Growth in Physician Numbers by Country, 2000–2021
I looked at how the number of practicing physicians has changed, rather than focusing on medical-school admission quotas. The data are OECD figures for physicians per 1,000 population, provided through Korea’s National Indicator System.
Figure 1: Changes in physician numbers relative to 2010
To show trends, I set each country’s 2010 value to 1. The resulting chart shows that the number of physicians has been rising especially steeply in Korea, second only to New Zealand.
Even with medical-school quotas fixed, the increase in physician numbers appears very rapid by international standards. Poland was excluded from Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 2: Simple comparison of physicians per 1,000 population
A straightforward comparison of the absolute number of physicians per 1,000 people shows Korea at a very low level.
However, the picture could change substantially if the figures were adjusted to reflect physicians’ working hours or the number of consultations handled per physician.
Figure 3: Differences between countries
This chart was prepared to make the differences among countries easier to see.
One question is why Poland’s figure rose suddenly in 2019. The war in Ukraine began in 2022, so that does not appear to explain the increase.