Osteopathy is regulated in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Italy Portugal, Iceland and Malta, but this is not the case in many other countries throughout the world.

In the USA, osteopaths are fully licensed physicians in all 50 states.

In some countries the status of osteopathy is not always clear, the profession is often unrecognised and/or unregulated, and sometimes has several representative organisations at a national level.