Family Physicians Entering and Leaving the Workforce
A positive value indicates an increase (or net gain) and a negative value indicates a decrease (or net loss) in the number of clinically active family physicians.
The difference between the number of clinically active family physicians entering and leaving the workforce for selected provinces/territories, divided by the population estimate for a province/territory, and multiplied by 10,000.
Annual change in family physician workforce = (Entries that year – Exits that year) ÷ Population estimate × 10,000
Total population of selected provinces/territories.
The difference between the number of clinically active family physicians entering and exiting the workforce in a specified jurisdiction and year.
“Entries” refers to clinically active family physicians who received payment for publicly insured services in a given year and jurisdiction and did not receive such the previous fiscal year.
“Exits” refers to clinically active family physicians who received payment for publicly insured services in a given year and jurisdiction and did not receive such the following fiscal year.
Methodology
Name
Family Physicians Entering and Leaving the Workforce
Short/Other Names
Net New Family Physicians
Description
Difference between the number of clinically active family physicians entering and exiting the workforce in a jurisdiction and year, per 10,000 population.
“Entering” includes, but is not limited to, those who recently graduated, migrated from other jurisdictions or countries, or returned to the workforce after extended leave.
“Exiting” includes, but is not limited to, those who recently retired, migrated to other jurisdictions or countries, left the profession or took extended leave from the workforce.
Rationale
Health workforce planners and decision-makers need to understand the number of family physicians in the workforce and their movement patterns into and out of the workforce. This indicator provides a measure of net change by considering both entries to and exits from the workforce for a given year.
Family physicians provide care across a person’s lifespan and are typically the first point of contact for Canadians seeking health care services.
Interpretation
A positive value indicates an increase (or net gain) and a negative value indicates a decrease (or net loss) in the number of clinically active family physicians.
HSP Framework Dimension
Health system inputs and characteristics: Health system resources
Areas of Need
Not applicable
Targets/Benchmarks
Not applicable
Available Data Years
(fiscal years)
Geographic Coverage
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Prince Edward Island
- New Brunswick
- Nova Scotia
- Ontario
- Manitoba
- Saskatchewan
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Yukon
Reporting Level/Disaggregation
- Province/Territory
- Reported sex or gender
- Years since graduation
Indicator Results
Update Frequency
Every year
Latest Results Update Date
Updates
Not applicable
Description
The difference between the number of clinically active family physicians entering and leaving the workforce for selected provinces/territories, divided by the population estimate for a province/territory, and multiplied by 10,000.
Annual change in family physician workforce = (Entries that year – Exits that year) ÷ Population estimate × 10,000
Type of Measurement
Rate - per 10,000 population and per year
Denominator
Description:
Total population of selected provinces/territories.
Inclusions:
Provincial and/or territorial population estimate from Statistics Canada
Exclusions:
Not applicable
Numerator
Description:
The difference between the number of clinically active family physicians entering and exiting the workforce in a specified jurisdiction and year.
“Entries” refers to clinically active family physicians who received payment for publicly insured services in a given year and jurisdiction and did not receive such the previous fiscal year.
“Exits” refers to clinically active family physicians who received payment for publicly insured services in a given year and jurisdiction and did not receive such the following fiscal year.
Inclusions:
- Clinically active family physicians are defined as family physicians who received payment for publicly insured services during the specified year and who were included in the National Physician Database (NPDB). Payment includes various payment types, such as fee-for-service, salary and block payments.
- Family physicians who have a National Physician Specialty (NPS) code of General Practice, Family Medicine, Community Medicine/Public Health or Palliative Care in the NPDB. NPS code reflects the specialty under which the individual physician received the most payments in a given fiscal period according to NPDB billing records.
Exclusions:
- Family physicians who did not receive any payment for publicly insured services, as captured in the NPDB. For example, medical residents, military physicians and retired physicians.
- Emergency medicine physicians certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Method of Adjustment
Not applicable
Geographic Assignment
Place of service
Data Sources
- Demography division, Statistics Canada
- NPDB
Caveats and Limitations
- No data is available for the Northwest Territories or Nunavut. The Northwest Territories does not submit specialty-level data to the NPDB, and Nunavut does not submit any data to the NPDB.
- Saskatchewan’s physician counts are calculated using fee-for-service data and do not include physicians exclusively on alternative payment plans.
- Prince Edward Island physician counts for exits are calculated using fee-for-service data, and these counts do not include physicians exclusively on alternative payment plans.
- As part of the agreement between the Government of Quebec and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the data transmitted by Quebec and held by CIHI may only be used for specific purposes and is not included.
- For some jurisdictions, such as the Yukon, this indicator may also count physicians who do not live in the Yukon (and/or other territories), but who do provide some services in the Yukon (and/or other territories) and who are primarily based elsewhere.
- This indicator does not account for workload — each family physician who is counted in a jurisdiction is counted as 1 health professional, regardless of their workload.
Trending Issues
Not applicable
How to cite:
Canadian Institute for Health Information. Family Physicians Entering and Leaving the Workforce. Accessed April 25, 2025.
If you would like CIHI information in a different format, visit our Accessibility page.
Comments
This indicator is part of a set of common indicators to measure progress on the priority areas to improve health care announced by federal, provincial and territorial governments in 2023. Additional information is available on the Shared Health Priorities web page.