The United Kingdom has seen a significant increase in the number of general practitioners (GPs) over the past two decades, reaching nearly 54,000 in 2023. This figure represents a slight decrease from the previous year, which marked the highest number of GPs in the country since 2000. Gender dynamics in general practice A notable trend in the UK's GP workforce is the growing representation of female doctors. In NHS England, female GPs outnumbered their male counterparts, with over 20,000 female GPs compared to approximately 17,800 male GPs as of December 2024. This shift is not limited to England, as Scotland and Wales have also seen a rise in female GPs. In Scotland, there were about 3,200 female GPs compared to 1,900 male GPs in 2023, while Wales reported 1,334 female GPs and 996 male GPs in 2024. Comparison with other European countries While the UK has made strides in increasing its GP workforce, it still ranks third in Europe in terms of the number of practicing GPs. France leads with 65,469 GPs, followed by Germany with 60,601 in 2021. It's worth noting that the UK experienced a spike in GP numbers in 2020, likely due to emergency measures implemented during the early stages of the pandemic, including the introduction of a temporary emergency register and earlier registration of graduates.

As of December 2024, there were ***** general practices in operation in England, the lowest number of practices in the provided time interval. With the decreasing number of GP practices, the number of patients per practice in England is also increasing, furthering the strain and pressure in general practice. Note: Instead of the total number of GP surgeries in the UK, the NHS now publishes data for each country separately. See the number of GP practice in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

This shows the number of (headcount) and full-time equivalent (FTE) GPs employed in general practices by GP type and local health board, at every quarterly snapshot date.

Total number of patients registered at each GP Practice

GP Practices with 100 or fewer registered patients have been suppressed due to possible identification of individuals when data is linked to other data sets.

Demographic data is extracted as a quarterly snapshot in time from the GP Payments system maintained by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

These releases are an accurate snapshot as at each date.

As of December 2024, the average number of patients per GP practice in England amounted to over ************. This figure has been increasing since December 2016, when there were *** thousand patients per GP practice in England. GP practices have increasing pressure due to decreasing GP practice numbers and rising demand. Note: the NHS now publishes data for each UKcountry separately. See the number of patients per GP practice in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Please note: Revisions were made as follows on 12 January 2011 to certain GP figures for 2009 published on 25 March 2010, to correct miscoding of GP type. The NHS IC apologises for any inconvenience caused. National headcount totals for 'GP Providers' and 'Other GPs' were revised from 28,607 to 27,613 and from 7,310 to 8,304 respectively. The National level total figure for 'All Practitioners' remains unchanged at 40,269 and no other national level headcount figures are affected. National full time equivalents totals for 'GP Providers' and 'Other GPs' were revised from 26,245 to 25,378 and from 5,866 to 6,733 respectively. The National level total figure for 'All Practitioners' remains unchanged at 36,085 and no other national level full time equivalent figures are affected. Summary A detailed view of the General Practice workforce including GPs by type and practice staff. The general practice census is collected each year and records numbers and details of GPs in England along with information on their practices, staff, patients and the services they provide. The detailed results contain further data tables for September 2009 for England, by Strategic Health Authority area and selected statistics by primary care trust. This report is one of three that make up the NHS Staff 1999 - 2009 publication The other two reports are: Non-Medical staff 1999 - 2009 Medical and Dental Staff 1999 - 2009

Number of patients registered at each GP Practice, in 5-year age bands and split by gender.

GP Practices with 100 or fewer registered patients have been suppressed due to possible identification of individuals when data is linked to other data sets.

Demographic data is extracted as a quarterly snapshot in time from the GP Payments system maintained by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

These releases are an accurate snapshot as at each date.

The number of patients per FTE fully qualified general practitioner (GP) has been steadily increasing in the recorded time period, showing a growing strain on the GPs and a heavier workload. This is despite the number of registered GPs and GPs in the NHS workforce expanding during this time.

The General Practice Workforce series of Official Statistics presents a snapshot of the primary care general practice workforce. A snapshot statistic relates to the situation at a specific date, which for these workforce statistics is now the last calendar day each month. This monthly snapshot reflects the general practice workforce at 30 September 2024. These statistics present full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount figures by four staff groups, (GPs, Nurses, Direct Patient Care (DPC) and administrative staff), with breakdowns of individual job roles within these high-level groups. For the purposes of NHS workforce statistics, we define full-time working to be 37.5 hours per week. Full-time equivalent is a standardised measure of the workload of an employed person. Using FTE, we can convert part-time and additional working hours into an equivalent number of full-time staff. For example, an individual working 37.5 hours would be classed as 1.0 FTE while a colleague working 30 hours would be 0.8 FTE. The term “headcount” relates to distinct individuals, and as the same person may hold more than one role, care should be taken when interpreting headcount figures. Please refer to the Using this Publication section for information and guidance about the contents of this publication and how it can and cannot be used. England-level time series figures for all job roles are available in the Excel bulletin tables back to September 2015 when this series of Official Statistics began. The Excel file also includes Sub-ICB Location-level FTE and headcount breakdowns for the current reporting period. CSVs containing practice-level summaries and Sub-ICB Location-level counts of individuals are also available. Please refer to the Publication content, analysis, and release schedule in the Using this publication section for more details of what’s available. We are continually working to improve our publications to ensure their contents are as useful and relevant as possible for our users. We welcome feedback from all users to PrimaryCareWorkforce@nhs.net.

Practice demographic data are extracted as a quarterly snapshot in time from the GP Payments system maintained by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

Data for GP Practices with 100 or fewer registered patients has been suppressed due to possible identification of individuals when data are linked to other data sets.

These releases are an accurate snapshot as at each date.

From April 2017, following a consultation, the frequency of this release has changed to monthly, and file structure has changed - there are now three files per release: Males by practice, Females by practice and all persons by commissioning region/region/CCG.

Practice demographic data are extracted as a quarterly snapshot in time from the GP Payments system maintained by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

These releases are an accurate snapshot as at each date.

Practice demographic data are extracted as a quarterly snapshot in time from the GP Payments system maintained by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

PLEASE NOTE: Following the consultation on the proposal to stop producing this report, it has been confirmed that this report will continue to be produced by NHS Digital. The format in which it will continue is yet to be finalised.

Data are extracted as a quarterly snapshot in time from the GP Payments system maintained by NHS Digital. This release is an accurate snapshot as at 1 January 2017.

Since April 2014, geographical references have been taken from 2011 census information.

GP level data are released in single year of age (SYOA) and 5-year age bands, both of which finish at 95+, split by gender and aggregated.

Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS England Region and NHS England Commissioning Region level data are released in 5-year age bands which also finish at 95+, split by gender and aggregated.

Unlike early versions of this report, there is no suppression of data for practices with 100 or fewer registered patients.

An additional machine readable version is provided in practice/LSOA/totals format. Further information on LSOA is available via the link at the end of the page.

New Health Geography structure:

Please note that this publication reflects NHS England’s health geography structure as at 1 April 2016. (This includes the 2015 change, whereby NHS England Area Teams were replaced by NHS England Regions.)

Furthermore, in addition to the 3-digit ODS codes, this report also includes the ONS 9-digit codes for each CCG, Region and Commissioning Region.

More information: http://www.content.digital.nhs.uk/article/2021/Website-Search?productid=...

Demographic data are extracted as a quarterly snapshot in time from the GP Payments system maintained by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

These releases are an accurate snapshot as at each date.

Please note that this publication reflects NHS England’s health geography structure as at 1 April 2016. (This includes the 2015 change, whereby NHS England Area Teams were replaced by NHS England Regions.) Furthermore, in addition to the 3-digit ODS codes, this report also includes the ONS 9-digit codes for each CCG, Region and Commissioning Region. More information: http://www.content.digital.nhs.uk/article/2021/Website-Search?productid=...

How the number of patients per doctor and nurse at GP practices in England has changed over time, and how it differs across age, region and deprivation.

2013 was the year in which there were more female GPs in England than male primary care physicians, for the first time. The number of female GPs have steadily increased in the recorded time period, while male GP numbers have dropped before increasing slightly again. As of September 2024, there were over ** thousand female GPs in NHS England, compared to over ** thousand male GPs. That year, there were ****** GPs in the primary care workforce of England.