The number of female doctors will exceed that of men for the first time in 2025

The milestone had already been reached among hospital practitioners for several years, and this is now the case across the medical profession as a whole: the number of women slightly exceeded, for the first time, in 2025, that of men, according to data from the Directorate for Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees) on the demographics of health professionals, published on Monday, July 28.

As of January ¹ , out of the 237,214 practicing doctors, 118,957 were women (compared to 115,635 a year earlier) and 118,257 were men (117,781 a year earlier). The proportion of women is higher among general practitioners (52.4%) than among specialists (48.5%).

As medical deserts worsen in many areas, this statistical snapshot shows that the number of doctors, both general practitioners and specialists, continues to slowly increase. This may seem counterintuitive, in a context where access to care is deteriorating, with marked territorial inequalities . However, it is part of a long-term trend: since January ^1, 2012, according to the Drees, the number of doctors has increased by 9.9%, driven both by a "growing number of doctors graduated abroad" (11% on January ¹ , 2025, compared to 7% in 2012) and by the "entry into activity" of generations having benefited from the increase in the number of training places (the numerus clausus), which was very strong between 2000 and 2020. A trend set to continue: the reform of the numerus clausus, transformed in 2020 into numerus apertus (set at university level), has led to an increase in the size of classes.

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