Data extracted in December 2024.
Planned article update: July 2025.
Highlights
There were an estimated 1.83 million practising physicians across the EU in 2022.
In 2022, more than half of all physicians in Bulgaria and Italy were aged 55 years or over.
In 2022, more than two thirds of the total number of physicians in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Romania were women.
The number of graduating medical doctors per 100 000 inhabitants rose between 2012 and 2022 in nearly all EU countries; Austria and the Netherlands (which had a break in series) were the only exceptions among those countries for which data are available.
Number of general medical practitioners, 2022
This article presents an overview of European Union (EU) statistics on physicians. It provides information on specialist healthcare personnel, as well as data on the number and ratio of graduates in this field (note that all physicians need to possess a degree in medicine). It is 1 of a set of 3 articles on healthcare personnel which also include the articles Healthcare personnel statistics - nursing and caring professionals and Healthcare personnel statistics - dentists, pharmacists and physiotherapists.
Physicians provide licensed healthcare services to patients. They give advice, conduct medical examinations, diagnose diseases and conditions, apply preventive medical methods, prescribe medication, treat illnesses and provide specialised medical or surgical treatment.
This article is one of a set of statistical articles concerning healthcare resources in the EU which forms part of an online publication on Health in the European Union – facts and figures.
Healthcare personnel
Eurostat collects data on 3 concepts of physicians,
- ‘practising’ – physicians providing services directly to patients
- ‘professionally active’ – ‘practising’ physicians plus physicians for whom their medical education is a prerequisite for the execution of their job
- ‘licensed’ – physicians who are registered and entitled to practise as physicians.
In this article preference is given to the concept of ‘practising’ physicians; for some EU countries, data are not available for this concept and therefore data are presented for 1 of the alternative concepts instead: notes indicate these exceptions in each table and figure.
There were an estimated 1.83 million physicians working in the EU in 2022
In 2022, there were an estimated 1.83 million practising physicians in the EU (see the footnotes of Table 1 for more details). The highest overall numbers of practising physicians were recorded in the largest EU countries: Germany (381 249, equivalent to 20.8% of the EU total), followed at some distance by Italy (249 869), France (217 441) and Spain (205 366). Together, these 4 EU countries accounted for 57.6% of the total number of practising physicians in the EU. The next highest number of practising physicians was in Poland, 131 426, equivalent to 7.2% of the EU total.
Greece had the highest number of physicians per 100 000 inhabitants
Among the EU countries, Greece (physicians licensed to practise) recorded the highest number of physicians relative to population size, at 656.0 per 100 000 inhabitants in 2022. This was considerably higher than in any of the other EU countries; Portugal (573.5 physicians licensed to practise per 100 000 inhabitants), Austria (544.6 practising physicians per 100 000 inhabitants) and Cyprus (518.8 practising physicians per 100 000 inhabitants) had the next highest ratios. By contrast, the lowest ratio was 285.5 practising physicians per 100 000 inhabitants in Finland (2021 data).
In a large majority of EU countries, there were more medical specialists than general medical practitioners
Generalist medical practitioners do not limit their practice to certain disease categories or methods of treatment; they may assume responsibility for the provision of continuing and comprehensive medical care to individuals, families and communities. By contrast, medical specialists include doctors who specialise in the diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of physical disorders and diseases, for example specialists in internal medicine, cardiology, oncology and radiology. Surgical specialists include doctors who specialise in the use of surgical techniques to treat disorders and diseases, for example, specialists in general surgery, neurological surgery, anaesthesiology or accident and emergency medicine.
A closer examination of the data in Table 1 reveals that there were approximately 481 000 generalist medical practitioners (GPs) across the EU (excluding data for Luxembourg and Slovakia) in 2022. The highest number of GPs was recorded in France (93 570), followed by Germany (88 286), while Portugal (physicians licensed to practise) reported the highest number of GPs per 100 000 inhabitants (304.3 per 100 000 inhabitants). The proportion of physicians who were GPs was highest in Portugal (53%), Ireland (52%) and the Netherlands (47%). The lowest share was recorded in Greece (7%, physicians licensed to practise), which was the only EU country to record a single-digit share.
There were 18 EU countries (among 25 for which recent data are available) where there were more medical specialists than GPs in 2022. The EU countries with the highest number of medical specialists were Germany (125 227) and Italy (97 237). Greece reported the highest number of medical specialists per 100 000 inhabitants (269.3 per 100 000 inhabitants, licensed to practice), followed by Bulgaria (193.4 per 100 000 inhabitants).
In 2022, there were more surgical specialists than GPs in 13 of the 25 EU countries for which recent data are available. The highest numbers of surgical specialists were reported in Germany (104 587), Italy (64 122) and Spain (50 763). Greece reported the highest number per 100 000 inhabitants (150.5 per 100 000 inhabitants, licensed to practice), followed by Cyprus (143.3 per 100 000).
The number of physicians per 100 000 inhabitants rose in nearly all EU countries between 2017 and 2022
The number of physicians per 100 000 inhabitants increased in nearly all EU countries between 2017 and 2022 (see Figure 1); note that there are no recent data available for Luxembourg. There was little change in this ratio in Estonia (0.1% increase) while a modest decrease of 2.5% was observed in Lithuania. The increasing trend in most EU countries may reflect demographic shifts linked to ageing populations in Europe; as the proportion of older generations in the EU increased in recent years, demand for health and social care services also increased.
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(per 100 000 inhabitants)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_rs_prs2)
Leaving aside EU countries which recorded a break in time series (such as Poland and Romania), the largest relative increase was recorded in Cyprus, where the number of physicians rose from 386.8 per 100 000 inhabitants in 2017 to 518.8 per 100 000 inhabitants in 2022 (an overall increase of 34.1%).
Bulgaria and Italy had the largest shares of physicians aged 55 years and over
There has been a rapid ageing of the healthcare workforce across much of the EU. In 12 EU countries, the share of physicians aged 55 years and over was greater than 40.0% in 2022. Among these, the share was over 50.0% in Bulgaria and Italy (54.0% and 53.9%, respectively). In most of the remaining EU countries for which data are available, the relative proportion of this age group in the total number of physicians was between 23.0% and 34.3%; smaller shares were recorded in Finland (21.4%; 2021 data), Malta (21.2%) and Romania (20.6%). Reflecting these smaller shares for physicians aged 55 years and over, the highest proportions of younger physicians (under 35 years) were in Malta (46.1%) and Romania (34.6%).
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More than 70% of physicians in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Romania were women
The analysis presented in Figure 3 shows that there were considerable differences between EU countries with respect to the proportion of male and female physicians. Over the last decade, the overall proportion of female physicians has gradually increased; by 2018 there was a slight majority of physicians in the EU who were female, and this proportion has continued to rise in the last 4 years to reach 52.8% in 2022.
In 2022, a majority (17) of the 26 EU countries for which data are available reported that they had a higher number of female than male physicians. In Finland (2021 data), Croatia and Slovenia, more than 60% of all physicians were women, while in Romania and the Baltic countries this proportion exceeded 70%. The largest shares of female doctors were recorded in Estonia (73%) and Latvia (74%). By contrast, the greatest share of male physicians was recorded in Cyprus (60%). Relatively high proportions of male physicians were also recorded in Greece, Malta and Italy (all within the range of 54% to 56%). The narrowest gender gap was observed in Austria, where men accounted for a marginally higher share of all physicians (1 percentage point difference).
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Health graduates
Some EU countries face concerns over a forecasted lack of supply of physicians available to their healthcare workforces in the future. Among other actions, this has led some countries to promote measures designed to encourage more students to pursue medical degrees.
Figure 4 provides information on the number of medical doctors graduating per 100 000 inhabitants. In 2022, there were an estimated 15.5 medical doctors graduating in the EU for every 100 000 inhabitants. The highest ratios were recorded in Bulgaria (29.5 per 100 000 inhabitants), Malta (27.7 per 100 000 inhabitants), Latvia (27.5 per 100 000 inhabitants), Romania (26.1 per 100 000 inhabitants) and Ireland (25.7 per 100 000 inhabitants). Most of the remaining EU countries for which data are available recorded ratios of 11.4 to 21.6 medical doctor graduates per 100 000 inhabitants, with the exception of Luxembourg which did not report any graduates as Luxembourg does not offer full medical training, students therefore officially graduate from a medical school in another country. Prior to 2019 there were no physicians graduates in Cyprus.
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(per 100 000 inhabitants)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_rs_grd2)
A comparison between 2012 and 2022 shows that the number of medical doctors graduating per 100 000 inhabitants rose in nearly all EU countries; the exceptions were Austria and the Netherlands (which had a break in series) where relatively small decreases were registered. In relative terms, the biggest increases were recorded in Bulgaria, Latvia and France (data for 2012 and 2021), as their ratios at least doubled.
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
Key concepts
Physicians are split into 2 broad occupational groups:
- generalist medical practitioners, which can, in turn, be divided into
- general practitioners (GPs)
- other generalist medical practitioners
- specialist medical practitioners, which can, in turn, be subdivided into
- medical specialists (doctors specialising in the diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of physical disorders and diseases)
- surgical specialists (doctors who specialise in the use of surgical techniques to treat disorders and diseases).
Practising physicians provide services directly to patients. They include people who have completed studies in medicine at university level and who are licensed to practise, be they salaried or self-employed, irrespective of the place of service provision. Unemployed physicians, retired physicians and students who have yet to graduate are excluded, as are physicians working in administration, research and other posts that exclude direct contact with patients.
Data on medical graduates for any given year cover the number of students who have graduated in medicine from medical faculties or similar institutions. The data exclude those who have graduated in pharmacy, dentistry/stomatology, or public health and epidemiology, as well as individuals who have completed post-graduate studies or training in medicine.
Healthcare resources
Statistics on healthcare resources (such as personnel and medical equipment) are documented in this background article on Healthcare non-expenditure statistics - methodology which provides information on the scope of the data, its legal basis, the methodology employed, as well as related concepts and definitions.
For country specific notes on these data collections, please refer to the annexes at the end of the national metadata reports accessible from links at the beginning of the European metadata report.
Common definitions have been agreed between Eurostat, the OECD and the World Health Organization (WHO) with respect to the employment of various healthcare professionals. There are 3 main concepts which are used to present these data. Eurostat gives preference to the concept of ‘practising’ physicians
- ‘practising’ – healthcare professionals providing services directly to patients
- ‘professionally active’ – ‘practising’ professionals plus healthcare professionals for whom their medical education is a prerequisite for the execution of their job
- ‘licensed’ – healthcare professionals who are registered and entitled to practise as healthcare professionals.
The Healthcare non-expenditure statistics manual provides an overview of the classifications, both for mandatory variables and variables provided on a voluntary basis.
Symbols
In tables, a colon ‘:’ is used to show where data aren’t available. Data in italics are estimates or provisional.
Context
Some health professionals seek jobs in other EU countries: aside from the potential benefits for the individuals concerned, their movement can help rectify labour market imbalances between EU countries. However, some EU countries may experience important outflows of health professionals, which may exacerbate imbalances. Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications provides an EU-wide legal framework enabling EU countries to recognise qualifications of health professionals from other EU countries. A range of health professionals – including doctors – enjoy automatic recognition, in other words, if they are a certified practitioner in their home country then they are automatically entitled to practise anywhere else in the EU. The directive defines basic medical training as comprising a total of at least 6 years of university study or 5 500 hours of theoretical and practical training.
In the coming decades, population ageing is expected to be a major challenge for the EU’s health sector. The demand for health care will probably increase substantially as a result of an ageing population and at the same time the proportion of people in work will probably decline. As a result, staff shortages in certain medical specialisations or geographic areas may increase. In 2022, approximately two fifths of all doctors in the EU were aged 55 years and over.
An action plan for the EU health workforce (SWD(2012) 093 final) seeks to help EU countries tackle these challenges, by: improving workforce planning and forecasting; anticipating future skills’ needs; improving the recruitment and retention of health professionals; and mitigating the negative effects of migration on health systems. Between 2013 and 2016, there was a joint action on health workforce planning and forecasting with 30 associated partners and 34 collaborative partners (from 28 European countries) working together on advancing the issue of planning and forecasting. Between 2017 and 2021, this work continued through SEPEN – Support for the health workforce planning and forecasting expert network, which released a series of technical reports and regular updates on the EU’s health workforce.
The European Commission continues to initiate actions which seek to help EU countries tackle this challenge under the EU4Health programme.
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Other articles
Online publications
Healthcare human and physical resources
Methodology
General health statistics articles
Database
- Health (hlth)
- Health care (hlth_care)
- Health care resources (hlth_res)
- Health care staff (hlth_staff)
- Health graduates (hlth_rs_grd2)
- Health personnel (hlth_rs_prs2)
- Physicians by category (hlth_rs_physcat)
- Physicians by sex and age (hlth_rs_phys)
- Health care staff (hlth_staff)
- Health care resources (hlth_res)
- Health care (hlth_care)
Thematic section
Selected datasets
Methodology
- Healthcare non-expenditure statistics (ESMS metadata file – hlth_res)
External links
European Union, OECD and WHO
- European Commission – Public health, see
- OECD / European Commission report ‘Health at a Glance: Europe’
- OECD – The future of health systems
- World Health Organization (WHO), see
Other external links