The number of male physicians outnumbers female physicians in the U.S. in most specialties. The only major exceptions are found in pediatrics, child and adolescent psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, although female physicians do slightly outnumber males in a few other specialties. As of 2021, there were around 68,400 male family medicine/general practice physicians compared to 50,000 women in this specialty. Physicians in the U.S. Both the number of doctors and rate of doctors in the U.S. have increased over the years. As of 2021, there were around 946,800 active doctors of medicine in the U.S. This was around 29.9 physicians per 10,000 civilian population. In 1995, this rate stood at 24.2 physicians per 10,000 population. Physicians by state The states with the highest overall number of active physicians are California, New York, Texas, and Florida. However, the states with the highest rate of physicians per 10,000 civilian population include Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maryland. The District of Columbia has the highest rate of physicians by a large margin, with around 74.6 physicians per 10,000 population. The state with the highest annual compensation for physicians is Oklahoma, where physicians earn an annual average of 337,000 dollars.

In 2025, out of the *** thousand registered doctors in the United Kingdom, *** thousand were men and *** thousand were women. There was a more pronounced gender gap among specialist doctors in the UK, with ** thousand men to nearly ** thousand women qualified on the specialist register. Although on the GP register, women outnumber men with over ** thousand female GPs to nearly ** thousand male GPs. Gender distribution of UK doctors by age While there are **** male doctors than female doctors in total, the gender distribution of doctors in the UK looks different depending on the age group. Female doctors ********* their male counterpart in all age groups under 45 years old. Therefore, as more doctors retire, the proportion of female doctors will increase. Worldwide make-up of doctors in the UK Although the majority of medical practitioners in the UK received their medical qualification from within the UK, there is still a significant number of doctors who graduated outside the UK. As of 2024, some ** percent of registered doctors in the UK are from the European Economic Area (EEA) while a further third are international medical graduates (IMG) indicating the reliance of the NHS on immigration to support the organization’s workforce.

The statistic displays the distribution of active physicians in the United States in 2021, based on specialty and gender. About 80 percent of physicians specializing in pain medicine and pain management are male and 20 percent are female. The largest number of active physicians are among primary care specialties such as internal medicine and general practice.

As of April 2025, around 39 percent of professionally active licensed physicians in the United States were women. This has increased by one percent compared to the previous year. Over half, 51 percent, of physicians in the District of Columbia were women, the highest share of female physicians in the country. On the other hand, Idaho had the lowest share of female physicians in the U.S. at 29 percent.

In the African region, female physicians accounted for only 28 percent of all physicians. This was in contrast to the European region where 53 percent of physicians were female. The statistic shows the gender distribution of physicians worldwide from 2000 to 2018, by region.

The number of doctors registered in the United Kingdom has increased over the period observed, from 240,000 in 2006 to over 393,000 by 2024. This was largely due to the increase in female doctors, which has more than doubled in this period. The gap between the number of male and female doctors is narrowing each year. The gender gap has already closed for licensed doctors* in the UK

In the United Kingdom, there were slightly more female doctors employed in England, while there were nearly twice as many female doctors as male doctors in Scotland. Conversely, Northern Ireland had more male medical practitioners, while Wales also employed more male doctors than their female counterparts.

As of 2025, in the majority of specialty groups, the number of male doctors exceeded female doctors, except for pediatrics, OB/GYN, pathology, and public health. While there were more male doctors overall, they tended to be specialists. Meanwhile, female doctors were more likely to choose to be a general practitioner (GP).

This statistic shows the distribution of specialist physicians in Canada from 1978 to 2023, sorted by gender. In 2022, nearly 41 percent of specialty doctors in Canada were female, and some 59 percent were male.

As of January 2024, the number of active doctors registered in Brazil amounted to more than *** thousand professionals. Out of the total, around *** thousand were men, and about *** thousand women practiced medicine in the South American country. Thus, there were approximately **** women doctors for each male physician practicing in Brazil by that time.

Despite decades of low utilization, telemedicine adoption expanded at an unprecedented rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined quantitative and qualitative data provided by a national online sample of 228 practicing physicians (64% were women, and 75% were White) to identify facilitators and barriers to the adoption of telemedicine in the United States (U.S.) at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Logistic regressions were used to predict the most frequently endorsed (20% or more) barriers and facilitators based on participant demographics and practice characteristics. The top five reported barriers were: lack of patient access to technology (77.6%), insufficient insurance reimbursement (53.5%), diminished doctor-patient relationship (46.9%), inadequate video/audio technology (46.1%), and diminished quality of delivered care (42.1%). The top five reported facilitators were: better access to care (75.4%), increased safety (70.6%), efficient use of time (60.5%), lower cost for patients (43%), and effectiveness (28.9%). Physicians’ demographic and practice setting characteristics significantly predicted their endorsement of telemedicine barriers and facilitators. Older physicians were less likely to endorse inefficient use of time (p < 0.001) and potential for medical errors (p = 0.034) as barriers to telemedicine use compared to younger physicians. Physicians working in a medical center were more likely to endorse inadequate video/audio technology (p = 0.037) and lack of patient access to technology (p = 0.035) as a barrier and more likely to endorse lower cost for patients as a facilitator (p = 0.041) than providers working in other settings. Male physicians were more likely to endorse inefficient use of time as a barrier (p = 0.007) than female physicians, and White physicians were less likely to endorse lower costs for patients as a facilitator (p = 0.012) than physicians of color. These findings provide important context for future implementation strategies for healthcare systems attempting to increase telemedicine utilization.

According to a 2023 survey, 62 percent of Ob/Gyns were female, the specialty with the highest share of female doctors in the U.S., followed by pediatrics. On the other hand, the medical specialties with the lowest share of female physicians were Orthopedics, Urology, and Cardiology.

Background: There is an attrition of women physicians in academic medicine hierarchy. Scholarship in medical journals plays a direct role in career advancement, promotion, and authoritative recognition, and women physician authors are underrepresented in original research articles. Objectives: We sought to determine if women physician authors are similarly underrepresented in commentary articles within high impact journals. Design/Setting/Participants: In this observational study, we abstracted gender, degree, and authorship position from January 1, 2014 to October 16, 2018 among commentary articles in three high impact journals: 1) JAMA Viewpoint; 2) NEJM Perspective; and 3) Annals of Internal Medicine Ideas and Opinions. Primary Outcome Measure: To compare the percentages of authors by gender, degree, authorship position, and journal in commentary articles, and assess for trends over a five-year period. Secondary Outcome Measures: To compare the proportion of men and women physician authorship of commentaries relative to the proportion of men and women physician faculty within academic medicine. To examine the gender concordance between last and first authors. Results: Of the 2,087 articles during the study period, 48% were men physician first authors compared to 17% women physician first authors (p<0.0001). Of the 1,477 articles with more than one author, similar distributions were found with regard to last authors: 55% were men physicians compared to only 12% of women physicians (p<0.0001). The proportion of women physician first authors increased over time, however the proportion of women physician last authors remained stagnant. Women authors in the first and last position were concordant in 9% of articles, men authors in the first and last author position were concordant in 55% of articles. Conclusions: Women physician authors remain underrepresented in commentary articles compared to men physician authors in the first and last author position. The proportion of women first authors was lowest with a women last author.

In 2022, in some specialties, female primary care physicians (PCPs) were more common than men. ********** and ********** were specialties where PCPs were predominantly female in the United States. For instance, ********** of PCPs who specialized in pediatrics were women. On the other hand, just ** percent of PCPs who specialized in internal medicine in the U.S. were female in 2022.

As of January 2025, the states with the highest number of active primary care physicians (PCPs) were California, New York, and Texas. As of that time, of the ******* PCPs in the United States, around ** percent were in the state of California. Physicians by specialty In the United States, the specialties with the highest number of active physicians include emergency medicine, psychiatry, surgery, and anaesthesiology. The most popular physician specialties in the state of California mirror this national trend. In 2024, California had over ***** psychiatrists and ***** surgeons. Physician burn-out Although being a physician can be a rewarding and lucrative profession, physicians often feel stressed and burned-out. In 2024, a survey of physicians in the U.S. found that ** percent of female and ** percent of male physicians felt burned out. Moreover, PCPs, employed physicians, and doctors aged 45 and under were more likely to be burned out than their counterparts.

Context

Content

A few years ago, the United States District Court of Houston had a case that arises under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 200e et seq. The plaintiffs in this case were all female doctors at Houston College of Medicine who claimed that the College has engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination against women in giving promotions and setting salaries. The Lead plaintiff in this action, a pediatrician and an assistant professor, was denied for promotion at the College. The plaintiffs had presented a set of data to show that female faculty at the school were less likely to be full professors, more likely to be assistant professors, and earn less money than men, on average.

1 Dept 1=Biochemistry/Molecular Biology 2=Physiology 3=Genetics 4=Pediatrics 5=Medicine 6=Surgery

2 Gender 1=Male, 0=Female

3 Clin 1=Primarily clinical emphasis, 0=Primarily research emphasis

4 Cert 1=Board certified, 0=not certified

5 Prate Publication rate (# publications on cv)/(# years between CV date and MD date)

6 Exper # years since obtaining MD

7 Rank 1=Assistant, 2=Associate, 3=Full professor (a proxy for productivity)

8 Sal94 Salary in academic year 1994

9 Sal95 Salary after increment to 1994

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BackgroundHaoxinqing, China’s largest online mental health platform, facilitates digital psychological care delivery. This study aims to describe the demographics and medical service data of doctors on the Haoxinqing platform and investigate their associations.MethodThe study analyzed the demographic information and medical service data of 11,333 registered physician users on the Haoxinqing platform over a 5-year period.ResultAmong registered physicians, 87.0% were from secondary or tertiary hospitals and were concentrated in eastern provinces (e.g., Guangdong: 918). Female physicians had a lower proportion in senior titles (chief physicians: 19.0% vs. 20.0% for males), although the chi-square analysis indicated a weak association between gender and professional title (Cramer’s V = 0.051, P < 0.001). Text and image consultations dominate (82.1%). Professional titles significantly impacted service volume: chief physicians had 3.85 times more patients (IRR = 3.85, 95% CI [2.11–7.00]) and prescribed 4.16 times more medications (IRR = 4.16, 95% CI [3.21–5.41]) than residents (P < 0.001). Negative binomial regression showed that male physicians had 30% fewer patients than females (IRR = 0.70, 95% CI [0.58–0.85], P < 0.001), but the effect size for the association between gender and consultation methods was low (Cramer’s V = 0.036).ConclusionBased on cross-sectional data from China’s largest online mental health platform, this study revealed that online services, while supplementing offline medical care, are still influenced by traditional medical hierarchy. Patients’ trust in senior physicians and gendered communication norms are critical determinants affecting resource allocation patterns on digital platforms.

Background: Communicating bad news is of great interest in the geriatric field, but few works have considered the physician’s point of view in this regard. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore possible differences related to physicians’ gender and work experience in how a terminal diagnosis is disclosed to older patients. Methods: Study participants were 420 Italian physicians (277 M, 143 F) working in clinical medicine (58.2%), surgery (33.3%), or other medical departments (8.5%). They completed an anonymous multiple-choice questionnaire that investigated various issues associated with communicating bad news to terminally ill older patients. Results: Men had more work experience than women (55.6% vs. 44.8% had worked for ≥23 years) and were more likely to work in surgery departments, while more women worked in clinical medicine. Most physicians declared that terminally ill older patients, if mentally competent, should always (14.4%) or generally (64.3%) be directly and openly informed of their condition. With no difference in gender, length of work experience, or specialty area, 36.9% of physicians thought that this was a human right and 18% that it would improve the patient’s quality of life. Where older patients were alone, male physicians were more likely than female (30.2% vs. 8.9%) to always communicate bad news directly to them. More than 70% of physicians, especially those with longer work experience, declared that they always or often took enough time to inform the patient. Female physicians and those working in clinical medicine were more likely to need psychological help when deciding to break bad news, but only a smaller proportion declared to have received it. Conclusions: Gender and work experience may influence how physicians communicate with patients and how often they seek psychological support.

In 2023, for the first time, there were more female family physicians in Canada than their male counterpart. Indeed, the share of female family physicians have been slowly increasing in the reported time interval, now reaching over half. This statistic shows the distribution of family medicine physicians in Canada from 1978 to 2023, sorted by gender.

This statistic shows the number of physicians operating in Italy as of March 2019, broken down by gender. According to data, that year there were about 210 thousand male physicians in the country, about 50 thousand more than the number of female doctors.