The majority of UK medics are set to be women, according to the profession’s regulator.
The workforce was close to reaching “parity” between male and female doctors, a new report by the General Medical Council (GMC) said.
Some 49% of licensed doctors in the UK last year were women and although the trend had “slowed” in recent years, the GMC said it was “likely” it would “become majority female soon”.
This was because a slightly larger proportion of new joiners in 2023 – some 52% – were women, while 54% of those leaving the profession last year were men.
From 2019 to 2023, Wales had the highest growth in female doctors at 26%, followed by England with 23%, Northern Ireland with 18% and Scotland with 14%.
Medical student intake grew slightly in 2023, the report said, with women accounting for 60% of intake across the four nations.
It comes as figures showed there were now more doctors from an ethnic minority background on the register than white doctors.
The GMC report said: “It is imperative that any forms of discrimination or unfairness in doctors’ working lives are uncovered, confronted, and removed to ensure all doctors are able to reach their full potential.
“All parties have a role to play in this.”
Overall, between 2022 and 2023 the number of licensed doctors in the UK grew at the fastest rate since GMC records started in 2011.
There was a 6% increase during the period, more than double the average year-on-year growth since 2011 (2.6%), which the GMC said was “driven by joiners from abroad taking up locally employed roles”.
Locally employed doctors are medics working for trusts on local contracts in non-training, and usually non-permanent roles, with no nationally agreed terms and conditions.
