10-K); at its BackSpace studios, 83% of revenue came from monthly memberships in 2023 (IMAC Holdings 10-K).
Across all public filers, SEC full-text search finds the word "chiropractic" in 29 annual reports filed in 2025 (SEC EDGAR), against 27 in 2020 (SEC EDGAR) and 35 in 2015 (SEC EDGAR). 14 of the 2025 filings also mention social media (SEC EDGAR), up from 11 in 2020 (SEC EDGAR) and 8 in 2015 (SEC EDGAR); 6 mention video (SEC EDGAR), against 4 in 2020 (SEC EDGAR) and 8 in 2015 (SEC EDGAR). A hit means both words appear somewhere in the filing, not that the company markets chiropractic with video.
How do chiropractors get new patients, and what do they spend on marketing?
Mostly by referral, then through their websites. In Dynamic Chiropractic's April 2022 reader survey of chiropractors, 99% named patient referral as a source of new patients (Dynamic Chiropractic), 57% their practice website (Dynamic Chiropractic), 34% social media (Dynamic Chiropractic) and 22% rating websites. In the magazine's October 2018 survey of 257 chiropractors, the website was also at 57%, with social media at 38% (Dynamic Chiropractic), and 17% named radio, TV or newspaper advertising (Dynamic Chiropractic). These questions ask whether a channel brings any new patients, not what share of patients it brings; no survey we found measures that. The magazine's publisher also sells a waiting-room video service, and response rates were low.
Video in the clinic itself is a minority practice. 21% of chiropractors in the 2022 survey used reception-area video and half were not interested (Dynamic Chiropractic), while 29% were thinking about adding it, the top item on their list (Dynamic Chiropractic). In 2018 the share using it was 26% (Dynamic Chiropractic). In 2022 single-chiropractor practices were 69% of respondents (Dynamic Chiropractic) and 21% were thinking of selling within two years (Dynamic Chiropractic); in 2018 single-chiropractor practices had been 59% (Dynamic Chiropractic).
Social media became an outreach channel during the pandemic: in April 2020, 47% of responding chiropractors were contacting patients through social media (Dynamic Chiropractic) and 36% were consulting patients remotely (Dynamic Chiropractic). The NBCE found that 56% of chiropractors still never used telehealth, including video visits, in 2024 (NBCE). As far back as June 2011, 47% of chiropractors who communicated with patients outside the clinic used Facebook (Dynamic Chiropractic), and 40% of those using online channels called them effective for new patients (Dynamic Chiropractic).
Marketing spend
Measured spending is far below the rules of thumb sold to chiropractors. Respondents to Chiropractic Economics' 2025 salary and expense survey, 107 chiropractors surveyed in February and March 2025 (Chiropractic Economics), reported average advertising and marketing spend of $13,540 a year (Chiropractic Economics) against average collections of $450,425 (Chiropractic Economics): 3.0% of collections (our calculation). Solo practices averaged $8,154 (Chiropractic Economics) and group practices $27,927 (Chiropractic Economics). The typical respondent saw 138 patients and seven new patients a week (Chiropractic Economics). 57% worked solo (Chiropractic Economics) and 20% said their practice was minority-owned (Chiropractic Economics). The magazine sells advertising to vendors and its sample is small and self-selected.
The Census Bureau publishes advertising spend only for the wider group of offices of other health practitioners, which includes chiropractors, optometrists, therapists and podiatrists. That group bought $1.55 billion of advertising and promotion in 2024 (U.S. Census Bureau), up from $1.20 billion in 2023 (U.S. Census Bureau), on revenue of $140.6 billion (U.S. Census Bureau): 1.1% of revenue (our calculation). Chiropractors spend an average of 7 hours a week on business management, marketing included (NBCE).
Few practices employ marketing staff. In May 2025 the whole offices-of-other-health-practitioners group, 1,305,160 workers (BLS), employed 3,830 marketing specialists (BLS), 550 marketing managers (BLS), 980 public relations specialists (BLS) and 70 graphic designers (BLS), against 60,490 receptionists (BLS). The marketing work is done by owners, front-desk staff and outside vendors.
Who sees a chiropractor, and why?
About one U.S. adult in nine. In the CDC's National Health Interview Survey, 11.0 percent of adults received chiropractic care in the past year in 2022, up from 7.4% in 2002, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). That put chiropractic level with massage therapy, behind meditation and yoga, at about 11% (Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine). Among adults who used it, 85.7% used it for pain management, the highest share of any complementary approach (JAMA). Use of any of seven complementary approaches rose from 19.2% of adults to 36.7% over the same 20 years (JAMA).
The NHIS series has a break in it. Data Brief 235 put the share of adults who saw a practitioner for chiropractic at 8.3% in 2012, up from 7.5% in 2002 (CDC NCHS), while Data Brief 325, which asked a reworded question, gives 10.3% for 2017 against 9.1% for 2012 (CDC NCHS). Compare years only within one brief. A separate analysis of the 2012 survey found 8.4% of adults used chiropractic that year and 24.0% had ever used it (Spine).
In 2017, 11.1% of women and 9.4% of men saw a chiropractor (CDC NCHS), as did 11.4% of adults aged 45 to 64 (CDC NCHS) and 12.7% of non-Hispanic white adults, against 6.6% of Hispanic and 5.5% of non-Hispanic Black adults (CDC NCHS). Among children aged 4 to 17, 3.4%, about 2.0 million, used chiropractic in 2017 (CDC NCHS), no real change from 3.5% in 2012 (CDC NCHS). A study of the 2012 child sample put use at 3.0%, with Midwest children 2.45 times as likely to use it as those in the Northeast (JMPT).
Back pain is the reason. In the 2012 NHIS, 63.0% of adult chiropractic users went for back pain and 30.2% for neck pain (Spine), and 23.0% had also taken prescription medication for the same problem (Spine). A 2017 review of studies worldwide put the median share of patients attending for low back pain at 49.7% (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies), found median 12-month use of 9.1% that stayed stable from 1980 to 2015 (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies), a median of 57.0% female patients (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies), and spinal manipulation given to a median 79.3% of patients (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies). Among U.S. adults with post-COVID symptoms, 14.4% used chiropractic in 2022 (American Journal of Medicine). In 2017, 68.56% of adult chiropractic users with diagnosed neck or back pain had fewer visits than guideline-based minimums (Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine).
The Gallup-Palmer surveys
A series of Gallup surveys paid for by Palmer College of Chiropractic, which trains chiropractors, found higher use than the federal survey. In 2015, 14% of adults, about 33.5 million, said they had seen a chiropractor in the past 12 months (Gallup), and 23% strongly agreed chiropractors are effective for neck and back pain (Gallup). Given a free choice for neck or back pain, 54% would go first to a medical doctor and 29% to a chiropractor (Gallup). In 2016 Gallup estimated 35.5 million adults had seen one in the past year (Gallup), and in 2017 78% of adults said they would rather try other approaches before prescription pain medication (Gallup). By 2018, among adults who saw a professional for neck or back pain, 62% saw a medical doctor and 53% a chiropractor (Gallup), and 93% of chiropractic patients said their chiropractor listened to them (Gallup). Gallup's panel figures run above the NHIS because the two surveys ask differently and Gallup's panel answers online and by mail.
In a 2017 survey of 1,300 U.S. adults recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk, 32.2% said they had ever seen a chiropractor, and people who would not consider it said a primary care doctor's recommendation would change their mind (JMPT).
What does Medicare pay for chiropractic, and how much of it is paid in error?
Very little per visit. In 2024 Medicare's average payment for an office adjustment of three or four spinal regions (CPT 98941), the most common chiropractic code, was about $27.00 (CMS). It paid about $18.64 for one or two regions (CMS) and $36.25 for five (CMS). Original Medicare covers only manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation, and the patient pays 20% after the deductible (Medicare.gov).
1,242,418 Original Medicare beneficiaries received a 98941 adjustment in 2024, 12.8 million services in all (CMS), down 11.0% from 1,396,011 in 2019 (CMS; our calculation), when the average payment was about $28.93. 742,405 beneficiaries had a one-or-two-region adjustment in 2019 (CMS). CMS's provider file lists 32,394 chiropractors who billed Original Medicare Part B in 2024 (CMS), down from 35,224 in 2019 (CMS). Part of the drop may be beneficiaries moving to Medicare Advantage, which these files exclude.
Among Medicare beneficiaries with musculoskeletal pain, about ~18% got chiropractic care each year from 2016 to 2019, averaging about 10 visits (Drug and Alcohol Dependence). Among those with acute low back pain, chiropractic care rose only from 11.0% to 11.7% while opioid prescribing fell (Medical Care Research and Review). In a 2019 cohort followed for four years, neck-pain episodes that began with spinal manipulation had a 64% lower rate of escalating to long-term care than those starting in primary care without painkillers (European Spine Journal).
Improper payments and the rules behind them
CMS's own error-rate program put the improper payment rate for chiropractic at 33.6%, about $178.3 million, for claims from July 2022 to June 2023 (CMS CERT), and 95.5% of that was insufficient documentation (CMS CERT). HHS's Office of Inspector General estimated that $358.8 million, about 82% of the $438.1 million Medicare paid for chiropractic in 2013, was unallowable (HHS OIG). It found $76 million of questionable payments that year, half of it to 2% of chiropractors (HHS OIG), and earlier work found between 40 and 47 percent of paid claims were for maintenance therapy Medicare does not cover (HHS OIG). Medicare also improperly paid $6.7 million in 2013 to 2016 for services chiropractors ordered (HHS OIG).
The rule is narrow. Under 42 CFR 410.21, Medicare pays only for manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation (eCFR) and does not pay for X-rays or other services a chiropractor orders (eCFR). Active treatment must carry the AT modifier (CMS); maintenance therapy is not payable (CMS). An x-ray documenting subluxation counts if taken up to 12 months before or 3 months after treatment starts (CMS). For patient-education video, that means anything implying Medicare pays for wellness or maintenance adjustments is wrong.
What have studies of chiropractic videos on TikTok and YouTube found?
Popular chiropractic video is mostly low in quality by the standard checklists researchers use. In a study of the top 300 TikTok videos tagged #chiropractic, retrieved in April 2026, 96.7% rated "very poor" on DISCERN, a tool for judging health information (JMPT), with a median score of 20, unrelated to views or likes (JMPT). Of the 190 accounts behind them, 41.6% belonged to chiropractors (JMPT).
A January 2023 YouTube search for chiropractic treatment of ear infections found chiropractors made 84% of the first 50 English-language videos (Cureus), which had 2,600,209 views between them (Cureus). Only 6% cited a scientific source (Cureus), and Twenty-five claimed manipulation could fix the Eustachian tube (Cureus).
202 videos by chiropractors, physicians, physiotherapists and instructors; physician videos scored highest (JMIR Formative Research)
None of these studies measures whether a video brings a practice patients; they measure accuracy and reach. Several were written by chiropractic researchers, and most rate a sample of the most-viewed videos on one day.
Practice websites and social media claims
Regulators and researchers have audited chiropractors' own sites. When the College of Chiropractors of British Columbia scanned about 1,350 registrants' websites and social media in March 2020, it found 97 inappropriate mentions of the word "immune" (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies); earlier scans found 250 inappropriate mentions of health conditions in 2018 (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies) and 83 pregnancy-related ones in 2019, all corrected (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies). In Australia, 72% of 359 chiropractors' websites and Facebook pages breached national advertising guidelines, against 61% of physiotherapists (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies).
In a sample of 1,267 tweets from December 2015 about chiropractic, 2.68% were skeptical of spinal manipulation (JMIR Public Health and Surveillance); the month's search returned 31,339 tweets (JMIR Public Health and Surveillance), and stroke risk came up in about 0.1% (JMIR Public Health and Surveillance). When some chiropractors claimed in early 2020 that adjustments boost immunity, tweets refuting the claim had 3 times the potential reach of tweets promoting it (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies), and activity faded over the following 27 months, through 2022 (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies). In a spring 2020 survey of 750 U.S. chiropractors, 76.1% said there should be no advertising of immune benefits (JMPT) and 18.3% had added telehealth (JMPT). A 2020 review found 16% of state chiropractic boards had warned against such advertising (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies), and in early 2021 63% of board websites had no telehealth guidance within two clicks (Journal of Chiropractic Medicine).
Video visits never became routine. In the Veterans Health Administration, telehealth chiropractic visits jumped to 1,331 in March 2020 (JMPT), but by March 2021 only 4.0% of visits were telehealth (JMPT). Of 534 UK chiropractors, 67.2% used remote consultations in the first lockdown, 6.6% by video only (Journal of Chiropractic Medicine), and 52.5% felt confident doing so (Journal of Chiropractic Medicine). Across six countries in late 2020, 26% of 2,061 chiropractors had implemented telehealth (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies).
How patients judge chiropractors online
Pew Research Center found in 2012 that 72% of U.S. internet users had looked online for health information in the past year (Pew Research Center), 77% of them starting at a search engine (Pew Research Center), and Thirty-five percent of adults had gone online to work out a diagnosis (Pew Research Center); only 3-4% had posted a review of a provider (Pew Research Center). In 2025, 84% of U.S. adults used YouTube (Pew Research Center) and 37% TikTok (Pew Research Center).
The cracking sound shapes what patients believe. In interviews with 100 Belgian adults published in 2016, 40% thought the sound meant the manipulation had worked (Joint Bone Spine); in a 2019 Italian survey, 31% of people who had received a thrust manipulation said nobody explained it (JMPT). In a 2023 Malaysian study, only 13.6% of 198 patients chose a chiropractor on another professional's referral (Journal of Chiropractic Humanities); in a 2024 Taiwanese survey 62% of 475 adults had never seen a chiropractor (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies). 44.3% of 345 people at chiropractic marketing events in Auckland in 2008 and 2009 said their view became more positive (Journal of Chiropractic Humanities), and Fifty three percent of New Zealand pain clinicians in a survey published in 2019 recommended online resources (Journal of Pain Research). These are small, non-U.S. samples.
What do the advertising, testimonial and privacy rules say?
A chiropractic video ad is regulated three ways: by the state board, by the Federal Trade Commission, and, when it shows a patient, by HIPAA. Florida's rules are among the most specific, which matters because Florida has the most chiropractors.
Florida
Florida's chiropractic advertising rule, 64B2-15.001, requires the free-service disclaimer to be read aloud or shown for at least 15 seconds in a radio or TV ad (Florida Administrative Code), and treats as misleading an ad for free x-rays or video fluoroscopy that does not say they are given only if medically necessary (Florida Administrative Code). An ad that creates unjustified expectations of cures is misleading (Florida Administrative Code), as is one making representations about the quality of the Chiropractic services (Florida Administrative Code). Every ad must name the chiropractor by name and degree (Florida Administrative Code). Referral services must name every participating chiropractor unless they have at least 50 members statewide (Florida Administrative Code), and specialty claims need at least 300 post-graduate hours (Florida Administrative Code).
Under Florida Statutes 456.062, an ad for free or discounted services must tell patients in capital letters they may refuse to pay for any other service performed within 72 HOURS (Florida Legislature). Section 460.413 makes False, deceptive, or misleading advertising grounds for discipline (Florida Legislature), as is Soliciting patients in person or through an agent (Florida Legislature). Fines are capped at $10,000 per count (Florida Legislature).
Florida chiropractic disciplinary guideline
Penalty
False or misleading advertising, first offense (upper end)
Florida also bars soliciting people in a car crash, other than by advertising to the public, for 60 days (Florida Legislature); soliciting them with intent to defraud carries a minimum 2 years in prison (Florida Legislature), and crash reports stay confidential for 60 days (Florida Legislature).
California, Texas and New York
California's rule 16 CCR 311 says Constructive educational publicity is encouraged (16 CCR 311) but makes "sensational or fabulous statements" grounds for suspension of up to 1 year (16 CCR 311). Its unprofessional-conduct rule covers ads that violate Business and Professions Code section 17500 (16 CCR 317), waiving co-pays as marketing unless the insurer is notified in writing (16 CCR 317), and the use of cappers or steerers (16 CCR 317). Texas requires an ad citing a research study to identify it (22 TAC 77.1), bars calling a service free without listing every component (22 TAC 77.1), holds the chiropractor responsible for any agent, a marketing agency included (22 TAC 77.1), and requires telemarketing scripts and logs to be kept two years (22 TAC 77.2). New York allows a patient testimonial only if the patient authorizes the portrayal in writing (NYSED), says fictional client testimonials are not permitted (NYSED), requires a copy of every ad, videotape included, to be kept for one year (NYSED), and forbids any ad that guarantees any service (NYSED).
Federal rules on testimonials and reviews
The FTC's Endorsement Guides say that if a practice cannot show a patient's results are typical, the ad must disclose the generally expected performance (16 CFR 255.2), and a chiropractor presented as an expert must have the expertise claimed (16 CFR 255.3). The 2024 Consumer Review Rule bans writing or buying a fake consumer testimonial (16 CFR 465.2), with civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation (16 CFR 1.98). Under HIPAA, a practice must obtain an authorization before using a patient's information in marketing (45 CFR 164.508), which covers a patient's face and story in a video, and must answer records requests within 30 days (45 CFR 164.524).
Replying to reviews is a known trap. In 2023 a New Jersey psychiatric practice paid HHS $30,000 after disclosing four (4) patients' information in replies to their Google reviews (HHS OCR), and a New York spine practice paid $100,000 in a 2020 records-access case (HHS OCR). We found no HHS settlement naming a chiropractic practice.
COVID-19 claims and the first FTC case
The first case under the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act was against a chiropractor. On April 15, 2021 the FTC charged St. Louis chiropractor Eric Nepute in its first case under the law (FTC), by a 3-1 vote (FTC), after a warning letter in May 2020 (FTC). The complaint quotes a claim that patients with enough vitamin D were 52% less likely to die (FTC), says he posted health videos on Facebook from at least 2015 (FTC), to pages with over 100,000 followers (FTC), and cites penalties of up to $43,792 per violation (FTC). The FTC's case page still read Pending in August 2026 (FTC).
The FTC's 2020 warning-letter rounds included chiropractors: on May 7, 2020 it announced 45 letters (FTC), one under Chiropractic Therapy (FTC); by June 4 it had sent more than 160 (FTC), and by August 14 almost 300, with four clinics grouped under Chiropractic/Acupuncture (FTC).
What the popular chiropractic marketing numbers really say
Chiropractic marketing agencies, website vendors and the profession's own bodies repeat a small set of numbers. We traced each to the organization that produced it. Pages that repeat a claim are linked only as dated evidence of how it spread, never as a source for the number.
"35 million Americans see a chiropractor every year"
It is a 2016 Gallup estimate for adults only, and the federal survey puts use lower. A marketing agency's statistics page says over 35 million Americans see a chiropractor every year (WebFX). The American Chiropractic Association says chiropractors treat more than 35 million Americans, "adults and children" (American Chiropractic Association); the same claim appears in 35 million form on another ACA page (American Chiropractic Association). The ACA's footnote cites Gallup's 2016 survey for Palmer College of Chiropractic, which estimated 35.5 million U.S. adults had seen a chiropractor in the past year (Gallup), from 7,645 adults surveyed online and by mail in February and March 2016 (Gallup). It counted no children. Gallup's 2015 wave had 14% of adults seeing a chiropractor in the past 12 months, about 33.5 million (Gallup), from 5,442 respondents (Gallup). Palmer's own admissions brochure goes further, to 50 MILLION (Palmer College of Chiropractic), with no source.
Use instead: the CDC's National Health Interview Survey, which found 10.3% of U.S. adults saw a chiropractor in 2017 (CDC NCHS), from 26,742 adults interviewed in person (CDC NCHS), and 11.0% in 2022. For children it found 2.0 million users aged 4 to 17 in 2017 (CDC NCHS). In that 2017 brief the round "35 million" belongs to yoga: 35.2 million adults practised it (CDC NCHS).
"Chiropractic is the third largest health profession" and "the largest drug-free profession"
It is the profession's own description, and federal job counts do not support it. The National Board of Chiropractic Examiners calls chiropractic the third largest primary health care profession, after physicians and dentists (NBCE). The wording goes back at least to an American Chiropractic Association statement to a White House commission in October 2000, which called it the third largest doctoral-level profession (American Chiropractic Association), and a university pre-health flyer repeats it as the third largest (Clemson University). BLS counted about 61,700 chiropractor jobs in 2025 (BLS), against 325,200 pharmacists (BLS) and 283,700 physical therapists (BLS), both doctoral professions, and 155,400 massage therapists (BLS), who also work without drugs. We did not find the earliest use of the phrase.
"67% (or 77%, or 92%) of patients find their chiropractor online"
No chiropractic survey stands behind any of them. A chiropractic marketing statistics list says 67% of patients research a clinic online before booking, naming no survey (MarketingLTB); an SEO agency says 92% begin on Google (W3era); a chiropractic SEO guide repeats 77% and adds that the share is "even higher" for chiropractic (Stacc). The 77% has two roots, both about other kinds of care. Google's 2012 hospital study found 77% of people researching hospitals used search before booking (Google), from 533 respondents in May and June 2012 (Google). Software Advice's 2016 survey found 77 percent used online reviews as a first step to finding a new doctor (Software Advice); its 2020 edition found 71% (Software Advice), from 498 respondents (Software Advice). Software Advice is part of Gartner Digital Markets, which earns referral fees from software vendors.
Use instead: the chiropractor-side surveys, which say referrals still come first: 99% of chiropractors named patient referral as a source of new patients in 2022 and 57% their website.
"Video on your site raises conversions 80%" and "video testimonials add 28%"
The 80% is a vendor's best case from 2010, and the 28% has no source. A chiropractic website vendor tells chiropractors a video can raise conversion 80%, crediting WordStream (iMatrix). The number traces to EyeView Digital's 2010 white paper, where 80% is what video landing pages achieved "in some cases" among the vendor's own clients (EyeView Digital); the one test it describes in full, for a trading platform, found the video page converted almost 32 percent better (EyeView Digital). Our video advertising statistics trace the same figure. A chiropractic marketing list says video testimonials raise conversions 28% (MarketingLTB), and a chiropractic agency claims 40 to 60 percent higher first-call conversion for practices with a "video pipeline" (Redefine Web); neither shows data.
"Chiropractors should spend 5-9% of revenue on marketing"
These are rules of thumb, and they disagree. A marketing vendor says practices commonly spend 5 to 9 percent (Always Do Better); a practice-finance guide says 2 to 4 percent for established practices and 5 to 10 percent for growing ones (ScaleSuite); an agency treats $120 per new patient as a workable acquisition cost in a worked example (Webtonic). Use instead: the measured figures, which run from 1.1 to 3.0 percent. A financial-projection vendor's analysis of 2019 IRS returns for 27,451 chiropractic sole proprietorships found advertising averaged 3% of revenue (ProjectionHub); Chiropractic Economics' 2025 respondents spent 3.0% of collections; and the Census group that includes chiropractors spent 1.1% of revenue in 2024. A website vendor's 2024 survey found 60% of practitioners who said they were struggling spent under $250 a month on digital marketing (Perfect Patients), which says nothing about cause.
"Chiropractic care costs 40% less than a medical doctor"
It is one insurer's claims from 2004 to 2006, and the adjusted gap was half as large. A marketing agency's statistics page repeats the 40% (WebFX). The source is a study of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee claims, where low back pain episodes started with a chiropractor cost almost 40% less (JMPT); after adjusting for risk the difference was 20% (JMPT).
Other numbers that travel
"77% of patients call chiropractic very effective": the ACA attributes 77% to a Gallup page that does not show it (American Chiropractic Association). That 2016 Gallup survey found 29% of all adults called chiropractic very effective for neck and back pain (Gallup).
"29% would see a chiropractor first": it is a stated preference, 29% in Gallup's 2015 survey, not where people actually go (Gallup).
"Chiropractic patients are the most satisfied": the strongest measured figure is Danish, 97% satisfied among 17,974 patients at 228 clinics in 2023 (BMC Health Services Research), with no comparison group.
"80% of Americans have back pain": The Joint's 10-K repeats the ACA's 80% without a study or year (The Joint Corp. 10-K).
"Over one million adjustments a day": a marketing statistics page says one million (WebFX), with no source.
The Joint's 10-K also repeats Gallup's 16% of adults seeing a chiropractor in the past 12 months in 2018 against NHIS's 8% for 2012 (The Joint Corp. 10-K), two surveys that measure differently, and an October 2025 IBISWorld estimate of 21.9 billion dollars a year in chiropractic spending (The Joint Corp. 10-K), which is a paid market report.
We started from the questions people search for about chiropractic video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 414 figures from 59 publishers.
On November 1, 2026, each sourced figure on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (through the BLS data API), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages open data and the Occupational Outlook Handbook (through an Internet Archive copy, because bls.gov refuses automated requests); Census County Business Patterns, Nonemployer Statistics, the 2017 and 2022 Economic Census and the Annual Integrated Economic Survey (through the Census data API); the CDC's National Health Interview Survey briefs and HHS Office of Inspector General reports (through Internet Archive copies), NCCIH, and CMS Medicare data and error-rate reports; the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners' practice analyses, the Florida Department of Health, Dynamic Chiropractic's and Chiropractic Economics' own surveys, and Gallup's surveys for Palmer College; the 10-K and 10-Q filings of The Joint Corp. and IMAC Holdings and SEC EDGAR full-text search; peer-reviewed studies through PubMed and Pew Research Center; the Florida, California, Texas and New York chiropractic rules, the eCFR, and FTC and HHS pages (through Internet Archive copies); and the pages behind each popular claim. The homepage figures are our own measurement on the same day, described in the first section. We found no chiropractic software or marketing vendor survey that published its sample size and field dates, so none is used as evidence, and we left out a federation licensee count we could not read.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
2002 Overpass elements -> 1998 with a usable URL -> minus 11 on directory/social hosts {'facebook.com': 6, 'zocdoc.com': 2, 'npino.com': 1, 'janeapp.com': 1, 'vagaro.com': 1} -> one row per registrable host = 1811
102 / 327 readable homepages with video_player = true in homepages.csv; rule: video player: a <video> element or player iframe/placeholder (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Vidyard, Brightcove, Loom, Facebook video ...) at least 150x80 px, or a labelled click-to-play control or hidden player embed
62 / 327 readable homepages with video_self_hosted = true in homepages.csv; rule: video player that is a native <video> element (file served by the site or its site builder/CDN, incl. background videos)
44 / 327 readable homepages with video_embedded = true in homepages.csv; rule: video player from a third-party host (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Facebook, TikTok ...)
84 / 327 readable homepages with youtube_channel_link = true in homepages.csv; rule: link to a YouTube channel or handle (not a single video; template placeholders excluded)
138 / 327 readable homepages with instagram_link = true in homepages.csv; rule: link to an Instagram profile (template placeholders such as instagram.com/wix excluded)
248 / 327 readable homepages with online_booking_or_request = true in homepages.csv; rule: online booking or appointment request: a link/button labelled book/schedule (online, now, today, [a/your] [word] appointment/visit/consultation/exam), request (an) appointment, appointment request, make an appointment or online scheduling/booking (not "call to schedule", not emergency-appointment info, not mailto/tel), or an appointment URL path (book-online, request-appointment, schedule-appointment ...), or a third-party booking tool
76 / 327 readable homepages with online_booking_tool = true in homepages.csv; rule: third-party online booking/scheduling tool: a link, button or iframe to a scheduling vendor (Jane, ChiroTouch, ChiroHD, ChiroFusion, ChiroSpring, Zocdoc, SimplePractice, IntakeQ, Practice Better, Mindbody, Vagaro, Schedulicity, Noterro, Cliniko, Calendly, Acuity, Setmore, Square, Tebra/PatientPop, Solutionreach, Lighthouse 360, Weave, NexHealth ...), a widget request to a widget-only vendor (e.g. Jane, Zocdoc, Mindbody), or a booking-labelled link to any other third-party host
73 / 327 readable homepages with new_patient_offer = true in homepages.csv; rule: new-patient offer text anywhere in the page text: new patient special/offer/discount/deal/package/promotion, a $ price within a few words of "new patient(s)", a first/initial visit or exam special or $ price, or a free/complimentary consultation, exam or screening
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Our homepage sample comes from a volunteer map. OpenStreetMap covers practices someone mapped with a website, so the shares describe that sample, not every U.S. chiropractor; one chain website counts once however many offices it serves.
Nobody measures what video does for a chiropractic practice. We found no published study linking video to new patients; the conversion figures marketers use are unsourced or come from other industries.
The practice surveys are small and self-selected. Dynamic Chiropractic's and Chiropractic Economics' reader surveys draw a few hundred or fewer, and both publishers sell to chiropractors; the NBCE survey is far larger but describes practice, not marketing.
Use estimates differ by survey. The federal NHIS and Gallup's online panel ask differently and give different shares; NHIS itself changed its question between briefs, so compare years only within one source.
Medicare figures cover Original Medicare only. Medicare Advantage claims are not in CMS's public files, so falling counts may partly reflect enrollment shifts.
Many content studies are from outside the U.S. Website audits come from Canada, Australia, France, Denmark and South Africa; the country is named beside each.
How to cite this page
For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/chiropractic-video-statistics#DRV-003. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Chiropractic Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 1, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/chiropractic-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, November 1). Chiropractic video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/chiropractic-video-statistics
MLA
“Chiropractic Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 1 Nov. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/chiropractic-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Chiropractic Video Statistics.” Last modified November 1, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/chiropractic-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_chiropractic_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Chiropractic Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/chiropractic-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-11-01}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is February 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Nov 1, 2026: First published with 414 figures from 59 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Frequently asked questions
How many chiropractic websites have video?
In our November 1, 2026 read of 327 U.S. chiropractic practice homepages drawn at random from OpenStreetMap, 31.2% showed a video player. 14.1% played a muted background clip and 11.0% embedded a YouTube player.
How many chiropractors are there in the U.S.?
BLS counted about 61,700 chiropractor jobs in 2025, 36% of them self-employed, and projects 9 percent growth to 2035. Wage and salary chiropractors held 39,630 jobs in May 2025.
How many Americans see a chiropractor each year?
The CDC's National Health Interview Survey found 11.0 percent of U.S. adults received chiropractic care in 2022. The often-quoted 35 million comes from Gallup's 2016 survey for Palmer College, which estimated 35.5 million adults and counted no children.
Where do chiropractors get new patients?
Mostly from referrals. In Dynamic Chiropractic's 2022 survey, 99% of chiropractors named patient referral as a source of new patients, 57% their website and 34% social media. No survey we found measures the share of patients each channel brings.
How much do chiropractors spend on marketing?
Respondents to Chiropractic Economics' 2025 survey reported average advertising and marketing spend of $13,540 a year, 3.0% of average collections. The 5 to 9 percent figures on marketing sites are rules of thumb, not measurements.
What does Medicare pay for a chiropractic adjustment?
In 2024 Medicare's average payment for an office adjustment of three or four spinal regions (CPT 98941) was about $27.00. Medicare covers only manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation, and the patient pays 20% after the deductible.
Can a chiropractor use patient testimonials in video ads?
Yes, with consent and accurate claims. HIPAA requires the patient's authorization to use their information in marketing, New York requires written authorization for testimonials, and the FTC's review rule allows penalties of up to $53,088 per violation for fake testimonials.
Does video increase new patients for chiropractors?
No published study measures it. The 80% conversion lift marketers quote comes from a 2010 EyeView white paper's best case outside health care, and the 28% figure for video testimonials has no source.
