Private practice data for 1972 were analyzed for groups aged 0 to 12 and 13 to 21 years old by type of practice, geographic region, place of contact, and principal diagnoses. Pediatricians, 6% of all private practicing physicians, account for 8% of the 1.6 billion contacts for all ages, 45% of the 0- to 12-year-old contacts, and only 5.5% of the 13- to 21-year-old activity. Pediatricians are unique among primary care physicians in reporting no adolescent obstetrical or venereal disease care. Sixty-one percent of the adolescent contacts are with general physicians (MD or DO) or obstetricians/gynecologists, representing 45% of the practicing population but only 10% of occupied residency posts in 1973.