Average Age of Doctors Rises to 50, Obstetricians and Gynecologists Age Revealed...

The proportion of people under 40 decreased from 39.5% to 34.1%

Due to the impact of population aging, the average age of domestic specialists has increased by 3.6 years over the past decade, entering their 50s. By medical specialty, emergency medicine doctors are the youngest at 43.2 years old, while obstetricians and gynecologists are among the oldest with an average age of 54.4 years, second only to the tuberculosis department (63.4 years, with no recruitment in 2022 and 2023).

According to the status of the number of doctors by medical specialty submitted by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service to Seo Young-seok, a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea (Bucheon-si Gap, Gyeonggi), as of July 2024, the average age of all 148,250 specialists is 50.1 years. Compared to 2014, the number of specialists increased by 27,323 (22.6%), and the average age rose by 3.6 years.

Doctors' footsteps
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The medical specialty with the highest average age was the tuberculosis department at 63.4 years, followed by obstetrics and gynecology (54.4 years), preventive medicine (53.6 years), and urology (53.5 years). The specialty with the largest increase in average age over the past 10 years was urology, which rose by 6.5 years, followed by cardiovascular thoracic surgery (5.6 years), tuberculosis (5.3 years), and obstetrics and gynecology (4.9 years).

Compared to 2014, the specialties with the greatest increase in average age were urology (up 6.5 years), cardiovascular thoracic surgery (up 5.6 years), tuberculosis (up 5.3 years), and obstetrics and gynecology (up 4.9 years).

The youngest specialty was emergency medicine at 43.2 years, which was also the youngest in 2014 at 39.5 years. This was followed by rehabilitation medicine (45.7 years), nuclear medicine (46.3 years), neurology (46.5 years), radiation oncology (48.3 years), occupational and environmental medicine (48.4 years), and anesthesiology and pain medicine (48.9 years). With the increase in average age, the proportion of specialists under 40 also decreased.

Specialists under 40 accounted for 39.5% of the total in 2014, but by July this year, their share had dropped by 5.4 percentage points to 34.1%. Although the number of specialists increased in most of the 26 medical specialties, tuberculosis, urology, and obstetrics and gynecology decreased by 40.4%, 6.4%, and 2.4%, respectively. The specialties where the number of specialists under 40 decreased included tuberculosis, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiovascular thoracic surgery, preventive medicine, otorhinolaryngology, and surgery, totaling seven specialties.

Medical personnel are moving inside a large hospital in Seoul on August 21, the day the government announced it would consider introducing a 'medical practice license' (tentative name), stating that a doctor's license alone cannot guarantee the capability to open a clinic and provide independent treatment.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

In particular, the indicators for obstetrics and gynecology were generally unfavorable. The average age of specialists in obstetrics and gynecology increased by 4.9 years, while the total number of specialists and those under 40 decreased by 2.4% and 28.1%, respectively.

Assemblyman Seo Young-seok stated, "As the population structure changes, the age structure of doctors also changes, leading to an increase in retiring doctors but a decrease in new doctors entering the field." He added, "With the increase in the elderly population, future medical demand may rise, so measures such as expanding public healthcare should be prepared to ensure sufficient medical services are provided."