2024 Match® Results for Family Medicine
The AAFP’s brief analysis of family medicine results from the annual National Resident Matching Program Main Residency Match® (NRMP Match) provides a snapshot of the incoming physician workforce at its most significant inflection point. These results do not account for other matching services, like the annual Military Match, private arrangements outside of the Match, or the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP).
Overall Outcomes for Family Medicine
In the 2024 NRMP Match:
- 4,595 medical students and graduates matched to family medicine residency programs. Here's the breakdown:
- 1,535 U.S. allopathic medical school (MD) seniors
- 1,493 osteopathic medical school (DO) seniors
- 749 U.S. international medical graduates (IMGs)
- 706 foreign IMGs
- 68 previous graduates of U.S. MD-granting schools
- 44 previous graduates of DO-granting schools
- Family medicine offered 5,231 positions, 124 more than in 2023, and 13.6% of positions offered in all specialties.
- Family medicine residency positions were filled almost equally by U.S. MD seniors, DO seniors, and IMGs. Match results were fairly stable year-over-year for U.S. MD seniors, DO seniors, and U.S.-citizen IMGs.
- The number of U.S. MD seniors matching increased by 36 compared with the year prior. It remains significantly below—805 matches—the historical peak of 2,340 in 1997. Only 8.3% of matched U.S. MD seniors matched in family medicine.
- The number of DO seniors matching to family medicine decreased by 21. The percentage of DO students matching to family medicine (20.1%) declined from 22.2% the year prior, more sharply than the historical trend.
- Almost one-quarter (23.5%) of U.S. IMGs and 12% of foreign IMGs who matched to any specialty matched to family medicine. The number of foreign IMG applicants who matched in family medicine rose significantly compared with 2023 (706 vs. 562).
- A total of 3,140 U.S. MD and DO seniors and graduates matched in family medicine.
- Family medicine represents 12.8% of all U.S. students or graduates who matched in 2024.
Family Medicine Residency Positions Offered and Filled
These results are a combination of all PGY-1 positions that result in eligibility for licensure and board certification in family medicine. Those include family medicine-categorical and combined residency programs. Broken down:
- 796 family medicine categorical programs offered 5,213 and filled 4,577 positions. The overall fill rate for family medicine-categorical programs was 87.8%.
- 6 family medicine-psychiatry programs offered and filled 10 positions.
- 3 emergency medicine-family medicine programs offered and filled 7 positions.
- 1 family medicine-preventive medicine program offered and filled 1 position.
Call to Action
Health care, education, and societal systems need to incentivize, recruit, and support a more diverse medical student population that better represents the U.S. population and those who are more likely to choose primary care careers and practice in underserved areas.
- While the residency Match results reflect momentum for family medicine, the pace needs to accelerate in order to meet the demand for family medicine in the U.S.
- The U.S. medical education system is far from delivering the primary care medical workforce needed in the country it serves, and whose taxpayers fund it.
- The composition of residency training positions must reflect the composition of physicians needed in the workforce, and as such, needs to increase steeply in family medicine, other primary care specialties, and a few other specialties.
- Substantial increases in the family medicine and primary care workforce—while also accounting for the composition, distribution, and quality of that workforce—are needed to improve the health of Americans and the sustainability of the health care system.
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- Trends in U.S. Medical School Contributions to the Family Physician Workforce: 2018 Update From the American Academy of Family Physicians – This article provides an in-depth look at those entering family medicine residency programs, including the percentage of graduates from U.S. medical schools.
- Results of the 2017 National Resident Matching Program® and the American Osteopathic Association Intern/Resident Registration Program: An Examination of Family Medicine and Primary Care – This article is the last in a long-running series that reported on the performance of family medicine and other primary care specialties in the NRMP Match. A detailed analysis of the AOA Match is also included.
- The Primary Care Scorecard (Feb. 2024) - The Health of US Primary Care: 2024 Scorecard Report – No One Can See You Now
- Primary Care in the US: A Chartbook of Facts and Statistics – From the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Primary Care, this describes the current state of primary care in the U.S. and presents information from a variety of national sources to answer questions about who, what, where, and how primary care is being delivered
- Graham Center State Workforce Projections - The Graham Center projects to 2030 the needed primary care physician workforce by state.
- Graham Center Publications and Reports on Medical Education - Find Graham Center research on medical education, including related to graduate medical education positions, medical school contributions to the primary care workforce, Teaching Health Centers, and more.
- No More Lip Service; It’s Time We Fixed Primary Care – This two-part Health Affairs blog post calls for changes across the system to reach the optimal primary care workforce.
- Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care - This landmark report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine proposes an implementation plan to strengthen primary care in the U.S., especially for underserved populations, and to inform primary care systems around the world
- Graduate Medical Education Financing Policy – The AAFP’s recommended six principles to reforming the nation’s graduate medical education system to meet workforce needs.
- Fighting for Family Medicine – Read about recent AAFP advocacy wins to strengthen the primary care workforce.
- How to Strengthen the Primary Care Workforce – Learn about AAFP’s message to Congress
- AAFP Advocacy Focus: Graduate Medical Education – Learn about and Speak Out on efforts to grow graduate medical education opportunities in family medicine.
- AAFP Advocacy Focus: Medical Student Debt – Learn about and Speak Out on efforts to address the affordability of medical school and decreasing medical student debt.
- AAFP Rural GME policy – Six principles on growing graduate medical education in rural communities.
- AAFP policy on Student Choice of Family Medicine, Incentives for Increasing
- AAFP policy on Diversity in the Workforce
- Strolling Through The Match – The AAFP's comprehensive guide to matching provides information from start to finish of the Match process, including the timeline, process, and tips on ranking programs and interviewing, and focuses entirely on careers in family medicine.
- AAFP FUTURE (formerly National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students) – This annual conference hosted by the AAFP gives medical students and residents an opportunity to explore the family medicine specialty and interact with thousands of peers, hundreds of residency programs, and leaders in family medicine.
- FMIG Network – The AAFP’s Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) Network supports medical school student organizations to provide activities and programming that promote family medicine across the country and internationally.
- Family Medicine Champions – This new certificate-granting AAFP program prepares educators, advisors, and students to educate and inspire the next generation of family physicians.
- Family Medicine – This special edition of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine’s journal covers progress toward student choice of family medicine.
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