1. Who Practices Family Medicine?

As of January 1, 2025, there were 105,809 family physicians (Diplomates, board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine). Despite substantial growth in both the number of family physicians in training and total over the past 15 years, supply has not kept pace with rising demand, driven in part by increasing patient complexity (Moore et al, 2015), intensity of care (Britz et al, 2025), and their contributions to diminishing patient panel size per family physician (Bazemore et al, 2024).

Commentary

While men comprise just over half of all active residents overall (51.3%), women represent the majority of residents in family medicine training programs, reflecting a gender distribution in this specialty that skews toward female trainees (AAMC, 2025, Table B3). Although the family physician workforce remains majority White, it has grown steadily more racially and ethnically diverse over time. While among the more diverse physician specialties, there remains underrepresentation of Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Indigenous physicians relative to the U.S. population (Peterson et al, 2022).  

Connections and Context:

ABFM collects an increasingly broad set of demographic variables in its surveys, reflecting how family medicine has become increasingly diverse over time (Peabody et al, 2018) as the U.S. population changes similarly. This diversity is important, given evidence suggesting better outcomes when patients share common backgrounds with their physicians and its implications for greater care of underserved communities and vulnerable populations (Browne et al, 2025; Vichare et al, 2024;Jetty el al, 2022). ABFM is committed to continued understanding and support of a diversifying discipline, exemplified in its workforce, research, and professionalism efforts (ABFM Health Equity Report, 2024).

Commentary

As of 2022, physicians from URiM backgrounds made up only 11% of the national workforce, despite representing roughly 35% of the U.S. population (Lee et al, 2024). Family medicine has made notable progress toward reflecting the population it serves and continues to exceed the national specialty average in URiM representation across the career span, with recent residency cohorts approaching 27% URiM representation.

Connections and Context

As of 2022, family medicine as a specialty had the highest correlation of specialty representation of URiM physicians (Tiako et al, 2022). Additionally, evidence shows that family physicians from underrepresented in medicine (URiM) backgrounds are more likely to care for vulnerable and underserved communities (Jetty et al, 2022). 

Commentary

Family medicine residents come from U.S.-trained Allopathic (MD-granting), Osteopathic (DO-granting), and International (IMG) medical schools in almost equal parts, all crucial to addressing crucial shortages in the U.S. primary care workforce. 

Connection and Context

Over the past decade, IMG and DO graduates have made up a substantial and growing share of the U.S. family medicine and primary care workforce, helping to expand primary care capacity amid persistent physician shortages (Duvivier et al, 2019). ABFM-linked analyses show that IMGs in family medicine residency programs demonstrate comparable progression on competency milestones to U.S. medical graduates, supporting the quality and effectiveness of this workforce pathway (Songara et al, 2025). IMGs are also more likely to practice in primary care and to serve underserved and high-need populations, aligning workforce composition with population health needs (Sabet et al, 2024, Malayala et al, 2021). Together, these findings indicate that workforce diversification through IMG participation is integral to sustaining access, quality, and equity in family medicine.