Residency Trends for 2025 and Beyond

According to the National Resident Matching Program, the 2023 residency match was the largest in NRMP history with more than 48,000 registered applicants vying for just over 40,000 certified residency positions. The AAMC predicts that because the U.S. will face a shortage of as many as 90,000 doctors, residency positions will continue to expand, with key growth in primary care. As many as 52,000 primary care physicians will be needed by 2025.

With new medical schools either being established or in the planning stages, and with increasing medical school enrollments, the number of seniors and the number of positions offered is at an all-time high. That statistic is likely to continue. When we dig into the numbers, we can see some residency trends:

• More than half of new first-year positions were in the primary care specialties of Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Pediatrics. 95 percent of Family Medicine programs were filled, 99 percent of Internal Medicine programs were filled, and almost 100 percent of Pediatrics programs were filled.

• Sixty percent of the growth in first-year positions is attributed to primary care, with internal medicine having the biggest increase among all primary care specialties.

• The overall match rate was 75% with 52% of graduates matched to their first choice.

• Some of the most competitive specialties that offered at least 20 first-year positions and were 100 percent filled were: Dermatology, Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Orthopedic Surgery, Pediatrics-Primary Care, Physical Medicine/Rehabilitation, and Thoracic Surgery. General Surgery, Neurological Surgery, Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery, and Radiation Oncology had fewer than 5 unfilled positions.

• The number of graduates from U.S. medical schools is expected to surpass the number of positions in residency programs. In 2023, almost 10,000 graduates (25%) did not get matched. Since preference is given to U.S. seniors, it will be almost impossible for international medical graduates to get into residency programs.

From: The New Medical School Preparation & Admissions Guide, 2025, 5th Edition