Overview
- Spain counts 275,963 active physicians with an average age of 47.5, and its density of 439 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants exceeds the EU average of 420.
- About 69,000 doctors are projected to retire between 2025 and 2035, with Legal and Forensic Medicine, Occupational Medicine, Clinical Biochemistry, and Clinical Analysis most exposed.
- Doctor distribution remains uneven, with Madrid, Asturias, Navarra, Aragón, the Basque Country, Cantabria, Castilla y León, and Extremadura above national averages while Andalucía, Castilla-La Mancha, Ceuta, and Melilla lag.
- Training capacity continues to expand, with 53 medical faculties nationwide and 12,366 specialist training places planned for 2026, including 9,276 for Medicine (up 3%), led by 2,508 Family and Community Medicine slots.
- The workforce is increasingly female—about 59% of active doctors and 71% of students—with low emigration abroad (~460 in 2024) and notable internal mobility since 1997 (17.9% changed province).