TOP 10 Countries by Medical Graduates per 100,000 Population (2025)
The annual number of new medical graduates per 100,000 residents is a practical way to compare how much medical training output countries generate relative to population size. Because medical education and postgraduate training take years, graduation rates today help show how strong the future supply of newly trained doctors may be later in the decade. This ranking uses the most recent comparable OECD and Eurostat data, mainly from 2022–2023, as the nearest available cross-country snapshot.
The OECD average is approximately 13–14 graduates per 100,000 population. The highest-ranked countries are well above that level. In several cases, strong per-capita output reflects both domestic training capacity and the presence of international students in national medical faculties. By contrast, large high-income economies such as the United States and Japan produce fewer graduates per capita and rely more heavily on other workforce mechanisms, including international recruitment.
Figures are rounded and aligned for cross-country comparability. They are best used as analytical estimates rather than as official national statistics.
Top 10 countries: the highest medical graduate rates in 2025
All ten leading countries in this snapshot are European. That pattern reflects a mix of long-established medical education systems, policy-led expansion of training places, and, in several cases, sizeable enrolment of international students relative to resident population.
Bulgaria leads the global ranking by a clear margin. Its high rate reflects a strategic expansion of medical university capacity since the 1990s, combined with significant enrolment of international students from across Europe. Graduate output per capita is more than twice the OECD average, making Bulgaria one of the world's most intensive medical training systems relative to population size.
Latvia invested heavily in medical training after independence and has sustained very high per-capita graduation rates. A substantial share of graduates are internationally mobile, which has created ongoing pressure to increase cohort sizes to maintain adequate domestic workforce levels despite steady emigration.
Malta's small resident population magnifies its per-capita graduate figure. The University of Malta's Faculty of Medicine has deliberately grown enrolment to serve both domestic need and internationally mobile students, producing a graduate rate that outpaces most larger European economies.
Ireland substantially expanded its medical school network in the 2000s–2010s. Despite high emigration of newly qualified doctors — particularly to the UK and Australia — the system has been calibrated to produce enough graduates to meet domestic demand while also accommodating a large cohort of international students.
Lithuania maintains one of the highest graduation rates in the Baltic region, partly by accommodating international medical students at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Workforce emigration to Western Europe remains a persistent policy concern, though the rate has moderated as wages in the domestic healthcare system have improved.
Denmark has sustained steady growth in medical graduates through a comprehensive workforce-planning model tied to demographic projections. Graduate numbers are closely matched to projected domestic need, reflecting a quality-over-quantity philosophy that balances supply with training post availability.
Portugal has expanded medical training capacity substantially over the past decade, with new faculties opened and significantly increased quotas at established universities. The country shows one of the strongest recent growth trajectories in the OECD, driven in part by demand from Portuguese-speaking international students.
Belgium has long maintained high graduate rates but applies a federal quota system (numerus clausus) to control the number of physicians who can actually practise in the country. This creates a deliberate disconnect between training output and the licensed workforce — a model that remains controversial among health workforce economists.
Romania produces a substantial number of graduates per capita, but significant emigration — primarily to Germany, France and the United Kingdom — means that a large share of Romanian-trained physicians end up working abroad. The domestic doctor-to-population ratio remains well below the EU average despite a high graduation rate.
The Netherlands regulates medical training tightly through a national capacity-planning body. Its graduate rate reflects a deliberate policy of moderate-to-high output, designed to minimise both shortages and oversupply, and is regularly revised against long-run workforce projections covering 15–20 year horizons.
Table 1. Top 10 countries by medical graduates per 100,000 population (latest comparable snapshot)
| Rank | Country | Graduates per 100,000 pop. | YoY change | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bulgaria | 30.2 | +1.2% | Europe |
| 2 | Latvia | 28.1 | +0.8% | Europe |
| 3 | Malta | 27.8 | +3.2% | Europe |
| 4 | Ireland | 25.3 | +2.1% | Europe |
| 5 | Lithuania | 24.6 | −0.5% | Europe |
| 6 | Denmark | 22.8 | +1.9% | Europe |
| 7 | Portugal | 21.4 | +4.1% | Europe |
| 8 | Belgium | 20.9 | +0.6% | Europe |
| 9 | Romania | 19.7 | +2.8% | Europe |
| 10 | Netherlands | 18.8 | +1.2% | Europe |
YoY: approximate change vs. previous comparable year in OECD dataset. Values are rounded; analytical proxy only.
Chart 1. Medical graduates per 100,000 population — Top 20 countries
The dashed line marks the OECD average (≈ 13.5). Values above the line indicate above-average training intensity relative to population. Chart is illustrative; figures are rounded to the nearest 0.1.
Full ranking: 24 economies by medical graduates per 100,000 population
Expanding beyond the Top 10 shows how the ranking changes once larger population bases are included. Large economies — Germany, France, Italy and the United States — produce far more doctors in absolute terms than small Baltic or Southern European states, but their per-capita graduation rates are lower because training capacity is spread across a much larger resident base. The table includes 24 countries for which comparable, recent OECD or equivalent data exist.
| Rank | Country | Graduates per 100k | Est. annual grads | YoY | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bulgaria | 30.21.67% | 1,872 | +1.2% | Europe |
| 2 | Latvia | 28.10.45% | 506 | +0.8% | Europe |
| 3 | Malta | 27.80.12% | 139 | +3.2% | Europe |
| 4 | Ireland | 25.31.15% | 1,290 | +2.1% | Europe |
| 5 | Lithuania | 24.60.62% | 689 | −0.5% | Europe |
| 6 | Denmark | 22.81.20% | 1,345 | +1.9% | Europe |
| 7 | Portugal | 21.41.97% | 2,204 | +4.1% | Europe |
| 8 | Belgium | 20.92.17% | 2,424 | +0.6% | Europe |
| 9 | Romania | 19.73.35% | 3,743 | +2.8% | Europe |
| 10 | Netherlands | 18.83.01% | 3,365 | +1.2% | Europe |
| 11 | Czech Republic | 18.31.77% | 1,976 | +1.8% | Europe |
| 12 | Slovakia | 17.90.86% | 967 | +0.9% | Europe |
| 13 | Spain | 16.16.82% | 7,631 | +3.4% | Europe |
| 14 | Poland | 15.85.37% | 6,004 | +1.5% | Europe |
| 15 | France | 15.49.39% | 10,503 | +2.7% | Europe |
| 16 | Germany | 15.211.41% | 12,768 | −0.3% | Europe |
| 17 | Hungary | 14.91.29% | 1,445 | +0.4% | Europe |
| 18 | Australia | 14.63.39% | 3,796 | +0.8% | Asia-Pacific |
| 19 | Italy | 13.26.97% | 7,801 | +1.1% | Europe |
| 20 | New Zealand | 11.20.51% | 571 | +1.8% | Asia-Pacific |
| 21 | Canada | 9.13.11% | 3,476 | +1.1% | Americas |
| 22 | South Korea | 8.53.93% | 4,395 | +1.4% | Asia-Pacific |
| 23 | United States | 7.321.86% | 24,455 | −0.2% | Americas |
| 24 | Japan | 6.87.60% | 8,500 | +0.2% | Asia-Pacific |
Source: OECD Health Statistics 2023/2024; Eurostat (hlth_rs_grd2); WHO NHWA. Data year: 2022–2023. Est. annual graduates = rate × national population. Share (%) = est. absolute graduates ÷ listed-country aggregate × 100. Values are rounded; analytical estimates only.
Visualising the pipeline: trends, scale and workforce outcomes
Chart 2. Long-run trend: medical graduates per 100,000 population, 2000–2023 (selected countries)
Three countries illustrate distinct policy paths over the past two decades. Bulgaria accelerated sharply from a relatively modest base in the early 2000s before stabilising near the 30-graduate mark. Ireland expanded steadily and linearly, driven by planned increases in medical school places. Denmark grew more cautiously from already high levels, constrained by a deliberate quota system designed to match projected workforce needs.
Series are stylised but consistent with OECD and Eurostat trend data for 2000–2023. They illustrate long-run policy directions rather than exact annual values. Dashed line = OECD average (≈ 13.5).
Chart 3. Graduation rate vs. practising doctors per 1,000 population (selected economies)
A high graduation rate does not automatically produce a high stock of practising physicians. Migration, emigration, retirement and training-post bottlenecks all filter between graduation and practice. Countries in the lower-right of the chart (high graduation, lower doctor density) include Romania and Ireland — both significant exporters of newly qualified doctors. Countries in the upper-left (lower graduation, higher density) like Portugal and Germany have benefited from historical accumulation and inward migration.
Practising doctor density from OECD Health at a Glance 2023; graduation rates as in the ranking above. Values approximate and rounded. Each point represents one country.
Methodology, insights and what this ranking means
Methodology
Indicator definition
The indicator counts the number of people who completed an initial medical degree (M.D. or equivalent) in a given calendar year, divided by total national population, expressed per 100,000 residents. It is a flow measure — it captures the annual addition to the potential workforce, not the existing stock of physicians.
Data year and sources
Primary data come from the OECD Health Statistics database (2023 edition, covering 2000–2022) and Eurostat's "Medical doctor graduates per 100,000 inhabitants" dataset (hlth_rs_grd2, updated annually). For non-European countries outside the OECD core, supplementary data from WHO's National Health Workforce Accounts (NHWA) database were used. The most recent available year varies by country (typically 2021 or 2022); these are used collectively as the nearest comparable current snapshot.
Processing and harmonisation
Not all sources use the same definition of "medical graduate." Some countries count those receiving the primary medical degree; others count those entering residency or internship. Where possible, values were crosschecked against multiple sources and adjusted to reflect the OECD standard definition (first-degree completers). Figures are rounded to one decimal place. Countries where data were inconsistent across sources or available only for a single year without a trend were excluded.
Estimated absolute graduates
Absolute annual graduate estimates (shown in the full table) were derived by multiplying the per-100,000 rate by each country's 2023 population estimate from UN World Population Prospects. These are analytical approximations, not official national statistics.
Limitations
- International students: Countries with large international student intakes (Bulgaria, Latvia, Ireland, Hungary) show elevated per-capita rates partly because graduates include non-residents who will not practise domestically.
- Double-counting risk: Doctors who graduate in one country and immediately register in another may be counted as a graduate in the source country and as a new practitioner in the destination country.
- Time lag: OECD data can lag by 1–2 years; national reforms or cohort expansions in 2022–2023 may not yet be fully reflected.
- Comparability: Definitions, reporting years, and education-to-practice pathways differ across countries, so rankings should be interpreted as approximate bands rather than exact point estimates.
Insights: what the data reveal
The most striking feature of the ranking is the dominance of European countries in the top tier. All countries in the Top 10 are European. This reflects a combination of factors common in many European health systems: strong public support for medical universities, relatively accessible higher education for international students, and cross-border labour mobility that can make regional training hubs more attractive. Even within Europe, however, qualification recognition and access to practice are not frictionless and still depend on national rules.
Three structural patterns dominate the ranking:
- Small-country magnification effect: Nations with populations below 10 million (Bulgaria, Latvia, Malta, Ireland, Lithuania, Denmark, Slovakia, Czech Republic) consistently produce high per-capita graduation rates. A single additional medical faculty or a 10% increase in enrolment creates a larger statistical effect than the equivalent change in a country of 60–80 million.
- International student premium: Countries in Central and Eastern Europe — particularly Bulgaria, Latvia, Hungary and Romania — attract large cohorts of international fee-paying students. These inflate the per-capita rate without necessarily strengthening the domestic physician pipeline, since most international graduates return to their home countries or seek employment elsewhere in the EU.
- The emigration discount: High graduation is not the same as high retention. Romania (rank 9) and Ireland (rank 4) both produce well above the OECD average, yet their practising doctor-to-population ratios are below several countries ranked far lower on graduation density. The scatter chart (Chart 3) illustrates this disconnect clearly: high graduation and high doctor density are correlated only weakly at the country level.
Germany and France — Europe's two largest economies — sit just above the OECD average at ranks 16 and 15. Both countries have historically regulated medical school entry tightly (Numerus Clausus in Germany, restricted capacity in France) and have faced periodic calls to expand places in response to projected shortages, particularly in rural primary care. Germany's slight year-on-year decline in the most recent data is a signal that cohort sizes may need upward revision to offset retirement waves over the next decade.
Outside Europe, the starkest story is the United States (rank 23, 7.3 per 100,000). The US trains a very large absolute number of physicians annually (approximately 24,000–25,000), but its enormous population puts the per-capita rate well below the OECD average. US medical education is deliberately constrained — by high barriers to entry, a shortage of federally funded residency slots, and high tuition costs — and the country compensates through large-scale recruitment of internationally trained physicians, who account for roughly 25–30% of the practising workforce.
Japan (rank 24) presents a different case: modest per-capita graduation alongside a historically high stock of practising doctors built up over decades. Japan's main workforce challenge is not overall physician numbers but their geographical maldistribution and the concentration of doctors in hospital settings at the expense of primary and community care.
What this means for different readers
For health system policymakers:
- Graduation rate alone is a weak proxy for workforce adequacy. It must be combined with retention data, emigration rates, specialty distribution and vacancy rates to guide capacity decisions.
- Countries currently below the OECD average face the longest policy lags — decisions made today about medical school places will not translate into independent practitioners until the mid-2030s.
- Systems that rely heavily on international graduates (the US, UK, Australia) face structural vulnerabilities as source-country governments progressively restrict doctor outflows to protect their own systems.
For medical students and early-career clinicians:
- Countries near the top of the ranking (Bulgaria, Latvia, Ireland) offer good initial training capacity but may have more competitive job markets domestically if emigration creates workforce pressure at specialist and senior levels.
- The large absolute production of Germany, France, Italy and the US ensures strong post-graduate training ecosystems, even if per-capita rates are lower.
- New Zealand, Australia and Canada — mid-range in per-capita graduation — actively seek internationally trained doctors and offer clear immigration pathways for foreign medical graduates.
For health economists and researchers:
- The disconnect between graduation density and practising physician density (Chart 3) is a productive research area. Migration flows, part-time working patterns and specialty choice all mediate the relationship between training output and workforce supply.
- Long-run trend data (Chart 2) suggest that most OECD countries have increased graduation rates significantly since 2000, yet physician shortages in primary care and rural settings remain prevalent — pointing to a distributional, not a volume, problem.
Frequently asked questions
It measures how many people complete an initial medical degree in a given year for every 100,000 residents of that country. It is a flow indicator that captures annual additions to the potential physician workforce, rather than the full stock of practising doctors.
Smaller populations make graduate output look larger on a per-capita basis. In several cases, expansion of medical faculties and the presence of international students also lift the rate relative to resident population.
Not necessarily. Practising doctor supply depends on graduation, retirement, migration, residency capacity, and retention. A country can train many doctors per capita and still face shortages if many graduates leave or if training bottlenecks remain after graduation.
Comparable international health workforce datasets are published with a lag. For many countries, 2022 or 2023 is the most recent harmonised year available, so these figures provide the nearest consistent cross-country snapshot.
Yes. In some countries, graduate totals include international students who complete their degree locally. That can raise the per-capita graduation rate even when many of those graduates do not remain in the domestic health system after training.
Their absolute number of graduates is large, but their population base is much larger, which lowers the per-capita rate. Both countries also rely on broader workforce structures that cannot be captured by this indicator alone.
The main limitation is that graduation output alone does not measure full workforce strength. Retention, specialist training capacity, geographic distribution, and working conditions all shape whether high graduate output translates into better access to care.
Primary data sources and further reading
All figures are drawn from the sources below and harmonised for comparability. For formal statistical or policy work, always refer to the original databases and their methodological documentation.
The authoritative source for medical graduate time series in OECD countries. Covers per-100,000 rates from 2000 onward for most members. Includes methodological notes on comparability.
stats.oecd.org → Health Care Resources → Medical graduatesEU-specific dataset providing annual counts and per-100,000 rates for EU member states and candidate countries. Updated annually; typically a 12–18 month lag from reference year.
ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/hlth_rs_grd2/Global database covering health workforce indicators for WHO member states, including medical graduates. Particularly useful for countries outside the OECD/EU reporting framework.
who.int/data/gho → Health WorkforceProvides country-level analysis of graduate rates, practising physician density and workforce projections, with discussion of emigration, retention and specialty gaps.
oecd-ilibrary.org → Health at a Glance 2023Used to derive estimated absolute graduate counts from per-capita rates. Provides 2023 national population estimates for all listed countries.
population.un.org/wpp/
