The emergency medicine specialty has the highest percentage of physicians who are still paying off student debt, according to Medscape's "Physician Wealth & Debt Report" published June 9.
The report is based on survey responses from 10,011 U.S. physicians in more than 29 specialties collected between Oct. 7, 2022, and Jan. 17, 2023.
College and medical school loans were the fourth most common debt or expense that physicians reported paying down at 21 percent, behind mortgage (61 percent), car loan payments (33 percent) and credit card debt (25 percent).
The percentage of physicians in each specialty who are still paying off school loans:
Emergency medicine — 31 percent
Critical care — 29 percent
Family medicine — 28 percent
Physical medicine and rehabilitation — 27 percent
OB-GYN — 25 percent
Pediatrics — 24 percent
Urology — 24 percent
Plastic surgery — 23 percent
General surgery — 23 percent
Otolaryngology — 22 percent
Psychiatry — 21 percent
Dermatology — 20 percent
Neurology — 20 percent
Public health and preventive medicine — 20 percent
Pulmonary medicine — 20 percent
Anesthesiology — 19 percent
Internal medicine — 19 percent
Ophthalmology — 18 percent
Radiology — 18 percent
Rheumatology — 18 percent
Oncology — 16 percent
Allergy and immunology — 15 percent
Orthopedics — 15 percent
Pathology — 14 percent
Cardiology — 13 percent
Nephrology — 13 percent
Infectious diseases — 12 percent
Gastroenterology — 11 percent
Diabetes and endocrinology — 11 percent
View the full report here.