A survey carried out by the AMB (Brazilian Medical Association) and the USP (University of São Paulo) points out that Brazil reached the mark of 562,229 physicians enrolled in the 27 CRMs (Regional Councils of Medicine). The national rate is 2.6 professionals per 1,000 inhabitants, but there is great inequality in the distribution of physicians across states.
The data, from January 2023, appears in the Brazilian Medical Demography study, released this Wednesday (8). The coordination is by professor doctor of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of USP, Mário Scheffer.
Compared to 2000, when there were 219,896 doctors in the country, the number of professionals more than doubled. In the same period, the Brazilian population grew by around 27%.
Between 2010 – when the country had 1.63 physicians per 1,000 inhabitants – and 2023, 251,362 new professionals began to work in Brazil, thanks to the opening of courses and vacancies for graduation in medicine, according to the survey.
where are the doctors
Despite the growth, inequality follows the trend of recent years. With a rate per thousand inhabitants of 3.39, the Southeast concentrates most doctors, followed by the Midwest (3.10) and South (2.95).
The North and Northeast have a density of physicians per 1,000 inhabitants below the national average —1.45 and 1.93 respectively. With the exception of Paraíba (2.81), the states of both regions have rates below 2.4.
Of the 27 Federation Units, 11 have a density of physicians per 1,000 inhabitants above the national rate (2.41) and 16 are below.
Acre (1.41), Amazonas (1.36), Maranhão (1.22) and Pará (1.18) have the lowest rates.
Most of the medical population is in the capitals, where the density per 1,000 inhabitants is 6.13 –1.14 in the metropolitan areas and 1.84 in the interior. The capitals of the 26 states and the Federal District concentrate 50,916,038 people.
In the medical demographies published in 2018 and 2020, the Southeast was also the region with the most doctors per thousand inhabitants —rate of 2.81 and 3.15 respectively —and the North with the fewest professionals —density of 1.16 and 1, 30 respectively.
Comparison with other countries
The Brazilian rate of physicians per 1,000 inhabitants is lower than the average of countries evaluated by the Organization for Cooperation and Development (3.73).
Indicators are high in Greece (6.16), Austria (5.45), Norway (5.18), Spain (4.58), Italy (4.13) and Australia (3.83), among others.
The Brazilian percentage is higher than that registered in China (2.24), India (0.90), South Africa (0.79) and Indonesia (0.63), and compatible with South Korea (2.51 ), United States (2.64) and Canada (2.77), for example.
Projections
In two years, Brazil should have a rate of 2.91 physicians per 1,000 inhabitants, almost three times the rate registered in 1980 (0.94).
In 2035, more than one million doctors will be working in Brazil — with a density of 4.43 per 1,000 inhabitants. According to the survey, younger women should prevail. Inequality too.
Between 2009 and 2022, the number of women grew from around 133,000 to approximately 260,000, i.e. it almost doubled.
Among men, growth was 43% on average.
specialist doctors
In June 2022, 321,581 Brazilian doctors had at least one specialist title, which corresponded to 62.5% of the total of 514,215 professionals (June data) active in the country. The remaining 192,634 (37.5%) were generalists.
The data show that, in the same period, the country had 438,239 titles in specialties and 495,716 records of licensed physicians.
Internal medicine, pediatrics, general surgery, gynecology and obstetrics, anesthesiology, orthopedics and traumatology, occupational medicine and cardiology together represent more than half (55.6%) of the total number of specialist records.
Males are the majority in 36 of the 55 medical specialties, and females are in 19 of them.
In urology, neurosurgery and orthopedics and traumatology, men account for more than 90%.
Women are a minority in all surgical specialties, but they dominate dermatology —8,236 physicians, which correspond to 77.9% of this area.
They also occupy more space in pediatrics (75.6%), allergy and immunology and endocrinology and metabolism (both with 72.1%).
The presence of men and women is balanced in the specialties of nutrology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and gastroenterology.
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