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.

In 2024, over ** thousand doctors were on the GP register in the United Kingdom. Since 2006, the number of general practitioners (GP) has been increasing. In 2020, the number of GPs spiked in the UK. Emergency measures taken in the early stages of the pandemic largely explain this trend, such as the introduction of a temporary emergency register and the earlier registration of graduates. A similar spike was seen among specialist doctors.

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. All NHS Staff refers to those directly employed by the NHS in Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) and by GP practices contracted to the NHS. It excludes high street dentists and ophthalmic practitioners. This publication is made up of three main staff group areas, which can be found by following the links: Non-Medical Staff 1999 - 2009 Medical and Dental Staff 1999 - 2009 General Practice Staff 1999 - 2009

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 31 October 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.

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.

28 November 2019. Following an investigation into the GP locum data within this collection, we revised the full-time equivalent (FTE) GP locum figures from September 2015 to December 2016 in the General Practice Workforce September 2019 publication. The GP locum FTE figures in this publication are no longer valid as they have now been superseded by the revised figures. More information and the revised figures can be found on the General Practice Workforce September 2019 publication page at https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/general-and-personal-medical-services/final-30-september-2019. This quarterly report presents data about GPs, Nurses, Direct Patient Care and Admin/Non-Clinical staff working in General Practice in England, along with information on their patients and practices. A change in the data source for GP registrars since June 2018 has enabled us to produce more timely and accurate information, which has removed the need to release provisional and then final figures. All data is now final at publication. Our publication includes information on recent and planned changes as well as highlighting future developments. Information about the contents of this publication and how it can and cannot be used, can be found in the Report tab. We are continually working to improve our publications and welcome feedback from all our users, by email to: PrimaryCareWorkforce@nhs.net. Various data breakdowns are available in the accompanying Excel and CSV files, including time series and breakdowns by categories such as age and gender. Data is also presented regionally and at practice level for June 2019 in the accompanying CSVs. Following a consultation in 2018 we made several revisions to our data processing and methodology, and updated Practice-level CSVs from September 2015 to September 2018 are provided as part of this publication. This publication also features an interactive dashboard which allows users to explore the underlying data in a variety of ways. This can be accessed by clicking on the dashboard link below. Links to other publications presenting healthcare workforce information can be found under Related Links.

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.

This table contains information on Practitioners (excluding GP Registrars, GP Retainers and locums). Previously this table contained information on unrestricted principles, which is a category no longer identified following the introduction of the new GP contract on 1st April 2004 England: New headcount methodology for 2010 is not fully comparable with previous years data due to improvements that make it a more stringent count of absolute numbers. Previous years represent a count of contracts held by GPs. England: New headcount methodology for 2010 is not fully comparable with previous years data due to improvements that make it a more stringent count of absolute numbers. Previous years represent a count of contracts held by GPs.

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.

Counts of GP surgeries across England and Wales. Geographies include local authority districts (LADs), built up areas (BUAs) and combined authorities.

The General Medical Practices industry’s revenue is anticipated to stay flat overall during the five years through 2025-26. However, in 2025-26, revenue is estimated to edge up by 1% to £16.6 billion. The industry has faced numerous pressures that have led it to stagnate. Despite high demand from an ageing population, coupled with a rise in chronic illnesses like obesity and diabetes leading to a surge in demand for healthcare services, long waiting lists, chronic underfunding and staff shortages persist. There has been a notable decline in the number of qualified GPs in recent years – according to the British Medical Association, there were 1,115 fewer fully qualified GPs in April 2025 than in September 2015. In 2024, collective action from GPs against NHS contracts, partly due to only 8.1% of total NHS funding being spent on primary care, according to the NHS Confederation, led to services faltering and backlogs increasing. As reported by NHS England, backlogs have been rising by an average of 18,751 patients each month in early 2025. In recent years, the emergence of private-sector providers as a competitive alternative for patients seeking faster access to healthcare services has started to reshape the industry. Low disposable income hinders individual household demand for private healthcare, but corporations continue to invest in it for employee benefits. More private providers are being handed NHS contracts, helping a struggling NHS stay on its feet. Such partnerships are changing revenue and profit patterns within the industry. Typically, publicly backed GPs are not for profit and any surplus is reinvested back into the system, but privately backed GPs keep hold of their profit for shareholders and management. Over the five years through 2030-31, revenue is forecast to expand at a compound annual rate of 3.6% to reach £19.9 billion. The Labour government’s £29 billion transformation plan is looking to revitalise the NHS over the 10 years through 2035, improving GP infrastructure, patient handling and contractual models. This aims to enhance patient access, while alleviating administrative burdens and should help to bolster general medical practices' revenue. The new 2025-26 NHS GP contract looks to enhance the digitisation of the NHS, cutting back time spent on admin and freeing up more time for consultations, bolstering productivity.

This publications is one of three that make up the NHS Staff 1997 - 2007 publication. The other two are: Non-Medical staff 1997 - 2007 Medical and Dental staff 1997 - 2007 You can access both of these sections and an overview of the whole publication via the links. Summary 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. General Practice staff, 30 September 2007 - Detailed Results The detailed results contain further data tables for September 2007 for England, by Strategic Health Authority area and selected statistics by primary care trust.

This statistic displays the average number of patients per GP practice in the United Kingdom from 2008 to 2017. In 2017, there were, on average, over 7.6 thousand patients to each GP practice in the United Kingdom, the highest ratio in the provided time interval. Note: the NHS now publishes data for each country separately. See the number of patients per GP practice in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

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.

Forecast: Number of Practising General Practitioners in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

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.

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=...

Indicators from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) related to people’s experiences of GP practice access in Great Britain.