diff --git a/qiskit/utils/__init__.py b/qiskit/utils/__init__.py
index 30935437ebf2..5c6c8e4d5550 100644
--- a/qiskit/utils/__init__.py
+++ b/qiskit/utils/__init__.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 
 .. autofunction:: local_hardware_info
 .. autofunction:: is_main_process
+.. autofunction:: should_run_in_parallel
 
 A helper function for calling a custom function with Python
 :class:`~concurrent.futures.ProcessPoolExecutor`. Tasks can be executed in parallel using this function.
diff --git a/qiskit/utils/parallel.py b/qiskit/utils/parallel.py
index f87eeb815967..b1a199b62b7e 100644
--- a/qiskit/utils/parallel.py
+++ b/qiskit/utils/parallel.py
@@ -127,8 +127,8 @@ def parallel_map(  # pylint: disable=dangerous-default-value
 
         result = [task(value, *task_args, **task_kwargs) for value in values]
 
-    This will parallelise the results if the number of ``values`` is greater than one, and the
-    current system configuration permits parallelization.
+    This will parallelise the results if the number of ``values`` is greater than one and
+    :func:`should_run_in_parallel` returns ``True``.  If not, it will run in serial.
 
     Args:
         task (func): Function that is to be called for each value in ``values``.
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/parallel-check-public-7faed5f3e20e1d03.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/parallel-check-public-7faed5f3e20e1d03.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e2b7f6942f0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/parallel-check-public-7faed5f3e20e1d03.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+features_misc:
+  - |
+    A new function, :func:`qiskit.utils.should_run_in_parallel`, is available to determine whether
+    :func:`.parallel_map` will choose to run in parallel or degrade to running in serial.  This
+    decision is dependent on how many CPUs are available to Qiskit, what the :mod:`multiprocessing`
+    start method is, how many processes were requested.