The orthopedic workforce has the smallest percentage of female surgeons compared to any other physician specialty, according to 2022 data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, with women making up only 5.9 percent of the active workforce.
Here are seven other things to know about the demographics of the orthopedic workforce:
1. Only 36.1 percent of orthopedic surgeons are practicing in the state where they were trained, compared to an average of 47.1 percent across all specialties.
2. Only 18.3 percent of orthopedic surgery residents in 2021 were female.
3. There are about 18,469 practicing orthopedic surgeons nationwide.
4. There are 1,090 practicing orthopedic surgeons who are female.
5. About 39.4 percent of orthopedic surgeons are under 55, while 60.6 percent are older than 55.
6. About 1.3 percent of orthopedic surgeons graduated from international medical schools.
7. Orthopedics is the specialty with the highest percentage of active physicians who identify as white, with 83.6 of practicing physicians identifying as white.