U.S. Paramedic Education Access Dashboard

CAAHEP/CoAEMSP Accredited Programs + Satellite Sites • USDA ERS Rural Indicators • Census 2020

Programs
Overlays
Access Tiers
Main campus
Satellite site (est.)
SEARCH BY STATE & COUNTY
🔍
National Overview
672
Accredited Programs
181
Satellite Sites
852
Total Training Locations
55.1%
Offer Associate Degree
1.8%
Offer Bachelor's Degree
4.7
Counties per Program
Education Desert Analysis (Drive-Time)
Methodology: Based on all 852 training locations (671 main campuses + 181 satellite sites). Aligned with NIH ambulance desert framework (Hsia et al.). Haversine distance with 1.35× road factor at 55 mph average speed.
54.9%
CONUS land >1hr from any training location
23.5%
CONUS land >2hr from any training location
67.2%
National (incl. AK/HI) >1hr
43.8%
National (incl. AK/HI) >2hr
TIER 1Ambulance Desert Equivalent (>25 min): 87.1% of CONUS
TIER 21-Hour Commute Barrier (>60 min): 54.9% of CONUS
TIER 3Education Desert (>2hr): 23.5% of CONUS
Alaska: 97.4% of land exceeds 2 hours from either of the state's 2 programs (Soldotna, Fairbanks). Hawaii: 3 training locations across the islands; 11.8% exceeds 2 hours. Including AK/HI raises the national Tier 3 figure from 23.5% to 43.8%.
Degree Availability
49 states have at least one associate-degree paramedic program (Vermont is the exception). But only 11 states offer bachelor's-level paramedic education: IL, KY, MA, MD, MO, NC, NE, NM, UT, VA, and WA.

In OH, MA, CT, and PA, fewer than 25% of programs offer any degree pathway beyond a certificate.
USDA Rural-Urban Classification (ERS)
3,221 counties • Rural-Urban Continuum Codes 2013
1,985
Nonmetro Counties (61.6%)
46.1M
Nonmetro Population
78% of persistent poverty counties (302 of 386) are nonmetro. These same communities have $14,500 lower median household income than metro areas and face the longest drive times to paramedic education.
Population loss: 438 of 529 counties losing population are nonmetro. As EMS volunteers age out, these communities have no local pipeline to train replacements.
Most Rural States (% Nonmetro Counties)
Worst Access: Population per Program
Education Deserts (Avg Coverage Radius)
Associate Degree Availability
Counties per Program (Census 2020)

Methodology & Data Notes

Training Locations: 671 CAAHEP/CoAEMSP accredited paramedic programs + 181 satellite sites = 852 total training locations. Satellite sites are fully operational, publicly accessible training locations—their “satellite” designation is administrative (accreditation housed under a parent program), not a limitation on student access. All analysis uses all 852 locations by default.

Spatial Analysis: Haversine distance with cKDTree nearest-neighbor. Road correction factor: 1.35×. Average road speed: 55 mph. CONUS grid: 0.5° resolution, 3,355 land-filtered points.

⚠ Satellite Site Locations: CAAHEP’s API provides only city and state for satellite sites—no street addresses or coordinates. Satellite locations shown on this map are estimated to city centroid. This is sufficient for county-level and regional access analysis but is not suitable for exact routing or sub-city distance calculations. Typical precision: ~1–5 miles.

Three-Tier Access Framework (CONUS grid, % of land area):

MetricAll 852 SitesMain Only (671)Satellite Impact
Tier 1: >25 min87.1%88.9%−1.8pp
Tier 2: >1 hr54.9%59.4%−4.5pp
Tier 3: >2 hr23.5%26.6%−3.1pp

Satellite sites reduce Tier 2 deserts by 4.5 percentage points.

Rural Classification: USDA ERS Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (2013). Metro = RUCC 1–3. Nonmetro = RUCC 4–9. Rural/Frontier = RUCC 7–9. Persistent Poverty = 20%+ poverty rate across four Census periods (1980–2011).

Data Sources: CAAHEP/CoAEMSP API (March 2026), USDA ERS Rural Atlas (2024), Census ACS 5-Year, Ball et al. (2023) JACEP Open, Moungey et al. (2022) PEC.