Let f(z) be an entire function
of finite order λ. Arakeljan has shown that, for every λ > 1∕2, f(z) may have
infinitely many deficient values in the sense of R. Nevanlinna. We prove here that this
cannot happen if (i) the zeros of f(z) have an angular density (in the sense of Pfluger
and Levin) and (ii) λ is not an integer. Under these two assumptions the number
of deficient values cannot exceed 2λ + 1. If f(z) is of completely regular
growth (in the sense of Levin), the result also holds for integral values of the
order.