Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How U.S. community pharmacies use video, and the evidence behind it: our own read of 169 pharmacy homepages; the trials of video medication counseling and the quality of medication videos on YouTube; what CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Kroger and GoodRx report about stores, prescriptions and advertising; how many pharmacies have closed and who lives in a pharmacy desert; how many pharmacists and technicians there are and what they earn, including Florida; the FDA, FTC, DEA, Medicare and Florida rules; and where six popular numbers came from.
8.3% of 169 U.S. pharmacy homepages we read on November 2, 2026 showed a video player, the lowest of the 15 kinds of local business we have read with the same method, though 66.9% offered online refills or an app (our measurement). (Mark Studios)See details
In randomized trials, video inhaler teaching did about as well as a person: 93.4% correct technique against 67% with verbal teaching in Jordan, a 67-point gain against 66 points in person in Chicago, and no significant difference across 184 patients in South Korea. (PLoS One; JAMA Network Open)See details
Medication videos on YouTube are uneven: 29.1% of inhaler videos skipped gargling, quality fell as views rose (r = -0.237), and 44.8% of insulin pen videos studied contained misleading information. (Journal of Asthma; CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing)See details
YouTube's health features require a licensed professional's channel to have more than 1,500 public watch hours a year, and pharmacists are not among the professions it lists as eligible. (YouTube)See details
29.4 percent of the retail pharmacies operating in 2010-20 had closed by 2021, but that counts closures, not the net loss; in 2022-2024 closures beat openings by a net 3,062. (Health Affairs; Journal of the American Pharmacists Association)See details
57.1 million people lived in a pharmacy desert in February 2024, and another 28.9 million depended on a single pharmacy. (JAMA Network Open)See details
CVS closed 243 locations in 2025 and Walgreens 423 in the nine months to May 2025; Walgreens cut net advertising to $694 million in fiscal 2024. (CVS Health; Walgreens Boots Alliance)See details
BLS counted 321,970 pharmacists at a median of $140,910 and 471,680 pharmacy technicians at a median of $45,750 in May 2025. (BLS)See details
The "50% of patients don't take their medications" figure is an average for chronic illness; trials report 43 to 78 percent adherence, and the best cost estimate is IMS's $105 billion avoidable, not $300 billion. (New England Journal of Medicine; IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics)See details
How many pharmacy websites show video?
Few: about one in twelve. On November 2, 2026 we opened the homepages of a random 250 of the U.S. pharmacy websites mapped in OpenStreetMap, the open map database, and 8.3% of the 169 we could read showed a video player (our measurement). The sample came from 1,035 distinct websites, each counted once however many stores it serves, drawn from 8,989 pharmacy features mapped with a website; 87.3% of the mapped records with a usable website point to 62 chain or grocery-banner websites, so the sample is mostly independent pharmacies, the stores that run their own sites. These shares describe mapped pharmacy websites, not stores. With the same method, pharmacy homepages showed video less often than any of the 14 other kinds of local business we have read: 8.3% against 37.6% for roofers, 19.3% for audiology practices and 12.2% for accounting firms (our comparison).
The video that exists is split between files on the site and embeds: 3.6% of homepages used a self-hosted video, 4.1% embedded one, 2.4% a YouTube player, and 3.0% played a muted background loop; of the pages with video, 35.7% used only files on the site. 14.2% linked to a YouTube channel. Facebook was linked from 66.3% of homepages, Instagram 36.7%, X 19.5%, LinkedIn 13.0% and TikTok 4.7%; 69.8% linked to at least one social profile. Among independents alone, 7.0% showed video (11 of 158). Only 11 chain or grocery websites were readable, too few for percentages: 3 of 11 showed video. A hand check of 30 random homepages agreed with the video rule on 100.0% of them, though only two of the 30 had video.
On U.S. pharmacy homepages (n = 169, Nov 2, 2026)
Share
Online refill link or pharmacy app
66.9%
Prescription delivery or mail order
55.0%
Vaccines or immunizations
53.3%
Click-to-call phone link
49.1%
Prescription transfer invitation
43.2%
Compounding
37.9%
Medication therapy management or pharmacist consultation
36.7%
Pharmacy software or website platform identified
35.5%
Durable medical equipment or supplies
33.1%
Reviews or testimonials
32.0%
Form on the homepage
32.0%
Independent, family- or pharmacist-owned wording
27.2%
Careers or jobs link
27.2%
Medication synchronization
23.1%
App Store or Google Play link
23.1%
Online appointment booking
21.9%
Health screenings or point-of-care testing
18.9%
Curbside pickup or drive-thru
11.8%
Spanish-language service
9.5%
Live chat widget
7.7%
Walk-in clinic, nurse practitioner or telehealth
3.6%
Our measurement, one homepage visit per site, desktop view, no clicks. Shares carry wide intervals at n = 169 (about plus or minus 7.5 points at 50%). The hand check agreed with the delivery rule on 90.0% of 30 sites. Method, code and the per-site table: homepages.csv and crawl-summary.json.
The services pharmacies sell online are the things a short video explains: refills, delivery, vaccines, transfers and compounding each appear on a third or more of homepages, while video appears on one in twelve. A pharmacy platform could be identified on 60 sites, led by Digital Pharmacist (RxWiki) and RxLocal, and WordPress ran 33.7% of sites.
Does video work for medication counseling?
For inhaler technique, about as well as a person, according to the randomized trials. In a 2020-2021 trial at two respiratory clinics in Jordan, 93.4% of adults with asthma or COPD who got video-based inhaler teaching used their inhaler correctly at three months, against 67% of those taught verbally (PLoS One, Al-Kharouf et al.), and adherence was 88.2% against 61.5% (PLoS One). A University of Chicago trial of 118 hospitalized adults found tablet video teaching raised the share with correct technique by 67 percentage points, close to the 66-point gain from in-person teaching (JAMA Network Open, Press et al.). A 12-hospital South Korean non-inferiority trial in 2015-2016 randomized 184 adults with asthma to video or face-to-face teaching and found no significant difference in lung function, asthma control or technique (PLoS One, Park et al.). A 22-child Arkansas pilot, among children aged 6 to 11, of at-home video-observed therapy scored a median 88% on technique against 75% for standard teaching, a difference the authors did not find significant (Journal of Asthma). None of these trials took place in a U.S. community pharmacy; they are clinic and hospital studies of the teaching pharmacists also do at the counter.
How good are medication how-to videos on YouTube and TikTok?
Uneven, and the most-watched are not the best. Of 35 YouTube videos demonstrating the Respimat inhaler, searched in May 2018, 74% left out the discard-date step in the package insert (Journal of Pharmacy Practice). A May-July 2022 review of 178 YouTube inhaler videos found 29.1% skipped gargling after use (Journal of Asthma), and quality fell as views rose, a correlation of r = -0.237 (Journal of Asthma). Of 96 English-language videos on metered-dose inhalers in January 2024, 46.9% came from health professionals or institutions (Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice) and 80.2% had only moderate reliability on the DISCERN scale (JACI: In Practice). For children's inhalers, 72.7% of Diskus videos got the "check dose counter" step wrong or skipped it (Journal of Asthma). A 2026 search retrieved 377 inhaler videos, of which 12 met the inclusion criteria and 66.7% of those came from health-sector associations (Medicine). Of 49 insulin pen videos, 44.8% contained misleading information (CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing). On TikTok, 224 of the top 300 "antibiotics" videos in March 2021 were made by people who were not health professionals (INNOVATIONS in pharmacy), and those videos averaged 34,949 likes (INNOVATIONS in pharmacy).
YouTube's own rules leave pharmacists out of its health features. As of 2026, to appear in the health source panels and shelves, a licensed professional's channel needs more than 1,500 valid public watch hours in the past 12 months, and the professions YouTube lists as eligible are doctors, nurses, psychologists, licensed family therapists and clinical social workers; pharmacists are not on the list (YouTube Help).
Do patients look up their medicines online?
Many do, and they trust the pharmacist more. In a September-October 2020 survey of 303 pharmacy customers in Tromsø, Norway, 41.3% used the internet for information about their medicines (JMIR Formative Research), 47% got it from pharmacy staff (JMIR Formative Research), and only 46% of those who looked online trusted what they found (JMIR Formative Research). Among 1,008 customers of community pharmacies in Northern Italy, in a study published in 2016, 26.0% had looked up medicines or supplements online (Interactive Journal of Medical Research). The most recent U.S. figures of this kind are older: Pew Research Center found 72% of U.S. internet users looked online for health information in 2012 (Pew Research Center), 77% of them started at a search engine (Pew), and about one in five had read online reviews of drugs or treatments (Pew).
Video visits are a minority habit. The National Health Interview Survey found 37.0% of U.S. adults used telemedicine in 2021 (NCHS). The National Cancer Institute's HINTS 6 survey found 18.5% used video telehealth in 2022 (NCI HINTS), and among adults offered a telehealth visit who did not take one, 84.4% preferred in person (NCI HINTS).
How many prescriptions are filled online or by mail?
A minority of patients, and a slightly smaller one than in 2005. 15.7% of U.S. adults who used prescription drugs bought at least one from a mail-order or online pharmacy in 2018, down from a 17.0% peak in 2005 (American Journal of Preventive Medicine, MEPS); among mail-only buyers, cardiovascular drugs were 57.9% of purchases (AJPM). About 1.5% of adults taking prescription drugs, about 2.3 million people, bought medicine from outside the U.S. in the past year (NHIS 2015-2017) (JAMA Network Open). The prescription itself is now digital: 2.6 billion e-prescriptions were filled across the Surescripts network in 2024 (Surescripts), part of 27.2 billion network transactions (Surescripts) that rose to 30.5 billion in 2025 (Surescripts). Over 900,000 prescribers ran real-time benefit checks in 2025 (Surescripts), prescribers sent pharmacies 277.8 million cancel-prescription messages (Surescripts), and 1.08 million professionals and organizations used its clinical messaging (Surescripts). Surescripts runs the network and sells into the market.
Does telepharmacy, the pharmacist on video, work?
The best U.S. data say error rates are about the same. Over 45 months of the North Dakota Telepharmacy Project, technician-staffed remote sites, where a pharmacist checks each prescription by video, had a quality-related event rate of 1.34% across 47,078 prescriptions, against 1.43% at pharmacist-staffed sites (Journal of the American Pharmacists Association), and 58.2% of remote-site events were caught at the pharmacist's final video check (JAPhA). A 2020 systematic review screened 866 studies and kept six, finding no overall difference in safety or adherence (Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved); a 2025 review of 18 reviews found teleconsultation the most-used model (Journal of Medical Internet Research). A 2017 50-state survey found 23 states authorized community telepharmacy in some form (RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis); the count is from 2017 and has likely changed.
Where states loosened their rules, telepharmacies filled gaps. In those states over 2016-2019, 37.5% of pharmacy deserts that gained a telepharmacy stopped being deserts the next year, against 1.8% that gained none (JAMA Network Open, Urick et al.); the population living in deserts fell 11.1% more than in comparison states (JAMA Network Open), and in 2019 62.7% of telepharmacies in the 12 study states sat in medically underserved areas, against 33.7% of traditional pharmacies (JAMA Network Open). The authors worked for a pharmacy benefit manager and a telepharmacy vendor.
What do the pharmacy chains report about stores, prescriptions and advertising?
Rite Aid had 2,309 stores in March 2023 (Rite Aid 10-K FY2023), led by Pennsylvania with 487 (Rite Aid 10-K), and 1,310 had a drive-through pharmacy (Rite Aid 10-K). It closed about 150 stores that year (Rite Aid 10-K) and nearly 200 over the few years before its October 2023 bankruptcy (Rite Aid 8-K), when it ran more than 2,100 pharmacies (Rite Aid 8-K) and employed more than 6,100 pharmacists (Rite Aid 8-K), down from over 6,200 (Rite Aid 10-K). Its 2025 wind-down is not on EDGAR because the company had deregistered. Kroger ran 2,257 supermarkets with pharmacies in February 2024 (Kroger 10-K), 2,273 a year later (Kroger 10-K) and 2,250 in January 2026 (Kroger 10-K). Walmart's and Amazon's latest 10-Ks give no pharmacy count.
What do pharmacy companies spend on advertising?
Hundreds of millions of dollars at the chains, and the chains are cutting it. Walgreens Boots Alliance's net advertising expense fell from $862 million in fiscal 2022 (Walgreens 10-K 2024) to $694 million in fiscal 2024 (Walgreens 10-K 2024); that is company-wide, including the U.K. Rite Aid spent about $133.4 million on marketing and advertising in fiscal 2023, and named television, online video and addressable video among its channels (Rite Aid 10-K FY2023). GoodRx, which sells prescription discounts, spent $226.3 million on advertising in 2022 (GoodRx 10-K) and $203.3 million in 2025 (GoodRx 10-K 2025), while its monthly active consumers fell from 6.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 (GoodRx 10-K) to 5.3 million a year later (GoodRx 10-K 2025); its codes work at over 70,000 U.S. pharmacies (GoodRx 10-K). CVS's 10-K gives no advertising figure. Walgreens counted about 113 million myWalgreens loyalty members in 2023 (Walgreens 10-K 2023) and 124 million in 2024 (Walgreens 10-K 2024).
How often do SEC filings mention independent pharmacies and deserts?
Rarely. EDGAR full-text search returns 25 documents in 10-K filings from 2021 containing "independent pharmacies" and 21 from 2025 (SEC EDGAR full-text search, 2021; 2025). "Telepharmacy" appears in 2 10-K documents filed in 2025 (SEC EDGAR) and "pharmacy closures" in 3 (SEC EDGAR). From 2020 to October 2026, "pharmacy desert" appears in 10 documents of any form (SEC EDGAR) and "pharmacy deserts" in 6 (SEC EDGAR). These count matching documents, not companies.
How many pharmacies have closed, and who lost access?
About three in ten pharmacies that operated in the 2010s had closed by 2021, while the total stayed roughly level because others opened. Of the 88,930 retail pharmacies operating at any point in 2010-20, 29.4 percent had closed by 2021, and independents were at greater risk than chains in every neighborhood type (Health Affairs, Guadamuz et al. 2024). A follow-up over 2014-23 found 28.1 percent of 85,359 pharmacies had closed by 2023 (Health Affairs, Guadamuz et al. 2025), with independents at a hazard ratio of 1.50 against chains after adjustment (Health Affairs), while the national count barely moved, from 63,861 in 2014 to 63,060 in 2023 (Health Affairs). The counts differ by study because each defines a retail pharmacy slightly differently.
The Rural Policy Research Institute's center at the University of Iowa counted U.S. retail pharmacies falling from 63,218 in June 2018 to 60,755 in June 2023 (RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis), and rural ones from 11,489 to 10,808, a 5.9 percent drop (RUPRI). 184 rural communities lost all their retail pharmacies in those five years while 195 gained one (RUPRI), and independents made up 79.1% of the rural losses (RUPRI). In 2021, 138 U.S. counties had no retail pharmacy at all (RUPRI), and 44.1 percent of the most rural counties had no chain pharmacy (RUPRI). The FTC's 2024 report on pharmacy benefit managers says about ten percent of rural independent pharmacies closed between 2013 and 2022 (Federal Trade Commission).
Counter
What is counted
Period
Count
BLS QCEW
Private pharmacy and drug retailer establishments (NAICS 456110), annual average, includes mail order
Tens of millions, depending on the definition. Measured by travel time, 57.1 million people in the contiguous U.S., 17.7%, lived in pharmacy deserts in February 2024 (JAMA Network Open, Mathis et al. 2025), and another 28.9 million relied on a single "keystone" pharmacy whose closure would make their tract a desert (JAMA Network Open), including 4.1 million people in small rural areas (JAMA Network Open). Using driving-distance standards, 59.0 million Americans lacked optimal access in 2020 (Health Affairs Scholar, Hernandez et al. 2023), and 15.1 million depended on independent pharmacies alone for it (Health Affairs Scholar). By a 10-mile definition, 1,447 of 3,143 counties had at least one desert community (JAMA Network Open, Catalano et al. 2024), and counties short of primary care clinicians had 2.27 times the odds of many deserts (JAMA Network Open). In Virginia, 51 of 2,198 census tracts met a low-income, low-access desert definition (Journal of the American Pharmacists Association).
Closures change what patients do. Older adults whose pharmacy closed in 2011-2016 saw statin adherence fall by an average 5.90 percentage points in the first three months against a matched control group (JAMA Network Open, Qato et al. 2019), and by 7.89 points among those who used independents (JAMA Network Open).
Medicare sets the distance rules for its drug plans: a network retail pharmacy within 2 miles of at least 90 percent of urban enrollees on average (eCFR, 42 CFR 423.120), within 5 miles of 90% in suburbs (eCFR) and within 15 miles of 70% in rural areas (eCFR). Plan design leans away from independents: the share of stand-alone Part D plans using preferred pharmacy networks rose to 97.7 percent in 2023 (Health Affairs), only 0.8 percent of independents were preferred by most plans against 69.6 percent of chains (Health Affairs), pharmacies outside every local Part D network had a 66.5 percent closure rate (Health Affairs), and 171 counties had no pharmacy in a preferred network (Health Affairs).
How do independent pharmacies compete?
On services and relationships, and most of their money still comes from the prescription counter. NCPA, the independents' trade association, estimates 18,988 independent community pharmacies in 2026 (NCPA), 37 percent of retail pharmacies (NCPA), and says no single chain has more stores than the independents combined (no single pharmacy chain) (NCPA). Its own About page gives both "over 18,900" and 19,400 (NCPA). Guadamuz and colleagues, using pharmacy-registry data, put independents at 39.7 percent in 2023 (Health Affairs), and Berenbrok's group at 38.1 percent, rising to 76.5% of pharmacies in rural areas (JAPhA); independents are about 50 percent of retail pharmacies in nonmetropolitan areas, per RUPRI (RUPRI). In NCPA's 2026 Digest, the survey behind which NCPA does not publish a sample size, 91 percent of responding independents gave flu shots in 2025 (NCPA), each store filled an average of 65,795 prescriptions (NCPA), the sector was a $103 billion market (NCPA), and government programs paid for nearly half of prescriptions (NCPA). NACDS, the chains' association, counts about 32,000 chain pharmacies, defining a chain as four or more stores (NACDS).
The payer side is concentrated. The FTC found the three largest pharmacy benefit managers processed nearly 80 percent of the roughly 6.6 billion prescriptions U.S. pharmacies dispensed in 2023 (FTC interim staff report, July 2024; FTC), and its press release says the six largest manage nearly 95 percent (FTC); the report body says more than 90 percent. Pharmacies affiliated with the big three took 68% of specialty-drug dispensing revenue in 2023, up from 54% in 2016 (FTC second interim report, January 2025), nearly 70 percent in the press summary (FTC), and earned more than $7.3 billion above acquisition cost on specialty generics in 2017-2022 (FTC), a sum that grew 42 percent a year (FTC) across the 51 drugs studied (FTC). The FTC also cites survey data that nearly 30 percent of Americans ration or skip doses because of cost (FTC).
Pharmacies remain where many people get vaccinated. Pharmacies in the federal retail pharmacy program gave 67.7% of bivalent COVID-19 doses from September 2022 to September 2023 (CDC, MMWR), 60.0% in rural areas (CDC, MMWR). In the 2018-19 flu season, 32.3% of adults vaccinated early got the shot at a pharmacy or store, second to a doctor's office (American Journal of Infection Control).
How many pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are there, and what do they earn?
About 322,000 pharmacists and 472,000 technicians on U.S. payrolls. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated 321,970 wage-and-salary pharmacists in May 2025 (BLS OEWS), at a median of $140,910 a year and a mean of $140,920 (BLS OEWS); the lowest-paid tenth earned under $99,290 (BLS OEWS) and the highest-paid tenth over $174,230 (BLS OEWS). It counted 471,680 pharmacy technicians (BLS OEWS) at a median of $45,750, or $22.00 an hour, and a mean of $46,620 (BLS OEWS), from under $36,020 to over $61,040 (BLS OEWS; top tenth), and 39,530 pharmacy aides (BLS OEWS). In May 2019 the counts were 311,200 pharmacists at a median of $128,090 (BLS OEWS 2019, archived) and 417,780 technicians at $33,950 (BLS OEWS 2019, archived). BLS says its wage survey is not designed for year-to-year comparison, so read the change as approximate.
Retail pays pharmacists less than hospitals. Pharmacies and drug retailers employed 121,790 pharmacists at a median of $132,940 (BLS OEWS, NAICS 456110), against $157,290 in hospitals (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook), which employed 95,760 (BLS OEWS); general merchandise stores, including warehouse clubs and supercenters, employed 20,690 (BLS OEWS). Pharmacies employed 244,590 technicians at a median of $39,240 (BLS OEWS), against $50,760 in hospitals (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). Counting every occupation, pharmacies and drug retailers had 683,490 wage-and-salary jobs (BLS OEWS). By BLS's projections matrix, pharmacies employed 37 percent of pharmacists in 2025 (BLS) and 51 percent of technicians (BLS); in 2019, health and personal care stores had employed 133,410 pharmacists (BLS OEWS 2019) and 215,110 technicians (BLS OEWS 2019), under an older industry code.
In May 2025, Florida's pharmacists earned a mean of $130,190 (BLS OEWS), below the national mean, and its technicians $44,120 (BLS OEWS). Pharmacists' share of Florida jobs was 1.05 times their national share (BLS OEWS) and technicians' 1.28 times (BLS OEWS). The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area employed 6,150 pharmacists (BLS OEWS), Tampa 3,460 (BLS OEWS) and Orlando 2,900 (BLS OEWS). In May 2019 Florida had 19,890 pharmacists (BLS OEWS 2019) and 29,800 technicians (BLS OEWS 2019).
Is pharmacy employment growing?
Slowly, and not in retail. BLS projects pharmacist jobs to grow 5 percent from 2025 to 2035 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook), from 325,200 including the self-employed (BLS), with about 12,500 openings a year, mostly replacements (BLS). It expects demand in retail pharmacies to be "limited" as the industry consolidates and more prescriptions are filled online or by mail (BLS). Technician jobs are projected to grow 6 percent (BLS) from 471,200 (BLS), with about 44,700 openings a year (BLS). HRSA's workforce center projects a shortage of 30,400 full-time-equivalent pharmacists in 2038 (HRSA National Center for Health Workforce Analysis).
How many pharmacy businesses are there, and how concentrated is the trade?
About 60,000 establishments by BLS's count and 42,000 to 44,000 by Census's, and four companies take most of the money. BLS's Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages counted 60,629 private pharmacy and drug retailer establishments in 2025 (BLS QCEW), down from 62,507 in 2024 (BLS QCEW) and 65,348 in 2022 (BLS QCEW); employment was 668,951 (BLS QCEW), against 733,739 in 2022 (BLS QCEW), and average pay $54,408 (BLS QCEW). Under the older industry code there were 64,065 establishments in 2019 (BLS QCEW) and 687,681 jobs (BLS QCEW). The 2022 code moved mail-order pharmacies into the industry, so 2019 and 2022 are not strictly comparable. Florida had 4,781 establishments in 2025 (BLS QCEW), against 5,089 in 2022 (BLS QCEW), with 53,086 jobs (BLS QCEW) at average pay of $55,950 (BLS QCEW).
The 2022 Economic Census found the industry took in $543.9 billion (U.S. Census Bureau) across 43,884 establishments owned by 19,676 firms (U.S. Census Bureau); Florida's took in $36.4 billion (U.S. Census Bureau). The four largest firms earned 71.0 percent of receipts and the 50 largest 82.0 percent (U.S. Census Bureau; top 50). Prescriptions were 87.0 percent of receipts (U.S. Census Bureau), over-the-counter medicines 2.6 percent (U.S. Census Bureau) and patient-care services such as vaccinations and testing 1.1 percent (U.S. Census Bureau). On the older code that excludes mail order, establishments fell from 45,358 in 2017 to 42,295 in 2022 (U.S. Census Bureau). Census's 2024 business survey put receipts at $372.3 billion on the older industry definition and published no advertising figure for pharmacies (U.S. Census Bureau). In 2022, 4,520 of 19,468 classifiable employer pharmacy firms were majority women-owned (U.S. Census Bureau).
What are the rules on drug and pharmacy advertising, online pharmacies and telemedicine?
Drug ads on TV carry the strictest rules, and pharmacy promotion falls mostly to state boards and the FTC. FDA's rule on the "major statement" of side effects in television and radio drug ads took effect on May 20, 2024, with compliance required from November 20, 2024 (Federal Register). It requires the statement in audio and on-screen text together, which FDA calls "dual modality" (eCFR, 21 CFR 202.1), with the text starting with the audio and ending at "approximately the same time" (eCFR). Broadcast ads must carry a major statement plus a brief summary or "adequate provision" for the full labeling (eCFR). FDA estimated the rule's cost at $31.1 million a year (Federal Register). These rules apply to drug makers' product ads; a pharmacy promoting its own services, such as vaccinations or delivery, is governed by FTC truth-in-advertising law and state pharmacy rules.
In September 2025, FDA said it was sending "thousands" of letters to drug companies about misleading ads (FDA) and about 100 cease-and-desist letters (FDA), after its warning letters on promotion had fallen to "one in 2023 and zero in 2024" (FDA). It said it would start rulemaking to close the "adequate provision" route created in 1997 (FDA). The same release quotes the commissioner saying companies spend "up to 25%" of their budget on advertising, with no source given (FDA), and cites a 2024 review finding only 33% of pharmaceutical social media posts mention harms (FDA).
How many online pharmacies are illegal?
Most of the ones that regulators review. NABP, the association of state pharmacy boards, says on its current site that it has identified over 40,000 websites that fail its patient-safety and practice standards or applicable laws (NABP, archived), and that 96% of the illegal online pharmacies it reviewed required no valid prescription (NABP, archived). NABP began accrediting online pharmacies in 1999 and added the verified .pharmacy domain in 2014 (NABP, archived). The widely quoted claim that approximately 95% of online pharmacies don't comply appears on the site of ASOP Global, an advocacy group, beside "around 35,000" online pharmacies active at any time, with no sample or date (ASOP Global, archived; ASOP Global). Use NABP's 96% with what it measured instead.
What are the telemedicine prescribing rules?
Temporary, and extended four times. The Ryan Haight Act of 2008 allows remote prescribing of controlled substances only after at least one in-person evaluation, with exceptions (DEA). DEA and HHS waived that during the pandemic and extended the waiver through November 11, 2024 (Federal Register), then December 31, 2024 (Federal Register), December 31, 2025 (Federal Register) and December 31, 2026 (Federal Register). DEA's 2023 proposals drew 38,369 comments (Federal Register). Its January 2025 special registration proposal, with comments due March 18, 2025 (Federal Register), drew over 6,475 (DEA) and would keep Schedule II telemedicine prescriptions under 50 percent of a clinician's total (Federal Register); no final rule had been published by November 2, 2026.
What does Florida require of pharmacies?
Florida's Pharmacy Act limits a pharmacist to supervising one registered technician unless Board of Pharmacy rules allow more (Florida Statutes, s. 465.014). The board's rule allowed up to 6:1 under conditions (Florida Administrative Code, 64B16-27.410), and was repealed and moved into rule 64B16-27.4001, effective 1/18/2026 (Florida Administrative Register); we could not read the new rule's text, which is published only as a Word file. Technician registration is capped at $50 every two years (Florida Statutes, s. 465.014). A pharmacy outside Florida selling to Floridians online needs an Internet pharmacy permit and must give 30 days notice of a change in its responsible pharmacist (Florida Statutes, s. 465.0197). Florida has no remote-site telepharmacy statute; community pharmacies may run off-site automated dispensing kiosks with live pharmacist counseling and keep their policies for at least 4 years (Florida Statutes, s. 465.0235).
What did Medicare drug price negotiation change?
Negotiated prices for the first ten Part D drugs took effect on January 1, 2026 (CMS). CMS estimated they would have saved Medicare $6 billion, 22% of net spending, had they applied in 2023 (CMS), and about 8.8 million Part D enrollees used those drugs that year (CMS).
What do the popular pharmacy numbers really say?
Six numbers turn up again and again on pharmacy software, marketing and trade sites. We traced each one back as far as it goes.
"50% of patients don't take their medications as prescribed"
It is an average for chronic illness, not a share of all patients. The World Health Organization's 2003 report says adherence to long-term therapy for chronic illnesses in developed countries averages 50% (WHO); WHO measured nothing itself, and its first chapter credits the 50% to a 2001 WHO meeting report and a 1979 book by R. B. Haynes (WHO). The review usually cited next, Osterberg and Blaschke in the New England Journal of Medicine (2005), reports average adherence of 43 to 78 percent in clinical trials of chronic conditions (NEJM, archived); its "about 50 percent" applies to patients dosing four times a day (NEJM, archived) and to children with chronic disease, also about 50 percent (NEJM, archived). A 2001 trade report put compliance with chronic therapies at about 50% after one year (The Pharma Letter). Later repeaters dropped the scope: a 2012 Annals of Internal Medicine review says about 50% of medications for chronic disease are not taken as prescribed (Annals of Internal Medicine, archived), and the federal Million Hearts guide, from 2016 or later, says treatment is not continued as prescribed in about 50% of cases (Million Hearts). Use 43% to 78% for chronic conditions, with the scope.
"Medication non-adherence costs $100-$300 billion a year"
It is a range strung together from estimates of different things. The oldest readable form is $100 billion a year, from a 2001 trade report (The Pharma Letter); the 2005 NEJM review gives approximately $100 billion as the cost of medication-related hospital admissions due to poor adherence (NEJM, archived). In 2009 the New England Healthcare Institute put it at $290 billion (PharmaTimes), which Drug Topics told pharmacists was $290 billion in 2011 (Drug Topics). The 2012 Annals review joined six sources from 1994 to 2009 into "$100 billion and $289 billion" (Annals, archived), and the Million Hearts guide rounded that to $300 billion (Million Hearts). The IMS Institute estimated $105 billion of avoidable U.S. costs from nonadherence in 2012, within a range of $68 billion to $146 billion (IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics); its often-quoted $213 billion covers six medicine-use problems, not adherence alone (IMS Institute). A 2018 systematic review of 79 studies found per-person costs from $5,271 to $52,341 a year and said an accurate national total is impossible to estimate (BMJ Open, Cutler et al.). Use IMS's $105 billion avoidable-cost estimate for 2012, with the year.
"Non-adherence kills 125,000 Americans a year"
We found no study that counted it. The 2012 Annals review gives approximately 125,000 deaths and credits a 2003 meta-analysis of adherence interventions, which is not about deaths (Annals, archived). Million Hearts repeats 125,000 and credits a 2011 call-to-action paper (Million Hearts). A compliance-product site gives the oldest citation we found, a February 1989 article in American Pharmacy, alongside 125,000 (e-pill), which is not online; secondary reviews link the number to a mid-1980s estimate for heart disease alone. A physician who chased the chain in 2009 wrote in 2022 that the earliest source cited for 125,000 was a CDC vital statistics report that never mentions nonadherence (KevinMD). Death certificates do not record nonadherence as a cause, so no official count exists. Don't use it.
"One in three pharmacies has closed since 2010"
It counts closures, not the net loss. Guadamuz and colleagues found that of the 88,930 retail pharmacies operating in 2010-20, 29.4 percent had closed by 2021 (Health Affairs), and UC Berkeley's release turned that into "about 1 in 3" (UC Berkeley School of Public Health). The same release says openings outpaced closures for most of the 2010s (UC Berkeley), and the team's earlier study had found about 1 in 8 drugstores shut in 2009-2015 (UC Berkeley). For the recent wave, use a net count: a 2026 analysis of pharmacy-registry data counted 7,240 closures and 4,178 openings in 2022-2024, a net loss of 3,062 pharmacies (Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, Blankenship et al.).
"90% of Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy"
It held up when someone finally measured it, at slightly under 90%. NACDS, the chain drugstore association, was quoting 90% in May 2020 (Pharmacy Times), before any published measurement; the University of Pittsburgh's release on the 2022 study says the 90% figure had been difficult to verify (UPMC). Berenbrok and colleagues then measured 88.9% by driving distance, using 61,715 pharmacy addresses and a 1% synthetic population (JAPhA). Their 2022 paper, using 2021 pharmacy data, notes that earlier claims of "over 90%" from pharmacy organizations rested on unclear methods (JAPhA, archived), and it also found 88.9% within 5 miles, 73.1% within 2 and 96.5% within 10 (JAPhA, archived), and 8.3% of counties with half their residents more than 10 miles away (JAPhA). NACDS now cites the study, saying 97% live within 10 miles (NACDS) and, in October 2026, "roughly 9 in 10" within five (NACDS), as does Walgreens, at about 90 percent (Walgreens 10-K 2024), which says 78% live within five miles of one of its own stores (Walgreens 10-K 2024). The measurement predates the 2022-2025 chain closures. Use 88.9% within five driving miles, as of the 2022 study.
"Video lifts conversions by 80%"
It comes from one vendor's test on one client's page. EyeView, which sold landing-page video, reported in November 2009 that its first test, on the landing page of the online tutoring company TutorVista, lifted conversion by over 80 percent (EyeView, archived); its 2010 white paper says the boost was over 80% "in some cases" (EyeView, archived), while the one test it fully describes found almost 32 percent (EyeView, archived). Unbounce's 2010 landing-page guide relayed it as 80% (Unbounce), and a video agency's 2026 statistics page still says up to 80% (Levitate Media). We found no pharmacy-specific test; a video production company's page for pharmacies offers an unsourced 184% instead (Beverly Boy Productions). None of it measured a pharmacy.
We started from the questions people search for about pharmacy 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 349 figures from 60 publishers.
On November 2, 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 Internet Archive copies, because bls.gov refuses automated requests); Census County Business Patterns, the 2017 and 2022 Economic Census, the Annual Integrated Economic Survey and the Annual Business Survey (through the Census data API); HRSA workforce projections; the 10-K and 10-Q filings of CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Rite Aid, Kroger and GoodRx, Rite Aid's bankruptcy filings and EDGAR full-text search; the Federal Register, the eCFR, FDA, FTC, DEA and CMS pages; Florida statutes and Board of Pharmacy rules; NABP and ASOP Global pages (archived); NCPA and NACDS releases; Surescripts reports, Pew Research Center, NCHS and NCI HINTS; peer-reviewed studies (journal pages, PubMed abstracts re-checked through NCBI's E-utilities, and Europe PMC records); and the pages behind each popular claim. The homepage figures are our own measurement on the same day, described in the first section (a 250-site sample, cut from 400 after a map-server outage). We left out Rite Aid's 2025 wind-down figures (not on EDGAR after the company deregistered), Walmart and Amazon pharmacy counts (not stated in their filings), FDA's year-by-year letter counts (pages no longer load), the text of Florida's 2026 technician rule (published only as a Word file), and any figure from a gated source.
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:
count of elements in data/osm_pharmacy_raw.json by tag combination {'amenity=pharmacy + healthcare=pharmacy': 8684, 'healthcare=pharmacy': 148, 'amenity=pharmacy': 157}; the separate count queries for features without a website timed out during the Overpass outage (data/tagcount_stdout*.txt), so no with/without-website share is given
8989 Overpass elements -> minus 70 out of scope {'hospital / clinic-only / private pharmacy': 40, 'dispensing=no': 28, 'veterinary pharmacy': 2} -> minus 9 on government/education hosts -> 8908 with a usable URL -> minus 9 on directory/social hosts {'facebook.com': 8, 'linkedin.com': 1} -> 8899 records -> 1035 distinct registrable hosts
14 / 169 readable homepages with video_player = true (or non-empty) 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
6 / 169 readable homepages with video_self_hosted = true (or non-empty) 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)
7 / 169 readable homepages with video_embedded = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player from a third-party host (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Facebook, TikTok ...)
4 / 169 readable homepages with youtube_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a YouTube player (iframe, lite-youtube placeholder, lightbox embed link or hidden embed)
24 / 169 readable homepages with youtube_channel_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to a YouTube channel or handle (not a single video; template placeholders excluded)
62 / 169 readable homepages with instagram_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to an Instagram profile (template placeholders excluded)
118 / 169 readable homepages with any_social_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: any of the YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or LinkedIn profile links
93 / 169 readable homepages with delivery = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: prescription delivery or mail-order wording (free/same-day/home/local/prescription delivery, delivery service/available, we deliver, mail order, prescriptions shipped, or the bare word delivery) in the page text ("health care delivery", "delivering quality care" excluded), or a link labelled or pathed delivery/mail order/shipping
20 / 169 readable homepages with curbside_drive_thru = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: curbside pickup, drive-thru/drive-through/drive-up or pick-up window in the page text or a link labelled so
113 / 169 readable homepages with refill_link_or_app = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: an online refill path: a link or button labelled or pathed refill, or a link to an Apple App Store / Google Play app (or an app-store badge image)
39 / 169 readable homepages with app_store_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a link to apps.apple.com / itunes.apple.com / play.google.com, or an App Store / Google Play badge image
73 / 169 readable homepages with transfer_prescription = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: transfer-your-prescription wording (transfer your prescription/Rx/meds, easy transfers, switch pharmacies) in the page text or a link/button labelled or pathed transfer
64 / 169 readable homepages with compounding = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: compounding wording in the page text (compound interest excluded) or a link labelled or pathed compounding
39 / 169 readable homepages with med_sync = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: medication synchronization wording (med sync, medication synchronization, sync your refills, appointment-based model) in the page text or a link labelled so
62 / 169 readable homepages with mtm_consultation = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: medication therapy management (MTM), comprehensive medication review, medication review/consultation/counseling, pharmacist/private consultations or "consult with our pharmacist" in the page text, or a link labelled or pathed MTM / medication review / consultation
56 / 169 readable homepages with durable_medical_equipment = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: durable medical equipment (DME), home medical equipment/supplies, medical supplies, mobility aids, wheelchairs, walkers, rollators, compression stockings, diabetic supplies/shoes, CPAP, ostomy, lift chairs or hospital beds in the page text, or a link labelled so
16 / 169 readable homepages with spanish_language = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: Spanish-language signal: "Hablamos Español", "Se habla español", "español", "en español", "Spanish-speaking", "bilingual" in the page text, a link labelled Español/Spanish/ES or pathed /es/, or a page whose html lang is es
32 / 169 readable homepages with health_screening_testing = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: health/wellness/diabetes/blood-pressure/cholesterol/A1c screenings or tests, point-of-care testing, strep/flu/COVID testing or test-and-treat in the page text, or a screening/testing link
6 / 169 readable homepages with clinic_telehealth = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: walk-in/retail/health clinic, MinuteClinic, nurse practitioners, telehealth or telemedicine in the page text or a link labelled so
37 / 169 readable homepages with online_appointment_booking = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: book/schedule an appointment, vaccine, shot or consultation online in the page text, a link labelled or pathed appointment/schedule/book, or a scheduling-tool request (Acuity, Calendly, Setmore, TimeTap ...)
46 / 169 readable homepages with independent_family_owned_wording = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: independently owned (and operated), independent (community) pharmacy, family-/locally/pharmacist-/veteran-/woman-owned, family/local business in the page text
54 / 169 readable homepages with reviews_testimonials = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: testimonials or reviews shown: page text with testimonials, customer reviews, "what our customers say", Google reviews, star ratings or review counts; a link labelled testimonials/reviews; or a review-widget request (Birdeye, Elfsight, Trustindex ...)
60 / 169 readable homepages with pharmacy_software_detected = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a pharmacy software / website / app platform identified (Digital Pharmacist/RxWiki, PioneerRx/RedSail, Liberty, Rx30, BestRx, RxLocal, Health Mart, Good Neighbor Pharmacy, Hy-Vee, PrimeRx, ScriptPro, Computer-Rx, RefillRx, Leader, Medicine Shoppe, Epic Pharmacy ...): first by a link host, then an iframe, script or request host, then a mark in the page source, last by the vendor named in a credit text
54 / 169 readable homepages with online_form = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: an online form on the homepage: a non-search <form> with at least 2 visible fields, or 1 visible email/phone/message field, or an embedded third-party form; tel: and mailto: links never count
13 / 169 readable homepages with chat_widget = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a live-chat or web-chat widget: a network request to a chat vendor (Podium, Tawk, LiveChat, Intercom, Drift, HubSpot messages, LeadConnector, PureChat ...) or a chat-widget element on the page (form and cookie-consent iframes excluded)
46 / 169 readable homepages with careers_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link labelled careers, jobs, join our team/crew, now hiring, employment, open positions, apply now (to a job page), empleo/trabajo, or a link to a /careers, /jobs, /employment or /join-our-team path
agreement counts in own/data/handcheck.json (validate.py); sample random.Random(11) of 30 readable sites; 30/30: 2 positives (a YouTube iframe on hubbardyoungpharmacy.com; a labelled 'Watch Video' hero control on maxor.com, host not identified) and 28 true negatives; 'Videos' menu links (levinsdrugs.com), Google Play buttons labelled Play (dedrickspharmacy.com, mesa-pharmacy.com) and a social post card were correctly not counted. With 2 positives the agreement says more about specificity than sensitivity.
agreement counts in own/data/handcheck.json (validate.py); sample random.Random(11) of 30 readable sites; 27/30: 13 true positives (home / free / medication delivery links or text, incl. walgreens.com home delivery), 14 true negatives; 2 false positives (topsmarkets.com grocery delivery by DoorDash, pasteurpharmacy.com a shipping-minimum notice for its online shop) and 1 false negative (medarts.net 'Next Day Shipping Available'). Rule not changed (deadline); read the delivery share as +-10% accurate on this check.
count of pharmacy_software values among readable rows in homepages.csv: {'(none detected)': 109, 'Digital Pharmacist / RxWiki': 22, 'RxLocal': 21, 'RefillRx': 7, 'PioneerRx / RedSail': 3, 'Health Mart': 2, 'Liberty Software': 2, 'Good Neighbor Pharmacy': 2, 'Hy-Vee': 1}; any-mention counts {'RxLocal': 26, 'Digital Pharmacist / RxWiki': 24, 'RefillRx': 10, 'Health Mart': 5, 'Liberty Software': 3, 'PioneerRx / RedSail': 3, 'Good Neighbor Pharmacy': 2, 'Rx30': 1, 'Hy-Vee': 1}; rule: a pharmacy software / website / app platform identified (Digital Pharmacist/RxWiki, PioneerRx/RedSail, Liberty, Rx30, BestRx, RxLocal, Health Mart, Good Neighbor Pharmacy, Hy-Vee, PrimeRx, ScriptPro, Computer-Rx, RefillRx, Leader, Medicine Shoppe, Epic Pharmacy ...): first by a link host, then an iframe, script or request host, then a mark in the page source, last by the vendor named in a credit text. A floor: dispensing systems usually sit behind refill links or apps that do not name the vendor
Comparison of DRV-005 on this page with the published video-player shares on /research/roofing-video-statistics (37.6%), dental (35.0%), physical-therapy (31.2%), chiropractic (31.2%), hvac (29.5%), pest-control (28.0%), funeral-home (27.2%), veterinary (24.1%), landscaping (23.3%), mental-health-practice (22.4%), property-management (20.6%), optometry (20.2%), audiology (19.3%) and accounting-firm (12.2%) video statistics pages
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Nobody counts pharmacy video. No public source measures how many pharmacies publish video or what it does for them; the chains' filings do not break out video spending, and the trials of video counseling were run in clinics and hospitals, most of them outside the U.S.
Our homepage set comes from a volunteer map. OpenStreetMap lists only part of the country's pharmacies with a website, and each chain counts once however many stores it has, so the shares describe mapped pharmacy websites, mostly independents, not stores. A map-server outage cut the sample from 400 to 250 sites; 169 were readable, so intervals are about plus or minus 7 points, and only 11 chain websites were readable.
Some of the data comes from the industry. NCPA and NACDS are trade associations; CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, GoodRx and Surescripts sell into the market. Each is named beside its figure, and NCPA does not publish its survey sample.
Pharmacy counts differ by design. BLS counts reporting units, Census counts locations with paid employees, and the closure studies count licensed retail pharmacies in a pharmacy registry; the 2022 industry code also moved mail-order pharmacies into the industry, so 2019 and 2022 figures are not strictly comparable.
Some baselines are old. The Pew online health figures are from 2012, the mail-order figure from 2018 and the 50-state telepharmacy count from 2017; the year is given each time.
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/pharmacy-video-statistics#DRV-005. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Pharmacy Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/pharmacy-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, November 2). Pharmacy video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/pharmacy-video-statistics
MLA
“Pharmacy Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 2 Nov. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/pharmacy-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Pharmacy Video Statistics.” Last modified November 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/pharmacy-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_pharmacy_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Pharmacy Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/pharmacy-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-11-02}
}
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.
National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA; trade association for independent pharmacies), NCPA Releases 2026 Digest Report (2026-10-04). Accessed 2026-11-02.
National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS; trade association for chain pharmacies), NACDS home page (boilerplate) (2026 (undated boilerplate)). Accessed 2026-11-02.
Levitate Media (video production agency; repeater), Video Conversion Statistics (Not stated (cites 2025-2026 sources)). Accessed 2026-11-02.
Beverly Boy Productions (video production company; repeater), Video Production for Pharmacies (2022-08-01). Accessed 2026-11-02.
Update policy and change log
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 2, 2026: First published with 349 figures from 60 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Frequently asked questions
How many pharmacies use video on their websites?
8.3% of 169 U.S. pharmacy homepages we read on November 2, 2026 showed a video player and 14.2% linked to a YouTube channel; among independent pharmacies alone it was 7.0%.
Does video work for patient medication education?
In randomized trials of inhaler teaching it did about as well as in-person teaching: 93.4% of patients taught by video in a Jordanian trial used their inhaler correctly at three months, against 67% taught verbally.
How many pharmacies have closed in the U.S.?
Of the 88,930 retail pharmacies operating in 2010-20, 29.4 percent had closed by 2021. Openings offset many of them; in 2022-2024 closures exceeded openings by a net 3,062.
How many Americans live in a pharmacy desert?
57.1 million people in the contiguous U.S., 17.7%, lived in a pharmacy desert in February 2024, measured by travel time.
How many pharmacists are there in the U.S.?
BLS estimated 321,970 wage-and-salary pharmacists in May 2025, at a median wage of $140,910 a year, and 471,680 pharmacy technicians.
How many independent pharmacies are there?
NCPA, the independents' trade association, estimates 18,988 independent community pharmacies in 2026, nearly 37 percent of retail pharmacies.
Do 50% of patients not take their medication as prescribed?
Only as an average for long-term therapy of chronic illness: WHO's 2003 report says adherence averages 50% in developed countries, and trials of chronic conditions report 43 to 78 percent.
Do 90% of Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy?
Nearly. A 2022 study measured 88.9% within five driving miles, before the latest wave of chain closures.
