Pharmacy School Enrollment In the U.S. is Dangerously Low — Especially in Missouri.

In the midst of a national pharmacist shortage, education foretells the future.

Here is the stat: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 13,400 job openings for pharmacists each year. In 2026, the number of people graduating with a Doctor of Pharmacy across the U.S. will be about 8,000 — only 60% of what we need.

That second estimation comes from Russ Melchert and Terri Warholak, deans of pharmacy at University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis (UHSP), respectively. The two work together on the problem of low enrollment in pharmacy schools across the country.

"We’re not competing in this," said Warholak. "We know that this isn’t a me problem or a St. Louis College of Pharmacy problem. It’s not a UMKC problem. It’s a problem about making sure we have enough pharmacists to serve the public."

In a long conversation, they explained that, actually, we need way more than 13,400 graduates per year — that’s the number of pharmacist job openings, not jobs that require a PharmD.

"Our graduates go to work for drug companies, regulatory agencies, they go into the military, they go into post-graduate residency training. A lot of different things," said Melchert.

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