By the year 2036, a shortage of 13,500 to 86,000 physicians is expected in the United States. While still high, this is much lower than the projected shortages in a previous report. The new projections are based on an assumed increase in funding in graduate medical education (GME). If this assumption is not met, physician shortfall will match that of previous years, upwards of 124,000 by 2034. As of 2021, the country is already facing a deficiency of 37,000 doctors. By 2036, the United States will be short on 20,200 to 40,400 primary care physicians (PCP). In comparison, a shortage of 5,500 to a surplus of 3,700 medical specialists was forecasted for 2036. This is caused by an over-supply in a few selected specialties, such as emergency medicine and critical care.

According to surveyed physicians in 2024, 80 percent of physicians in health systems (or IDNs and ACOs) reported their clinical practice was moderately or severely impacted by the physician shortage in the United States. In comparison, only 46 percent of physicians in solo practices stated so. Severity was highest among physicians working in larger health organizations.

These datasets contain aggregated responses from the HCAI Health Workforce License Renewal Survey for Physician and Surgeon and Osteopathic Physician and Surgeon licensees. The data are limited to physicians whose license was in an Active Status and who indicated they were actively working in a position that required their license as of April 3, 2025.

The license renewal survey utilizes a cell-based weighting methodology to estimate the total count of licensed individuals and accounts for individuals that decline to provide a response or who have not yet taken the survey. The presented estimated counts were calculated by multiplying county level weighted percentages for each metric by the total count of active licenses within each county. If no physicians within a given specialty and county provided a response to the activity hours question, the statewide mode for that specialty was used.

Note: Previous versions of this dataset utilized raw counts rather than a cell-based weighting approach and did not take into account whether physicians were actively working in their field.

In addition, the previous version of this dataset (as of April 3, 2024) contained errors regarding the total number of “Unsurveyed” individuals within each county. For more information regarding this issue, please contact the Workforce Data team using the email address below.

As of 2025, the number of primary care physicians in the U.S. amounted to 535,542. In comparison, there were 570,655 specialist physicians that year, making a total of over 1.1 million professionally active physicians in the U.S. Compared with the previous year, the number of PCPs have increased, while the number of specialists have decreased.

Data on visits to physician offices, hospital outpatient departments and hospital emergency departments by selected population characteristics. Please refer to the PDF or Excel version of this table in the HUS 2019 Data Finder (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2019.htm) for critical information about measures, definitions, and changes over time. Note that the data file available here has more recent years of data than what is shown in the PDF or Excel version. Data for 2017 physician office visits are not available. SOURCE: NCHS, National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. For more information on the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, see the corresponding Appendix entries at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus17_appendix.pdf.

The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), collects data on visits to physician offices to describe patterns of ambulatory care delivery in the United States. As part of NAMCS, the Physician Induction Interview collects information about practice characteristics at physician offices. Partway through the 2020 NAMCS, NCHS added questions to the Physician Induction Interview to assess physician experiences related to COVID-19 in office-based settings. The data include nationally representative estimates of experiences related to COVID-19 among office-based physicians in the United States, including: shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the past 3 months; the ability to test for COVID-19 in the past 3 months; providers testing positive for COVID-19 in the past 3 months; turning away COVID-19 patients in the past 3 months; and telemedicine or telehealth technology use before and after March 2020. Estimates were derived from interviews with physicians in periods 3 and 4 of 2020 NAMCS and periods 1 through 4 of 2021 NAMCS, which occurred between December 15, 2020 and May 6, 2022. The data are considered preliminary, and the results may change with the final data release.

According to a physicians' survey in 2024, as a result of the physician shortage in the United States, nearly nine in ten physicians said patients had experienced longer wait times. Most noticeably, over a third of physicians stated patients received later-stage diagnoses due to physician shortage.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees, Offices of Physicians (CES6562110001) from Jan 1972 to Aug 2025 about physicians, health, establishment survey, education, services, employment, and USA.

Physicians (per 1,000 people) in United States was reported at 3.608 in 2021, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United States - Physicians - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on October of 2025.

This study was conducted in order to gather detailed specialty-specific data for most of the physician population of the United States. Each member of sample groups of physicians in each of 24 specialty areas completed numerically coded "log diaries" (self-enumerated questionnaires) over the course of one week during the survey data gathering period of 1976-1978. With the information obtained from the log diaries, three data files containing detailed information on the activities of the physicians surveyed and on the characteristics of their practices were prepared for each of the 24 specialty areas: allergy, cardiology, dermatology, emergency medicine, endocrinology, family practice, gastroenterology, general practice, general surgery, hematology, infectious diseases, internal medicine, nephrology, neurological surgery, neurology, obstetrics/gynecology, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, otorhinolaryngology, pediatrics, psychiatry, pulmonary diseases, and rheumatology. As a result, there are 71 discrete datafiles in this dataset (emergency medicine has only two files). Parts 1-24 contain detailed information about each physician's medical or surgical practice, e.g., specialty, major professional activity, board certifications, type of practice, physician's opinion concerning distribution of specialties in the community, number of hours per week worked and in what capacity, and type of employees in physician's practice and number of hours worked. Parts 28-48 contain data on each patient the physician saw in person during the week in which he or she kept the log diary. Parts 49-71 hold the data derived from each encounter the physician had via telephone with a patient during the same period. The data in the latter two groups of files contain patient age, sex, problem focus, role, source, and diagnoses.

Belarus BY: Physicians: per 1000 People data was reported at 4.470 Ratio in 2020. This records an increase from the previous number of 4.434 Ratio for 2019. Belarus BY: Physicians: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 3.300 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2020, with 21 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 5.051 Ratio in 2015 and a record low of 2.896 Ratio in 1991. Belarus BY: Physicians: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Belarus – Table BY.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. Physicians include generalist and specialist medical practitioners.;World Health Organization's Global Health Workforce Statistics, OECD, supplemented by country data.;Weighted average;This is the Sustainable Development Goal indicator 3.c.1 [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/].

Croatia HR: Physicians: per 1000 People data was reported at 3.610 Ratio in 2021. This records a decrease from the previous number of 6.959 Ratio for 2020. Croatia HR: Physicians: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 2.425 Ratio from Dec 1980 (Median) to 2021, with 37 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 6.959 Ratio in 2020 and a record low of 1.673 Ratio in 1980. Croatia HR: Physicians: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Croatia – Table HR.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. Physicians include generalist and specialist medical practitioners.;World Health Organization's Global Health Workforce Statistics, OECD, supplemented by country data.;Weighted average;This is the Sustainable Development Goal indicator 3.c.1 [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/].

Introduction

Male and Female Doctors Statistics: Doctors play an essential role in the medical industry. Male and female doctors play critical roles in providing different healthcare services in medicine.

Historically, men have significantly dominated the medical profession. However, there has been a considerable growth in the number of female doctors over the years, as more women seek professions in medicine.

The distribution of male and female doctors across different specializations and geographic locations can vary significantly.

Key factors such as personal preferences, cultural norms, work-life balance considerations, etc., may influence the choices made by male and female doctors regarding their work environment as well as location.

The CMS Program Statistics - Medicare Physician, Non-Physician Practitioner and Supplier tables provide use and payment data for physicians, other practitioners, limited-licensed practitioners, and durable medical equipment, prosthetic, and orthotic (DMEPOS) suppliers.

For additional information on enrollment, providers, and Medicare use and payment, visit the CMS Program Statistics page.

These data do not exist in a machine-readable format, so the view data and API options are not available. Please use the download function to access the data.

Below is the list of tables:

MDCR PHYSSUPP 1. Medicare Physicians, Non-Physician Practitioners, and Suppliers: Utilization, Program Payments, Cost Sharing, and Balance Billing for Original Medicare Beneficiaries, by Type of Entitlement, Yearly Trend MDCR PHYSSUPP 2. Medicare Physicians, Non-Physician Practitioners, and Suppliers: Utilization, Program Payments, Cost Sharing, and Balance Billing for Original Medicare Beneficiaries, by Demographic Characteristics and Medicare-Medicaid Enrollment Status MDCR PHYSSUPP 3. Medicare Physicians, Non-Physician Practitioners, and Suppliers: Utilization, Program Payments, Cost Sharing, and Balance Billing for Original Medicare Beneficiaries, by Area of Residence MDCR PHYSSUPP 4. Medicare Physicians, Non-Physician Practitioners, and Suppliers: Utilization, Program Payments, and Balance Billing for Original Medicare Beneficiaries, by Type of Service MDCR PHYSSUPP 5. Medicare Physicians, Non-Physician Practitioners, and Suppliers: Utilization, Program Payments, and Balance Billing for Original Medicare Beneficiaries, by Place of Service MDCR PHYSSUPP 6. Medicare Physicians, Non-Physician Practitioners, and Suppliers: Utilization, Program Payments, and Balance Billing for Original Medicare Beneficiaries, by Physician Specialty MDCR PHYSSUPP 7. Medicare Physicians, Non-Physician Practitioners, and Suppliers: Utilization and Program Payments for Original Medicare Beneficiaries, by Berenson-Eggers Type of Service (BETOS) Classification

Armenia AM: Physicians: per 1000 People data was reported at 3.117 Ratio in 2019. This records an increase from the previous number of 2.968 Ratio for 2018. Armenia AM: Physicians: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 2.736 Ratio from Dec 2000 (Median) to 2019, with 20 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 3.117 Ratio in 2019 and a record low of 2.404 Ratio in 2003. Armenia AM: Physicians: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Armenia – Table AM.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. Physicians include generalist and specialist medical practitioners.;World Health Organization's Global Health Workforce Statistics, OECD, supplemented by country data.;Weighted average;This is the Sustainable Development Goal indicator 3.c.1 [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/].

Iran IR: Physicians: per 1000 People data was reported at 1.491 Ratio in 2014. This records an increase from the previous number of 0.890 Ratio for 2010. Iran IR: Physicians: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 0.361 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2014, with 14 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.491 Ratio in 2014 and a record low of 0.244 Ratio in 1960. Iran IR: Physicians: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Iran – Table IR.World Bank: Health Statistics. Physicians include generalist and specialist medical practitioners.; ; World Health Organization's Global Health Workforce Statistics, OECD, supplemented by country data.; Weighted average;

This dataset contains aggregated responses to the Physician Survey incorporated into the license renewal process. The dataset is limited to physicians whose license was in “current” status on a specified date.

[IMPORTANT NOTE: Sample file posted on Datarade is not the complete dataset, as Datarade permits only a single CSV file. Visit https://www.careprecise.com/healthcare-provider-data-sample.htm for more complete samples.] The APD is the only physician database with this deep pool of data, available for immediate download in Microsoft Access format and CSV files, for use with spreadsheet, database or CRM software on Windows PC, Mac or Linux.:

100% of HIPAA-covered U.S. MD and DO physicians Their practice groups, with group size Independent practice indicator Sole proprietor indicator Their hospital affiliations All reported specialties, including the primary Years in practice Medical school attended Phone and fax numbers Rural/Urban practice indicator Practice and Mailing addresses Gender Current LEIE sanctions License Medicare practice PAC ID C-suite and director-level contacts for physician groups and hospitals Exclusive CoLoCode™ linkage between physicians practicing together and their group NPI records

This statistic shows the percentage of U.S. physicians who experienced select changes in the last four months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as of July 2020 and June 2021. In July 2020, 72 percent of respondents experienced a reduction in income and 43 percent reduced staff numbers. Reduction of income and staff carried on through 2021, although to a lesser extent. From 2020 to 2021, the switch to a primarly telemedicine position seemed to increase among physicians.

The Physician and Physician Practice Research Database (3P-RD) captures characteristics of physicians and physician practices in 13 states. The database describes the supply of physician services available across selected states for data year 2019-2020.