The number of physicians across the United States reveals significant variations, with California leading the pack at nearly ******* active doctors as of April 2025. This concentration of medical professionals in populous states highlights the ongoing challenge of ensuring adequate healthcare access nationwide. The stark contrast between California's physician count and Wyoming's mere ***** doctors underscores the need for targeted efforts to address healthcare workforce shortages in less populated areas. Primary care and specialist distribution California leads also in both primary care physicians and specialists, accounting for over ** percent of each category nationally. This concentration of medical expertise in California reflects broader trends, with New York and Texas following as the states with the highest numbers of active primary care physicians. The distribution of specialists also mirrors national patterns, with psychiatry, surgery, and anaesthesiology among the most common specialties. Physician burnout While the number of physicians continues to grow, physician burnout remains a significant issue. There are large variations in rates of burnout depending on a physician's gender and specialty. For example, burnout is disproportionally high among women, affecting ** percent of female physicians and ** percent of male physicians. Meanwhile, emergency medicine physicians reported the highest levels of burnout among specialists, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to support the individual needs of doctors depending on their different circumstances.

As of 2023, roughly one in 15 active physicians in the United States were Hispanic (regardless of race). Asians were overrepresented, accounting for nearly one in 5 physicians in the U.S., while Asians made up just 6.3 percent of the total U.S. population.

As of 2018, the largest distribution of U.S. physicians was between the ages of 55 and 65 years old. At that time about ** percent of physicians fell within this age group. With just **** percent of all physicians, the smallest distribution of U.S. physicians was among those aged 35 years or younger. Data suggests that in the U.S. the average age of medical students is around 24 years old and the average age of matriculants is about **.

U.S. Physician demographics  

It is estimated that one of the best ways to combat aging population health needs is to increase the number of doctors practicing in the U.S. In general, the number of physicians in the U.S. has been on the rise. Every year about 20 thousand new physicians join the U.S. workforce. Despite an increase in the number of physicians the number of active physicians per 10,000 people has remained relatively stagnant in recent years. As of 2019, the specialty with the largest number of physicians was psychiatry, followed by surgery.

Physician compensation  

Physician compensation varies significantly between regions and genders. With graduates owing an average of ******* U.S. dollars in student loans upon graduation, equal compensation has become especially important. However, women in the medical industry make significantly less income than their male counterparts. As of 2019, female physicians earned between ** and ** thousand U.S. dollars less than male physicians. Regionally, there are also significant differences. As of 2018, physicians working in the North Central U.S. had higher annual compensation than those in other areas. Those working in the Northeast had the lowest annual compensation.

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.

As of January 2023, around ** percent of surveyed adults in the United States stated that they found doctors, nurses, or other health care providers to be very trustworthy as spokespersons for medical and health research, while only ** percent of adults stated the same for elected officials. This statistic illustrates the trustworthiness of medical and health research spokespersons according to adults in the United States.

In 2021, some 20 percent of physicians and 17 percent of U.S. adults mentioned that they slightly or completely distrust the U.S. healthcare system. Overall, the public and medical professionals both had a similar level of trust in the U.S. healthcare system.

As of 2023, around 78 percent of U.S. adults rated the honesty and ethics of nurses as very high or high. This rating was lower in comparison to 85 percent in 2019. This statistic presents the ratings for honesty and ethics of selected health professionals in the United States from 2019 to 2023.

Austria leads the world in physician density with **** practicing doctors per thousand population in 2022, highlighting significant disparities in healthcare access globally. This stark contrast becomes evident when comparing Austria to countries like India, South Africa, and Indonesia, which have less than * physician per 1,000 people. Life expectancy and healthcare access Interestingly, countries with higher physician densities often correlate with higher life expectancies. Switzerland, for instance, boasts both a high physician density of **** per 1,000 people and the highest life expectancy globally at **** years. This relationship underscores the potential impact of accessible healthcare on population health. However, exceptions exist, as evidenced by the United States, where life expectancy has decreased in recent years despite having **** physicians per 1,000 people. Factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid epidemic have contributed to this decline. Healthcare expenditure and physician density While physician density is an important metric, it does not always directly correlate with healthcare spending. The United States, for example, has the highest per capita health expenditure among OECD countries, spending over ****** U.S. dollars per person in 2023. This is significantly higher than countries with greater physician densities like Austria and Germany. The U.S. also allocates the largest share of its GDP to healthcare, at **** percent. The United States is an outlier regarding the correlation between healthcare spending, resources and health outcomes.

In Mexico, the number of practicing doctors amounted to **** professionals per 1,000 inhabitants in 2023, an increase compared to the figures reported a year earlier when there were **** practicing physicians per every thousand people. During 2022, the number of physicians in Mexico totaled approximately ******* professionals. Density of doctors worldwide In a global comparison, Mexico ranks in a middle category for density of medical doctors per 1,000 population, similar to Canada and Colombia. Among the countries in the upper bracket for highest density of doctors are Cuba, Sweden, Belgium, and Uruguay. Along with Mexico’s moderate density of doctors, over ** percent of the population was considered vulnerable due to lack of access to health services in Mexico as of 2022, up from around **** percent a decade earlier. Health care in Mexico Nearly ** ******* people in Mexico held public health insurance through Seguro Popular in 2020, which was replaced by a new institution at the beginning of that year, called INSABI (Instituto Nacional de Salud para el Bienestar). However, the IMSS (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social) led by a large margin as the largest provider of health insurance in the North American country.

This statistic shows the percentage of U.S. Generation Z adults that said they would choose a medical provider that offers select digital services in 2019. According to the data, ** percent of respondents said that they would choose a provider based on them having easy access to their test results.

Angola registered **** medical doctors per 1,000 population in 2019. That year, the country had over ***** doctors. During the period observed, the proportion of professionals to the population improved.

This statistic shows the percentage of U.S. adults aged 18 years and older that said they would choose a medical provider that offers select digital services in 2016 and 2019. According to the data, ** percent of respondents in 2016 and ** percent of respondents in 2019 said that they would choose a provider if they allowed patients to request prescription refills electronically.

In 2021, seven in ten physicians preferred to receive health and healthcare-related information by completing CME modules or activities. Attending conferences and lectures, and use of online medical information services ranked second on the list of most preferred health information sources. This statistic displays the share of sources physicians prefer to receive healthcare-related information in the U.S. in 2021.

In 2024, the medical specialization with the highest percentage of women in Brazil was dermatology, with around eight out of ten women specialists. Pediatrics, a medical specialty focused on infants, children, and young adults health care followed, with about 77 percent of the specialists in Brazil being women. In contrast, the medical specialization with the lowest share of women in the South American country was urology that year.

Among OECD countries in 2022, South Korea had the highest rate of yearly visits to a doctor per capita. On average, people in South Korea visited the doctors 15.7 times per year in person. Health care utilization is an important indicator of the success of a country’s health care system. There are many factors that affect health care utilization including healthcare structure and the supply of health care providers.

OECD health systems

Healthcare systems globally include a variety of tools for accessing healthcare, including private insurance based systems, like in the U.S., and universal systems, like in the U.K. Health systems have varying costs among the OECD countries. Worldwide, Europe has the highest expenditures for health as a proportion of the GDP. Among all OECD countries, The United States had the highest share of government spending on health care. Recent estimates of current per capita health expenditures showed the United States also had, by far, the highest per capita spending on health worldwide.

Supply of health providers

Globally, the country with the highest physician density is Cuba, although most other countries with high number of physicians to population was found in Europe. The number of graduates of medicine impacts the number of available physicians in countries. Among OECD countries, Latvia had the highest rate of graduates of medicine, which was almost twice the rate of the OECD average.

This survey indicates the percentage of physicians in the United States who use smartphones for professional purposes from March 2012 to March 2015. In March 2014, 79 percent of surveyed physicians used smartphones for their medical practice. Use of digital health has grown in the medical industry as consumers are expressing increasing interests in mobile health technologies.

Physicians, patients, and digital health

Usage of smartphones among physicians in the United States has risen. From 2012 to 2015, 68 percent to 84 percent of physicians, respectively, reported using their smartphones for professional purposes. Digital health has become more widespread globally among the medical industry. In the United States, 85 percent of physicians reported that they had already implemented electronic medical records by 2014. However, it has been proposed that the adoption of smartphone usage among doctors has started to plateau. The use of tablets is also becoming more common among doctors in daily professional procedures.

Digital technologies provide a new approach for consumers in regards to the accessibility to information and to physicians. Over half of U.S. adults used the internet to search for a specific disease or medical problem in 2012. Digital technologies have altered the way that patients undergo treatment. For example, over half of U.S. consumers would send a digital photo of a rash or skin problem to dermatologists for an opinion and 38.6 percent of patients would be willing to have a live visit with a physician via a smartphone app. The global mobile health industry has risen rapidly and is expected to reach 55.9 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.

As of October 2023, 52 percent of U.S. adults surveyed reported they have a fair amount of trust in medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public. Since 2019, the share of adults who did not trust scientists has increased.

This statistic shows the number of times adults in the U.S. went to the doctor for a check-up in the past year as of February 2017, by age. It was found that 61 percent of those aged 18 to 30 years went to the doctor up to three times for check-ups in the past twelve months.

A poll in 2023 found that only a small percentage of adults in the United States believed false claims about COVID-19 were definitely true. Despite this, a large majority of adults were uncertain about the claims and thought they were "probably true" or "probably false". Shockingly, less than half of respondents were certain that the misinformation "More people have died from the COVID-19 vaccines than have died from the COVID-19 virus" was false. This statistic depicts the share of adults who were certain or uncertain of select false claims about COVID-19 in the United States as of 2023.

A survey in 2023 found that the proportion of adults in the United States who believed in COVID-19 misinformation doesn't always vary by their race or ethnic background. White adults were less likely than Blacks and Hispanics to believe in the false claims that "More people have died from the COVID-19 vaccines than have died from the COVID-19 virus" and "The COVID-19 vaccines have caused thousands of sudden deaths in otherwise healthy people." However, with the other two false claims, all adults were more or less likely to be wrong.

This statistic shows the share of adults who thought select false claims about COVID-19 were definitely or probably true in the United States as of 2023, by race and ethnicity.