A physician, medical practitioner, medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments.
(Unreliable data: It says the country with most physicians, China, has 1,862,630 physicians and 19.8 physicians per 10,000 people. That puts the population at 941 million, while the country actually has 1.4 billion people.)
Country or dependency | 2000–2009 [1] | 2007–2013 [2] | Latest available data (2020–2023) [3] | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Size | Physicians per 10,000 people | Physicians per 10,000 people | Physicians per 10,000 people | |
Australia | 19612 | 10 | 32.7 | 41.02 |
Austria | 31175 | 38 | 48.3 | 54.6 |
Azerbaijan | 32388 | 38 | 34.0 | |
Albania | 3626 | 11 | 11.5 | 18.83 |
Algeria | 40857 | 12 | 12.1 | 17.2 |
Angola | 1165 | 1 | 1.7 | |
Andorra | 249 | 37 | 40.0 | |
Argentina | 122623 | 32 | 38.6 | 38.95 |
Armenia | 11090 | 37 | 27.0 | |
Afghanistan | 5970 | 2 | 2.7 | 2.54 |
Bahamas | 997 | 28.2 | 28.2 | |
Bangladesh | 42881 | 3 | 3.6 | 6.7 |
Bahrain | 2227 | 30 | 9.2 | |
Belarus | 46965 | 49 | 39.3 | |
Belize | 251 | 11 | 8.3 | |
Belgium | 44124 | 42 | 29.9 | 62.57 |
Benin | 542 | 1 | 0.6 | |
Bulgaria | 27911 | 37 | 38.7 | |
Bolivia | 10329 | 12 | 4.7 | |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 5540 | 14 | 19.3 | |
Botswana | 715 | 4 | 4 | |
Brazil | 320013 | 17 | 18.9 | 21.6 |
Brunei | 400 | 11 | 14.4 | 19.13 |
Burkina Faso | 921 | 1 | 0.5 | |
Burundi | 200 | 0.5 | 8.55 | 0.65 |
Bhutan | 52 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 5.6 |
North Macedonia | 5187 | 25 | 26.2 | |
Vanuatu | 30 | 1 | 1.2 | |
Hungary | 27957 | 28 | 30.8 | 32.91 |
Venezuela | 48000 | 19 | 19 | 16.64 |
Vietnam | 44960 | 6 | 11.9 | |
Gabon | 395 | 3 | 3 | 5.94 |
Guyana | 366 | 5 | 2.1 | 14.05 |
Gambia | 62 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 0.77 |
Ghana | 2587 | 1 | 1 | 1.64 |
Guatemala | 13367 | 9.3 | 9.3 | 12.8 |
Guinea | 940 | 1 | 1 | |
Guinea-Bissau | 78 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 2.2 |
Germany | 288182 | 35 | 38.9 | 42.5 |
Honduras | 3676 | 6 | 6 | 4.89 |
Greece | 59599 | 54 | 54 | 63.06 |
Georgia | 19951 | 45 | 42.7 | 71.2 |
Denmark | 17226 | 32 | 34.9 | |
Democratic Republic of the Congo | 5827 | 1 | 1 | |
Djibouti | 140 | 2 | 2 | |
Dominican Republic | 15670 | 19 | 14.9 | |
Egypt | 179900 | 24 | 28.3 | 4.5 |
Zambia | 649 | 1 | 1.7 | 2.97 |
Zimbabwe | 2086 | 2 | 0.8 | 1.89 |
Israel | 25314 | 36 | 33.4 | 36.54 |
India | 643520 | 6 | 7 | 8.6 |
Indonesia | 204000 | 4.3 | ||
Jordan | 15279 | 26 | 25.6 | |
Iraq | 15994 | 5 | 6.1 | 7.1 |
Iran | 61870 | 9 | 9 | 15.8 |
Ireland | 13141 | 31 | 26.7 | 40.62 |
Iceland | 1120 | 38 | 34.8 | |
Spain | 163800 | 38 | 49.5 | 45.77 |
Italy | 215000 | 37 | 37.6 | 41.62 |
Yemen | 6739 | 3 | 2 | |
Cape Verde | 310 | 6 | 3.1 | |
Kazakhstan | 57387 | 39 | 36.2 | 40.28 |
Cambodia | 2047 | 2 | 1.7 | |
Cameroon | 3124 | 2 | 0.8 | 1.24 |
Canada | 62307 | 19 | 20.7 | 26.1 |
Qatar | 2313 | 28 | 77.4 | 24.9 |
Kenya | 4506 | 1 | 2 | 2.26 |
Cyprus | 1950 | 23 | 23.3 | 53.75 |
Kiribati | 20 | 2 | 3.8 | |
China | 1862630 | 14 | 14.9 | 19.8 |
Colombia | 58761 | 14 | 14.7 | 23.62 |
Comoros | 115 | 2 | 2 | |
Republic of the Congo | 401 | 1 | 1 | |
North Korea | 74597 | 33 | 33 | |
Costa Rica | 5204 | 13 | 11.1 | 27.7 |
Ivory Coast | 2746 | 1 | 1.4 | |
Cuba | 72416 | 64 | 67.2 | 84.2 |
Kuwait | 4840 | 18 | 17.9 | 22.93 |
Kyrgyzstan | 12395 | 23 | 19.7 | |
Laos | 2000 | 3 | 1.8 | 3.27 |
Latvia | 6940 | 30 | 35.8 | 33.45 |
Lesotho | 89 | 1 | 1 | |
Liberia | 51 | 0.5 | 0.1 | |
Lebanon | 11760 | 33 | 32 | |
Libya | 7070 | 12 | 19 | |
Lithuania | 13729 | 40 | 41.2 | 49.5 |
Luxembourg | 1326 | 29 | 29 | 30.1 |
Mauritius | 1303 | 11 | 11 | 26.58 |
Mauritania | 445 | 1 | 1.3 | |
Madagascar | 3150 | 2 | 1.6 | |
Malawi | 257 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.49 |
Malaysia | 17020 | 7 | 12 | 22.28 |
Mali | 1060 | 1 | 0.8 | |
Maldives | 302 | 9 | 14.2 | |
Malta | 1357 | 34 | 34.9 | 54.85 |
Morocco | 18269 | 6 | 6.2 | 7.3 |
Marshall Islands | 24 | 5 | 4.4 | |
Mexico | 303519 | 29 | 21 | 23.8 |
Federated States of Micronesia | 60 | 6 | 1.8 | 9.63 |
Mozambique | 548 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.81 |
Monaco | 270 | 71.7 | 71.7 | |
Mongolia | 6732 | 26 | 28.4 | |
Myanmar | 17791 | 4 | 6.1 | |
Namibia | 598 | 3 | 3.7 | |
Nauru | 10 | 8 | 7.1 | |
Nepal | 5384 | 2 | 2 | 8.67 |
Niger | 288 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.34 |
Nigeria | 55376 | 4 | 4.1 | 3.8 |
Netherlands | 64417 | 39 | 39 | 38.36 |
Nicaragua | 2045 | 4 | 9 | |
Niue | 4 | 20 | 30 | |
New Zealand | 8190 | 21 | 27.4 | 35.16 |
Norway | 18143 | 39 | 42.8 | 51.68 |
Tanzania | 300 | 0.5 | 0.3 | |
United Arab Emirates | 6946 | 15 | 25.3 | 28.79 |
Oman | 4908 | 18 | 24.3 | 19.94 |
Cook Islands | 20 | 12 | 12 | |
Pakistan | 127859 | 8 | 8.3 | 9.8 |
Palau | 30 | 16 | 13.8 | 17.78 |
Panama | 4431 | 15 | 16.5 | 16.29 |
Papua New Guinea | 275 | 1 | 0.6 | 0.63 |
Paraguay | 6355 | 11 | 12.3 | 32.42 |
Peru | 34437 | 11.3 | 11.3 | 16.46 |
Poland | 77479 | 20 | 22.2 | 37.17 |
Portugal | 36138 | 34 | 41 | 41.4 |
South Korea | 81998 | 17 | 21.4 | 25.08 |
Moldova | 11167 | 27 | 29.8 | 40.57 |
Russia | 614183 | 43 | 43 | 40.1 |
Rwanda | 221 | 0.5 | 0.6 | |
Romania | 41455 | 19 | 24.5 | |
El Salvador | 7938 | 12 | 16 | 29.13 |
Samoa | 50 | 3 | 4.5 | 5.54 |
San Marino | 163 | 51.0 | 51 | |
São Tomé and Príncipe | 81 | 5 | 5 | |
Saudi Arabia | 41870 | 16 | 24.9 | 27.6 |
Eswatini | 171 | 2 | 1.7 | 1.4 |
Seychelles | 121 | 15 | 10.7 | |
Senegal | 741 | 1 | 0.6 | 0.84 |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 89 | 8 | 8 | |
Saint Kitts and Nevis | 46 | 11 | 11 | |
Saint Lucia | 18 | 1.1 | 1.1 | |
Serbia | 20013 | 20 | 21.1 | |
Singapore | 6380 | 15 | 19.5 | |
Syria | 10342 | 5 | 14.6 | |
Slovakia | 16868 | 31 | 33.2 | 46.29 |
Slovenia | 4766 | 24 | 25.2 | 32.79 |
United Kingdom | 126126 | 21 | 28.1 | 31.71 |
United States | 793648 | 27 | 24.5 | 26.1 |
Solomon Islands | 60 | 1 | 2.2 | |
Somalia | 300 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |
Sudan | 11083 | 3 | 2.8 | |
Suriname | 191 | 5 | 5 | |
Sierra Leone | 95 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.7 |
Tajikistan | 13267 | 20 | 19.2 | |
Thailand | 18987 | 3 | 3.9 | 9.28 |
Timor-Leste | 79 | 1 | 0.7 | 7.67 |
Togo | 349 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.59 |
Tonga | 30 | 3 | 5.6 | 10.09 |
Trinidad and Tobago | 1543 | 12 | 11.8 | 34.12 |
Tuvalu | 10 | 9 | 10.9 | 12.61 |
Tunisia | 13330 | 13 | 12.2 | |
Turkmenistan | 12104 | 24 | 24 | |
Turkey | 110482 | 15 | 17.1 | 18.5 |
Uganda | 3361 | 1 | 1 | 1.58 |
Uzbekistan | 71627 | 26 | 25.3 | |
Ukraine | 143728 | 31 | 35.4 | |
Uruguay | 12384 | 37 | 37.4 | 62 |
Fiji | 380 | 5 | 4.3 | |
Philippines | 90370 | 12 | 12 | 7.83 |
Finland | 17503 | 33 | 29.1 | 43.25 |
France | 227683 | 37 | 31.9 | 32.7 |
Croatia | 11799 | 26 | 28.4 | |
Central African Republic | 331 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
Chad | 345 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.4 |
Montenegro | 1233 | 20 | 21.1 | 27.68 |
Czech Republic | 36815 | 36 | 36.2 | 54.69 |
Chile | 17250 | 11 | 17.8 | 29.73 |
Switzerland | 28812 | 40 | 40.5 | 43 |
Sweden | 32495 | 36 | 39.3 | 70.62 |
Sri Lanka | 10479 | 6 | 6.8 | 11.92 |
Ecuador | 18335 | 15 | 17.2 | |
Equatorial Guinea | 153 | 3 | 3 | |
Eritrea | 215 | 1 | 1 | 0.82 |
Estonia | 4414 | 33 | 32.4 | 38.63 |
Ethiopia | 1806 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.04 |
South Africa | 34829 | 8 | 7.8 | 8.09 |
Jamaica | 2253 | 9 | 4.1 | |
Japan | 270371 | 21 | 23 | 24.1 |
A physician, medical practitioner, medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments. Physicians may focus their practice on certain disease categories, types of patients, and methods of treatment—known as specialities—or they may assume responsibility for the provision of continuing and comprehensive medical care to individuals, families, and communities—known as general practice. Medical practice properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic disciplines, such as anatomy and physiology, underlying diseases and their treatment—the science of medicine—and also a decent competence in its applied practice—the art or craft of medicine.
Assisted suicide – alternately referred to as medical aid in dying – means a procedure in which people take medications to end their own lives with the help of others, usually medical professionals. The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which is an end of life measure for a person suffering a painful, terminal illness. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifies under the physician-assisted suicide laws for that location, the physician's assistance is usually limited to writing a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs.
A Physician Assistant or Physician Associate (PA) is a type of healthcare professional. While these job titles are used internationally, there is significant variation in training and scope of practice from country to country, and sometimes between smaller jurisdictions such as states or provinces. Depending on location, PAs practice semi-autonomously under the supervision of a physician, or autonomously perform a subset of medical services classically provided by physicians.
Primary care is the day-to-day healthcare given by a health care provider. Typically this provider acts as the first contact and principal point of continuing care for patients within a healthcare system, and coordinates other specialist care that the patient may need. Patients commonly receive primary care from professionals such as a primary care physician, a physician assistant, a physical therapist, or a nurse practitioner. In some localities, such a professional may be a registered nurse, a pharmacist, a clinical officer, or an Ayurvedic or other traditional medicine professional. Depending on the nature of the health condition, patients may then be referred for secondary or tertiary care.
Healthcare in Canada is delivered through the provincial and territorial systems of publicly funded health care, informally called Medicare. It is guided by the provisions of the Canada Health Act of 1984, and is universal. The 2002 Royal Commission, known as the Romanow Report, revealed that Canadians consider universal access to publicly funded health services as a "fundamental value that ensures national health care insurance for everyone wherever they live in the country."
Family medicine is a medical specialty within primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a primary care physician, is named a family physician. It is often referred to as general practice and a practitioner as a general practitioner. Historically, their role was once performed by any doctor with qualifications from a medical school and who works in the community. However, since the 1950s, family medicine / general practice has become a specialty in its own right, with specific training requirements tailored to each country. The names of the specialty emphasize its holistic nature and/or its roots in the family. It is based on knowledge of the patient in the context of the family and the community, focusing on disease prevention and health promotion. According to the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), the aim of family medicine is "promoting personal, comprehensive and continuing care for the individual in the context of the family and the community". The issues of values underlying this practice are usually known as primary care ethics.
The health care system in Japan provides different types of services, including screening examinations, prenatal care and infectious disease control, with the patient accepting responsibility for 30% of these costs while the government pays the remaining 70%. Payment for personal medical services is offered by a universal health care insurance system that provides relative equality of access, with fees set by a government committee. All residents of Japan are required by the law to have health insurance coverage. People without insurance from employers can participate in a national health insurance program, administered by local governments. Patients are free to select physicians or facilities of their choice and cannot be denied coverage. Hospitals, by law, must be run as non-profits and be managed by physicians.
The Cuban government operates a national health system and assumes fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health care of all its citizens. All healthcare in Cuba is free to Cuban residents, although challenges include low salaries for doctors, poor facilities, poor provision of equipment, and the frequent absence of essential drugs. There are no private hospitals or clinics as all health services are government-run. The current public health minister of Cuba is José Angel Portal Miranda.
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine is a medical degree conferred by the 38 osteopathic medical schools in the United States. DO and Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees are equivalent: a DO graduate may become licensed as a physician or surgeon and thus have full medical and surgical practicing rights in all 50 US states. As of 2021, there were 168,701 osteopathic physicians and medical students in DO programs across the United States. Osteopathic medicine emerged historically from osteopathy, but has become a distinct profession.
Healthcare in Israel is universal and participation in a medical insurance plan is compulsory. All Israeli residents are entitled to basic health care as a fundamental right. The Israeli healthcare system is based on the National Health Insurance Law of 1995, which mandates all citizens resident in the country to join one of four official health insurance organizations, known as Kupat Holim which are run as not-for-profit organizations and are prohibited by law from denying any Israeli resident membership. Israelis can increase their medical coverage and improve their options by purchasing private health insurance. In a survey of 48 countries in 2013, Israel's health system was ranked fourth in the world in terms of efficiency, and in 2014 it ranked seventh out of 51. In 2020, Israel's health system was ranked third most efficient in the world. In 2015, Israel was ranked sixth-healthiest country in the world by Bloomberg rankings and ranked eighth in terms of life expectancy.
In the post-Soviet era, the quality of Uzbekistan’s health care has declined. Between 1992 and 2003, spending on health care and the ratio of hospital beds to population both decreased by nearly 50 percent, and Russian emigration in that decade deprived the health system of many practitioners. In 2004 Uzbekistan had 53 hospital beds per 10,000 population. Basic medical supplies such as disposable needles, anesthetics, and antibiotics are in very short supply. Although all citizens nominally are entitled to free health care, in the post-Soviet era bribery has become a common way to bypass the slow and limited service of the state system. In the early 2000s, policy has focused on improving primary health care facilities and cutting the cost of inpatient facilities. The state budget for 2006 allotted 11.1 percent to health expenditures, compared with 10.9 percent in 2005.
Healthcare in Finland consists of a highly decentralized three-level publicly funded healthcare system and a much smaller private sector. Although the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has the highest decision-making authority, specific healthcare precincts are responsible for providing healthcare to their residents as of 2023.
Italy's healthcare system is consistently ranked among the best in the world. Life expectancy is the 4th highest among OECD countries and the world's 8th highest according to the WHO. Healthcare spending accounted for 9.7% of GDP in 2020.
After the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Cuba established a program to send its medical personnel overseas, particularly to Latin America, Africa, and Oceania, and to bring medical students and patients to Cuba for training and treatment respectively. In 2007, Cuba had 42,000 workers in international collaborations in 103 countries, of whom more than 30,000 were health personnel, including at least 19,000 physicians. Cuba provides more medical personnel to the developing world than all the G8 countries combined. The Cuban missions have had substantial positive local impacts on the populations served. It is widely believed that medical workers are a vital export commodity for Cuba. According to Granma, the Cuban state newspaper, the number of Cuban medical staff abroad fell from 50,000 in 2015 to 28,000 in 2020.
Physician supply refers to the number of trained physicians working in a health care system or active in the labor market. The supply depends primarily on the number of graduates of medical schools in a country or jurisdiction but also on the number continuing to practice medicine as a career path and remaining in their country of origin. The number of physicians needed in a given context depends on several different factors, including the demographics and epidemiology of the local population, the numbers and types of other health care practitioners working in the system, and the policies and goals in place of the health care system. If more physicians are trained than needed, supply exceeds demand. If too few physicians are trained and retained, some people may have difficulty accessing health care services. A physician shortage is a situation in which there are not enough physicians to treat all patients in need of medical care. That can be observed at the level of a given health care facility, a province/state, a country, or worldwide.
Healthcare in the United States is largely provided by private sector healthcare facilities, and paid for by a combination of public programs, private insurance, and out-of-pocket payments. The U.S. is the only developed country without a system of universal healthcare, and a significant proportion of its population lacks health insurance.
Physicians are an important part of health care in the United States. The vast majority of physicians in the US have a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree, though some have a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), or Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS).
Examples of health care systems of the world, sorted by continent, are as follows.
Suicide among doctors refers to physicians or medical trainees dying by suicide.
Concerns of both a current and future shortage of medical doctors due to the supply and demand for physicians in the United States have come from multiple entities including professional bodies such as the American Medical Association (AMA). The subject has been analyzed as well by the American news media in publications such as Forbes, The Nation, and Newsweek. In the 2010s, a study released by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) titled The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections From 2019 to 2034 specifically projected a shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 individuals within the following two decades, approximately.