February 29, 2024 — Physician data contributes to evidence-based planning and management of the health workforce, which is vital to ensuring that Canadians can access health services when and where they need them.
We work closely with ministries of health and other physician stakeholder groups to develop national standards and indicators to understand the various types of services physicians provide. CIHI has information about physicians across Canada going back to 1968.
Key findings
- Supply of doctors
- In 2022, there were 96,020 physicians in Canada, representing 247 physicians per 100,000 population.
- While the supply of physicians grew 2.0% compared with 2021, the increase was just 1.6% for family medicine physicians versus 2.5% for specialists.
- Dollars and utilization
- After a decline in 2020–2021 —the first one on record — total payments to physicians increased by 6.9% in 2021–2022 to $30.8 billion.
- The average gross payment per physician also increased in 2021–2022 (after last year’s decrease), to $356,700 — up 3.8% over the previous year.
- With the scaling back of the previous year’s COVID-19–related public health measures, physicians provided 8.3% more health services in Canada in 2021–2022.
- Demographics
- The proportion of female physicians in the workforce continues to rise. In 2022, 49.7% of family medicine physicians and 40.2% of specialist physicians in Canada were female.
- The average age of physicians in 2022 was 49.3 — 51.7 for males versus 46.3 for females.
Featured material
A profile of physicians in Canada
Learn more about Canada’s physicians with this visualization.
National Physician Database (NPDB)
Learn about payments to physicians and services provided. Data goes back to 1996–1997.
Scott’s Medical Database (SMDB)
Get the number and distribution of physicians, including demographics, education and migration.
Reports
The state of the health workforce in Canada, 2022
This report provides an overview of 4 key areas: health workforce supply and distribution, internationally educated health professionals, workplace measures and specific population needs.
Health workforce in Canada: In focus (including nurses and physicians)
This report summarizes some of the most critical issues facing Canada’s health care systems using the most current pan-Canadian data available.
Tools
Physician Services Benefit Rate (PSBR)
The PSBR provides provincial comparisons of fees paid for physicians’ services under Canadian medicare systems. The PSBR is available upon request.
National Grouping System (NGS)
The NGS organizes fee codes into homogenous categories for comparison of physician services across Canada. For a list of codes, see the NPDB methodology notes.
Download this visualization (PDF)
Additional material
Reports and releases
Explore other physician-related data and reports.
- Health Workforce in Canada, 2022 — Quick Stats (XLSX) (Dec. 2023)
- Patient Cost Estimator (Oct. 2023)
- CIHI’s Physician Scope of Practice Methodology (PDF) (May 2023)
- Virtual care: Impact of COVID-19 on physician practice patterns (Mar. 2022)
- Virtual care: Impact of COVID-19 on patients receiving physician services (Mar. 2022)
- Continuity of Care With Family Medicine Physicians: Why It Matters (Apr. 2015)
- Physician Follow-Up After Hospital Discharge: Progress in Meeting Best Practices (Mar. 2015)
- Approaches for Calculating Average Clinical Payments per Physician Using Detailed Alternative Payment Data (Mar. 2015)
Metadata
These notes are meant for all data users. They summarize the sources, definitions, strengths and limitations of the data available.