Women make up about 40% of the professionally active physician workforce in the U.S., according to a recent analysis from KFF.
For its analysis, KFF obtained information on the number of active, licensed physicians in the U.S., as of this May from Redi-Data. Figures include both allopathic and osteopathic physicians.
More than 1.1 million professionally active physicians are currently practicing in the U.S., 424,536 of whom are female. This translates to a gender ratio of 1.61 male physicians to 1 female physician.
Here is the gender ratio for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., ranked in descending order, as calculated by Becker's.
|
Location |
Ratio of males to one female |
Female physicians |
Male physicians |
Total physicians (includes those who did not specify gender) |
|
Idaho |
2.56 |
1,081 |
2,768 |
3,849 |
|
Utah |
2.4 |
2,557 |
6,139 |
8,696 |
|
Mississippi |
2.33 |
2,166 |
5,051 |
7,217 |
|
Wyoming |
2.3 |
465 |
1,068 |
1,533 |
|
Montana |
2.22 |
894 |
1,986 |
2,880 |
|
Arkansas |
2.16 |
2,536 |
5,471 |
8,007 |
|
Nevada |
2.16 |
2,143 |
4,623 |
6,766 |
|
Alabama |
2.09 |
4,435 |
9,267 |
13,702 |
|
North Dakota |
2.06 |
805 |
1,660 |
2,465 |
|
Oklahoma |
2 |
3,453 |
6,891 |
10,344 |
|
South Dakota |
1.97 |
876 |
1,722 |
2,598 |
|
West Virginia |
1.97 |
1,938 |
3,815 |
5,753 |
|
Indiana |
1.96 |
6,197 |
12,157 |
18,354 |
|
Kentucky |
1.96 |
4,350 |
8,528 |
12,878 |
|
Tennessee |
1.94 |
7,281 |
14,091 |
21,372 |
|
Louisiana |
1.92 |
4833 |
9,264 |
14,097 |
|
Florida |
1.9 |
22,602 |
42,953 |
65,555 |
|
South Carolina |
1.87 |
5,117 |
9,548 |
14,665 |
|
Iowa |
1.85 |
3,078 |
5,691 |
8,769 |
|
Kansas |
1.81 |
3,226 |
5,848 |
9,074 |
|
Arizona |
1.78 |
7,067 |
12,573 |
19,640 |
|
Nebraska |
1.75 |
2,449 |
4,292 |
6,741 |
|
Hawaii |
1.74 |
1,637 |
2,856 |
4,493 |
|
Wisconsin |
1.74 |
7,282 |
12,681 |
19,963 |
|
Georgia |
1.69 |
11,355 |
19,194 |
30,549 |
|
Missouri |
1.69 |
8,263 |
13,963 |
22,226 |
|
Ohio |
1.68 |
16,927 |
28,507 |
45,434 |
|
New Hampshire |
1.65 |
1,710 |
2,825 |
4,535 |
|
North Carolina |
1.63 |
12,492 |
20,402 |
32,894 |
|
Texas |
1.63 |
28394 |
46,203 |
74,597 |
|
Alaska |
1.6 |
823 |
1,314 |
2,137 |
|
Pennsylvania |
1.6 |
20,854 |
33,317 |
54,171 |
|
Maine |
1.59 |
2,033 |
3,232 |
5,265 |
|
Michigan |
1.58 |
15,748 |
24,943 |
40,691 |
|
Minnesota |
1.57 |
7,726 |
12,149 |
19,875 |
|
Virginia |
1.57 |
10,602 |
16,594 |
27,196 |
|
Washington |
1.53 |
9,708 |
14,836 |
24,544 |
|
California |
1.52 |
49775 |
75,791 |
125,566 |
|
Oregon |
1.51 |
5,385 |
8,154 |
13,539 |
|
New Jersey |
1.48 |
13,809 |
20,429 |
34,238 |
|
Colorado |
1.45 |
7,104 |
10,283 |
17,387 |
|
Illinois |
1.44 |
18,962 |
27,389 |
46,351 |
|
New Mexico |
1.44 |
2,851 |
4,111 |
6,962 |
|
Connecticut |
1.42 |
6,740 |
9,564 |
16,304 |
|
New York |
1.41 |
38,668 |
54,563 |
93,231 |
|
Vermont |
1.41 |
1,126 |
1,592 |
2,718 |
|
Maryland |
1.36 |
11,790 |
16,081 |
27,871 |
|
Rhode Island |
1.35 |
2,009 |
2,721 |
4,730 |
|
Delaware |
1.25 |
1,577 |
1,977 |
3,554 |
|
Massachusetts |
1.25 |
16,592 |
20,787 |
37,379 |
|
District of Columbia |
1 |
3,045 |
3,060 |
6,105 |
Note: Male to female ratios are presented as X:1 and were obtained by dividing the number of male physicians by the number of female physicians in each state. The ratios do not take unspecified gender numbers into account. The national percentage of female physicians mentioned above may be a slight underestimate and may not reflect the ratios in this table because it is a percentage of the total number of physicians, which includes those who did not specify gender. All rounding is to the nearest tenth.