One in Four Spanish Doctors to Retire in Just Ten Years

One in four Spanish doctors will retire in the next ten years, leaving a significant gap in the country's clinics and hospitals that health authorities must address now to prevent future imbalances, shortages, and collapses in citizen care. This is one of the main conclusions of the analysis on the state of the profession in Spain, its comparison with Europe, and the medium and long-term evolution conducted by the Spanish Medical Association (OMC).

Over 170 pages, the analysis indicates that the average age of medical professionals is 47.5 years, meaning that from now until 2035, around 69,000 doctors, representing 25% of the total, will retire. The regions with the oldest workforces are Aragón, Asturias, and Castilla y León, and the specialties where retirements will create the largest gaps this decade, requiring high replacement needs, are Legal and Forensic Medicine, Occupational Medicine, Clinical Biochemistry, and Clinical Analysis.

The report does not downplay the problem posed by the retirement of a quarter of active members, but assures that Spain will not lack doctors to maintain quality care in the coming years if the Ministry of Health and regional councils reach a long-term agreement to strengthen the most necessary specialties and include tools and incentives to guarantee positions that are difficult to fill, especially in depopulated areas of Spain.

The document notes that Spain currently has 276,000 practicing doctors, about 55,000 more than eight years ago, placing it above the European average per 100,000 inhabitants and in the upper middle range of the table (11 out of 27). The future, they add, provided the planning is adequate, is facilitated by the significant increase in MIR places (specialist training) carried out and planned by the ministry, with 9,276 places announced for 2026, and the large number of medical schools in the country, 53, with an increase of nine in the last eight years due to the proliferation of private campuses, a figure that makes Spain the state with the most medical schools per capita in the world. A fourth relevant fact is also highlighted. There is no exodus of doctors abroad. In 2024, only 460 professionals left to work outside the country.

However, there is not only a significant number of medical graduates. Spain has a high rate of specialist doctors (2.15 per thousand inhabitants) and is a leader in Family and Community Medicine, the cornerstone of primary care. It is the fourth European country with the most family doctors per 100,000 inhabitants (95), 22 points above the EU average (73).

However, the study shows that all this potential of resources is poorly distributed, with significant territorial imbalances that harm equity in patient care. While eight regions exceed the good Spanish average of doctors per inhabitants (Madrid, Asturias, Navarra, Aragón, Basque Country, Cantabria, Castilla y León, and Extremadura), Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha fall well below. The shortage of professionals is particularly significant in provinces of depopulated Spain such as Zamora, Huesca, Soria, Cuenca, or Teruel.

The OMC, in light of the analysis, proposes four major measures to health authorities to ensure generational replacement and system efficiency in the medium and long term. The first is to establish an agreement for the replacement of doctors between the ministry and regions. It should include, they say, mechanisms for equitable redistribution of positions, common planning criteria, and incentives for mobility between territories, but they warn that improvements in paternity and care leave will require an increase in staff to maintain care quality.

The second measure is to plan a dynamic adjustment of the MIR place offer, adapting it in time to the projections made by the retirement report for each medical specialty and territory, as well as to emerging care needs (aging and chronicity) and the teaching capacity of faculties and health centers, with special attention to strengthening hospitals and health areas in depopulated Spain.

The third measure is to leverage the potential of new technologies and, especially, artificial intelligence, as tools to address the professional deficit. Telemedicine, AI-based diagnostic support systems should be promoted, along with digital training for professionals and technological integration between primary and hospital care.

The fourth proposal is to promote professional development and female leadership, encouraging transparent career plans, mentoring programs, and management training, as well as active equality policies and visibility of female talent. This point is particularly relevant because six out of ten doctors are already women, and in a few years, they will make up 70% of the profession, but between 60% and 70% of leadership positions are held by men.

A final aspect highlighted by the report is the notable and rapid expansion of private medicine in Spain. Since 2018, private sector medical premiums have grown by 6.4%, reaching 34 billion euros annually, representing 28.4% of total healthcare expenditure.