On a national level, there were 34 students per 100,000 population enrolled in U.S. medical schools in the 2014-15 academic year, according to biennial data on the physician workforce from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
However, this distribution looks much different on a state-by-state level. According to the data, most medical students are concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest.
Here are eight more key findings from the report on undergraduate medical education.
- The majority of students (60.8 percent) enrolled in allopathic medical schools in the U.S. were enrolled in public schools, compared to 19 percent of students enrolled in osteopathic medical schools.
- Enrollment in public schools varied across states where such schools exist, from 8.4 per 100,000 population in Massachusetts to 84 per 100,000 in West Virginia.
- Over the last decade the total number of medical students in both allopathic and osteopathic medical schools has increased by a third in the U.S., driven slightly more by allopathic medical school enrollment.
- Only Utah experienced a decrease in enrollment, of 7.7 percent.
- More than half of states (28 and Puerto Rico) increased medical school enrollment by 20 percent or more.
- In the 2014-15 year, 61.6 percent of new students in allopathic medical schools matriculated in their home state, led by Puerto Rico and Louisiana, were more than 90 percent of new medical students matriculated in state.
- New Hampshire was the lowest for in-state matriculation, at a rate of 8.7 percent.
- Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming do not have medical schools.
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