On this page we have written about news deserts, food deserts, and legal deserts. Now we can add pharmacy desert to this list. At the end of June, Rite Aid has closed all of its stores in the Johnstown area. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania has published a fact sheet on Pharmacy deserts in Rural Pennsylvania. They produced the graphic below showing the number of pharmacies in each county in Pennsylvania. Consequently, this piece will look at the impact of the closing of Rite Aid and pharmacy deserts in Pennsylvania.
According to the center, there are 2,964 pharmacies in Pennsylvania. Of these, 349 were Rite Aid stores as of May 2025. When adjusting for population, this would translate to 2.28 pharmacies per 10,000 residents. All of these stores closing would mean an 11.77% decrease in the number of pharmacies statewide.
These closings include 9 stores here in Cambria County out of a total of 34. This would mean a 26.5% decrease in the number of pharmacies. This would be the 4th highest decrease in the state behind Carbon at 26.7%, Perry at 50%, and Cameron at 100% (it was the only pharmacy they had before May).
Cambria’s pharmacy rate of 2.60 stores/10,000 was higher than that of the state rate of 2.28/10,000 before May. With the 9 stores closing, the county rate falls to 1.91 stores/10,000. This is lower than what the state rate would be if all 349 Rite Aid stores closed at 2.01 stores/10,000.
The closure of Rite Aid is creating pharmacy deserts in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Lyrical Capo is working on a post on the personal impact of the closures in the area.
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