Physiotherapy is part of the health care industry, specifically the allied health and rehabilitation services sub-sector. In Canada, physiotherapists are classified under National Occupational Classification (NOC) code 31202, and the clinics they work in fall under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 621340, offices of physical, occupational and speech therapists and audiologists. Most physiotherapists work in private outpatient clinics, with the remainder spread across hospitals, home health care, long-term care facilities, and sports organizations. Below we explain the classification, what it actually means for regulation and billing, where physiotherapists work, how those settings differ, and where the profession is heading.

What Industry Is Physiotherapy In?

Physiotherapy is in the health care and social assistance industry, under the allied health and rehabilitation services sub-sector. Statistics Canada groups physiotherapy clinics under NAICS 621340, defined as establishments primarily engaged in administering medically prescribed physical therapy treatment, alongside occupational therapy, speech therapy, and audiology services.

Rehabilitation services is the operative phrase in that definition. The industry exists to restore function that injury, surgery, illness, or age has taken away, which separates it from diagnostic medicine on one side and from fitness and wellness services on the other. Diagnostic medicine identifies disease; rehabilitation rebuilds capacity after the disease or injury is identified.

Rebuilding capacity is what a physiotherapy clinic does every day, and it is why the industry classification puts these practices alongside occupational therapy and speech therapy rather than alongside medical offices. All three professions restore a lost function rather than treating a pathogen.

Is Physiotherapy Considered Allied Health?

Yes, physiotherapy is considered allied health. Allied health covers the regulated health professions that are neither medicine, dentistry, nor nursing, but that deliver direct diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitative care. Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, audiology, dietetics, respiratory therapy, and medical laboratory science all sit inside that group.

The defining feature of allied health is scope rather than status. Each allied health profession holds a defined scope of practice set in legislation, governed by its own regulatory college, with its own entry-to-practice degree and licensing exam. Legislated scope is exactly what makes these professions distinct from unregulated wellness services, and it is the first thing worth checking about anyone treating your body.

What Field Is Physical Therapy Under?

Physical therapy is under the rehabilitation sciences field, which sits within health sciences. Rehabilitation sciences is the academic and clinical field that studies human movement, function, disability, and recovery, and it houses physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology as its three core professions.

Those three professions share a research base in movement, neuroplasticity, and functional outcome measurement, and they frequently treat the same patient for different goals. A stroke patient may see a physiotherapist for walking and balance, an occupational therapist for dressing and cooking, and a speech-language pathologist for swallowing and communication, all within the same rehabilitation plan.

One point of vocabulary causes most of the confusion in this question. Physiotherapy and physical therapy are the same profession under two names: Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia use physiotherapy, while the United States more commonly uses physical therapy. The scope, the training, and the field are identical.

What Major Does PT Fall Under?

Physiotherapy falls under health sciences as a graduate-level major, entered through a Master of Physical Therapy or Doctor of Physical Therapy programme. Canadian physiotherapists complete an entry-level master’s degree, while the United States uses a three-year Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists as the required entry-level education.

Entry into those graduate programmes usually runs through an undergraduate degree in kinesiology, human kinetics, health sciences, or biology, with prerequisite coursework in anatomy, physiology, and physics. Anatomy and physiology carry straight into practice, which is why the prerequisite list looks the way it does.

Is Physical Therapy Part of the Medical Field?

Yes, physical therapy is part of the medical field in the broad sense, but it is a separate regulated profession rather than a branch of medicine. Physiotherapists are not physicians, do not prescribe medication, and do not perform surgery. They hold their own legislated scope, assess and diagnose movement dysfunction independently, and are accountable to their own regulatory college.

Independent assessment is the part that surprises people. A physiotherapist does not simply execute a doctor’s instructions; they conduct their own examination, form their own clinical impression, and build the treatment plan from it, coordinating with the physician or surgeon where the case calls for it. At our clinic, our physiotherapists work that way alongside chiropractors and massage therapists in the same building.

Is Physiotherapy a Regulated Profession in Ontario?

Yes, physiotherapy is a regulated health profession in Ontario, governed by the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario. Only practitioners registered with the College may use the protected titles physiotherapist, physical therapist, or PT in the province.

Title protection exists to give patients a verifiable line between regulated and unregulated care. Registered physiotherapists are accountable to provincial standards for safety, consent, record keeping, continuing competence, and complaints handling, and the College maintains a public register you can search before booking. Anyone offering similar-sounding services without that registration is not operating under those standards.

How Is Physiotherapy Classified in Canada?

Physiotherapy is classified in Canada under NOC 31202 for the occupation and NAICS 621340 for the industry. The Government of Canada places physiotherapists at NOC 31202, TEER category 1, describing them as practitioners who assess clients and carry out individually designed treatment programmes to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning and mobility, alleviate pain, and prevent physical dysfunction. The same classification lists their workplaces as hospitals, clinics, industry, sports organizations, rehabilitation centres, extended care facilities, and private practice.

Private practice is where most of the profession sits, and NAICS 621340 is the industry code covering those practices. In the United States the parallel occupational code is Standard Occupational Classification 29-1123, which is how the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports employment and wage data for the profession.

Why the Industry Classification Matters

The industry classification matters because it determines which regulatory body oversees the practice, how insurers categorize and reimburse treatment, and which professional standards a clinic is held to. Codes look like paperwork, but they carry real consequences.

Insurance categorization is the consequence most patients feel directly. Extended health plans, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, and motor vehicle accident insurers all reimburse by service category, so a treatment delivered by a registered physiotherapist under the correct classification is claimable while a superficially similar service outside it often is not. Correct classification is also what allows a clinic offering multidisciplinary care in Markham to bill each service under its own professional category rather than lumping them together.

Where Do Physiotherapists Work?

Physiotherapists work across five main settings: private outpatient clinics, hospitals, home health care services, nursing and long-term care facilities, and sports organizations. The distribution is uneven, and the work looks different in each one:

• Private outpatient clinics: the largest sector. Orthopedic injuries, post-surgical recovery, chronic musculoskeletal pain, and return-to-sport rehabilitation, delivered in scheduled appointments over several weeks.
• Hospitals: acute and inpatient care. Early mobilization after surgery, intensive care rehabilitation, stroke and neurological units, and cardiorespiratory therapy.
• Home health care: treatment delivered in the patient’s home for people whose mobility or medical status prevents travel to a clinic.
• Nursing and residential care facilities: long-term care work centred on strength, balance, fall prevention, and preserving independence in older adults.
• Sports organizations and fitness settings: athletic teams, training centres, and performance facilities, focused on injury prevention, on-field management, and rapid return to competition.

Some physiotherapists also work in industrial and occupational settings on ergonomics and injury prevention programmes, and a further group runs its own practices. Running a practice is itself a recognized part of the industry, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting 4 percent of physical therapists as self-employed.

What Are the Top Three Industries That Employ Physical Therapists?

The top three industries that employ physical therapists are outpatient therapy offices at 36 percent, hospitals at 26 percent, and home health care services at 11 percent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracked 283,700 physical therapist jobs in 2025, also reports nursing and residential care facilities at 6 percent and self-employed practitioners at 4 percent. Those five categories account for the large majority of the profession, and the table below shows how the work differs across them.

Setting	Typical patient	Typical case	Session structure	Usual length of care
Private outpatient clinic	Working-age adults and active older adults living independently	Back and neck pain, sports injuries, tendinopathy, post-surgical rehabilitation	Booked one-to-one appointments with a home exercise programme between visits	Six to twelve weeks
Hospital, acute care	Inpatients immediately after surgery, injury, or medical event	Early mobilization, respiratory care, post-operative day-one movement	Short daily bedside sessions during the admission	Days to a few weeks
Hospital, inpatient rehabilitation	Patients recovering from stroke, spinal cord injury, or major trauma	Relearning walking, transfers, balance, and daily function	Intensive daily sessions within a full rehabilitation team	Several weeks to months
Home health care	People with limited mobility or medical restrictions on travel	Safe mobility at home, fall prevention, post-discharge recovery	Scheduled home visits using the patient’s own environment	Weeks to months
Nursing and long-term care	Older adults in residential care	Strength, balance, fall prevention, maintaining independence	Group and individual sessions on site	Ongoing
Sports organizations	Competitive and recreational athletes	Acute injury management, return-to-play testing, injury prevention	Daily contact through training and competition cycles	Season-long

What Is the Difference Between a Hospital Physiotherapist and a Clinic Physiotherapist?

A hospital physiotherapist treats patients during an admission, focusing on safe early movement and acute recovery, while a clinic physiotherapist treats people living at home, focusing on rebuilding strength, function, and return to normal activity over a course of appointments. Both hold the same registration and the same scope. The setting changes the goal, not the qualification.

Goals drive the difference in session design. Hospital work is measured in getting a patient safely out of bed, breathing well, and walking a corridor before discharge, all in short daily contacts. Outpatient work is measured in range of motion regained, strength rebuilt, and a return to the lifting, running, or working that the injury interrupted, across appointments spaced days apart with prescribed home exercise carrying the load in between.

Home exercise carrying the load is exactly why outpatient physiotherapy runs longer than a hospital stay. Tissue adaptation takes weeks of consistent loading, and a clinic plan is built around that timeline rather than around a discharge date. It is also why our clinic in Markham reassesses at set intervals instead of treating to a fixed session count.

What Specialty Does Physical Therapy Fall Under?

Physical therapy falls under rehabilitation medicine as a specialty area, and within the profession it divides further into clinical specialties defined by the body system being treated. Orthopedic, sports, neurological, cardiopulmonary, geriatric, paediatric, and pelvic health are the recognized areas of concentration.

Concentration develops through post-graduate training rather than at entry. A physiotherapist enters practice as a generalist and then builds depth through residencies, certifications, and clinical experience in one area, which is why job titles such as orthopedic physical therapist, sports physical therapist, and cardiopulmonary physical therapist appear across occupational listings.

What Are the Four Main Types of Physiotherapy?

The four main types of physiotherapy are musculoskeletal, neurological, cardiorespiratory, and paediatric physiotherapy. Musculoskeletal physiotherapy covers bones, joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and it is the branch most people encounter for back pain, sports injuries, and post-surgical recovery. Neurological physiotherapy addresses movement loss from stroke, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis. Cardiorespiratory physiotherapy supports cardiac rehabilitation and chronic breathing conditions, and paediatric physiotherapy treats developmental and movement conditions in children.

Pelvic health has since grown into a fifth widely recognized area, delivered as pelvic floor therapy for bladder and bowel symptoms, pelvic pain, and postpartum recovery. Across all of these areas, treatment draws on the same core toolkit of graded exercise, manual therapy, and education, supported where appropriate by techniques such as acupuncture.

Does PT Count as a Specialist?

A physiotherapist counts as a specialist within rehabilitation rather than as a medical specialist. They are specialists in human movement and functional recovery, and many hold further board certification or advanced credentials in a defined clinical area such as orthopedics, sports, or geriatrics.

Advanced credentials sit on top of an already specialized entry degree. The entry-level qualification is a graduate degree focused entirely on movement, function, and rehabilitation, which is a narrower and deeper training than any general health science programme provides.

Is the Physiotherapy Industry Growing?

Yes, the physiotherapy industry is growing, and it is growing much faster than the average across all occupations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of physical therapists to rise 12 percent between 2025 and 2035, against a 3 percent average for all occupations, with roughly 13,400 openings each year over that decade. Canada shows the same direction: the Canadian Institute for Health Information recorded more than 30,700 physiotherapists in the 2024 supply, with 62.7 percent of them under age 45 and internationally educated practitioners making up 24.8 percent of the total, the highest share of any province being Ontario at 35.2 percent.

Several forces sit behind that growth, ranked here by the weight the labour data gives them:

1. An ageing population. Older adults experience more strokes, heart attacks, joint replacements, and mobility-limiting injuries, and each of those carries a rehabilitation requirement.
2. Rising chronic musculoskeletal conditions. Back pain, arthritis, obesity, and diabetes have all become more prevalent, and each increases the need for movement-based management.
3. A shift toward non-opioid pain management. Health systems are deliberately moving pain care toward exercise, manual therapy, and education, which the labour projections name as a direct driver of demand.
4. Higher surgical volumes. More joint replacements and reconstructions mean more post-operative rehabilitation, since the surgery only sets up the recovery that rehabilitation delivers.
5. Direct access. In Ontario, patients can book a physiotherapist without a physician referral, which brings people into care earlier and in greater numbers.

Earlier entry into care is also changing what clinics offer. Alongside physiotherapy treatment, private practices increasingly run structured exercise rehabilitation programming, and many now house several regulated professions under one roof so a single case can be handled without referring the patient across town.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the NOC Code for Physiotherapists in Canada?

The NOC code for physiotherapists in Canada is 31202, at TEER category 1. The classification describes physiotherapists as practitioners who assess clients and carry out individually designed treatment programmes to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning and mobility, alleviate pain, and prevent physical dysfunction. TEER 1 indicates an occupation that normally requires a university degree.

Is Physiotherapy the Same as Physical Therapy?

Physiotherapy is the same as physical therapy. The two terms describe one profession with one scope of practice, and the difference is regional naming: Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia say physiotherapy, while the United States more commonly says physical therapy. Canadian occupational classifications list both titles under the same code.

Do Physiotherapists Work in Sports Organizations?

Physiotherapists do work in sports organizations, and Canada’s occupational classification lists sports organizations as one of the recognized employment settings for the profession. The work covers injury prevention screening, acute on-field injury management, return-to-play testing, and performance-focused rehabilitation. Many sports-focused physiotherapists split their time between a team and a private clinic.

Is Physiotherapy a Health Care Profession or a Wellness Service?

Physiotherapy is a health care profession, not a wellness service. It is a regulated profession with a legislated scope of practice, a governing college, a mandatory entry-level graduate degree, and a licensing requirement, and it is classified within health care in both Canadian and American industry systems. Wellness services carry none of those requirements, which is the practical line between the two.

What Kind of Clinic Do Most Physiotherapists Work In?

Most physiotherapists work in private outpatient clinics, which employ 36 percent of the profession according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, more than any other setting. These clinics treat people who live at home and attend scheduled appointments, usually for musculoskeletal injuries, post-surgical recovery, and chronic pain. Many are multidisciplinary, combining physiotherapy with services such as chiropractic care, massage therapy, and custom orthotics under one roof.

The Bottom Line

Physiotherapy belongs to the health care industry, in the allied health and rehabilitation services sub-sector, classified in Canada as NOC 31202 for the occupation and NAICS 621340 for the clinics. That classification is not just filing: it is what ties the profession to a regulatory college, a protected title, a legislated scope of practice, and an insurance category you can actually claim against. Most physiotherapists work in private outpatient clinics, with hospitals, home care, long-term care, and sports organizations making up the rest, and demand across all of those settings is projected to keep climbing.

For anyone weighing up where to get treated, the useful takeaway is simple: check that the practitioner is registered, and match the setting to the problem. Outpatient care suits people living at home who need several weeks of structured rehabilitation. If that describes you, we would be glad to see you at KC Rehab here in Markham, where our physiotherapists work alongside our chiropractors, massage therapists, and acupuncturists in one place. You can book an appointment or call us at (905) 205-1668.