Physician Assistant Facts and Figures

Physician assistant demographics have changed a lot over the years.

From just four practicing physician assistants in the year 1967 to roughly 115,547 practicing PAs in 2018. That's a big difference in just over 50 years!

Below is the latest demographic and statistical data on physician assistants from the most recent AAPA Salary report. Including this cute little PA Demographic Infographic that you are free to download and share.

PAs are nationally certified and state licensed to practice medicine and prescribe medication in every medical and surgical specialty and setting in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and uniformed services.

We are educated at the graduate level, with almost all PAs receiving a master’s degree upon graduation from a PA program.

By the year 2020, all PA school will be required to offer a master's degree upon program completion.

To maintain national certification, PAs are required to complete 100 hours of continuing medical education every two years and to recertify as medical generalists every ten years.

Cast Your Vote: What do you think is the most frequently practiced PA specialty? Surgery: Orthopaedics Emergency medicine Family Medicine Urgent care Dermatology Vote

Here is Your Average PA

Distribution of PAs by Gender

Female: 66.2%

Male: 33.1%

Distribution of PAs by Race

Close to nine in 10 PAs are white and less than one in 10 is Hispanic

White: 87.3%

Asian: 4.7%

Two or More Races: 4.4%

Black or African American: 3.0%

American Indian or Alaskan: 0.4%

Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander: 0.2%

Distribution of PAs by Age

The average age of a PA is 30-34 years old. Just over half (56.5%) of PAs are under 40 years of age

Under 30: 19.2%

30-34: 21.7%

35-39: 15.6%

40-44: 11.2%

45-49: 8.7%

50-54: 7.9%

55-59: 7.3%

60-64: 5.6%

65 and older: 2.8%

Distribution of PAs by Years of Clinical Experience

The majority of PAs have five to nine years of clinical experience

Reflecting the recent growth in the number of PA programs and new graduates, more than half (55.9%) of PAs have less than ten years experience as a PA

0 to 1 year: 13.4%

2 to 4 years: 18.7%

5 to 9 years: 23.8%

10 to 14 years: 15.4%

15 to 19 years: 12.5%

20 or more years: 16.2%

Distribution of PAs by Most Frequently Practiced Specialty

The majority of PAs still work in family medicine

Three specialties accounted for almost 40% of practicing PAs: family medicine (18.4%), orthopedic surgery (10.3%), and emergency medicine (8.9%)

Family Medicine: 18.4%

Surgery: Orthopaedics: 10.3%

Emergency medicine: 8.9%

Urgent care: 6.1%

Other: 5.0%

Internal medicine: General: 4.3%

Hospital medicine: 3.8%

Dermatology: 3.3%

Distribution of PAs Per Capita by State

PAs practice in every U.S. state and territory. While New York has the greatest number of PAs (11,395), Alaska has the highest number of PAs per capita (76.0 per 100,000 population). Most PAs work in urban areas of more than 1 million people. As of 2016, 15.2% of PAs reported working in a rural area.

State PAs Per 100,000 Alaska 76.0 South Dakota 63.2 Pennsylvania 60.0 New York 57.7 Montana 57.6 Connecticut 56.4 Idaho 56.3 Vermont 55.9 North Carolina 55.1 Colorado 54.9 New Hampshire 54.6 Nebraska 54.4 West Virginia 52.1 Michigan 47.8 Maryland 45.8 Maine 43.5 Massachusetts 43.5 Wyoming 42.0 North Dakota 41.8 Utah 41.8 Wisconsin 41.8 Minnesota 39.7 Washington 38.0 District of Columbia 37.3 Kansas 36.8 Arizona 36.6 Oklahoma 36.2 Oregon 36.1 Virginia 35.8 Florida 34.9 New Mexico 34.9 Delaware 34.7 Iowa 33.7 Georgia 33.0 Rhode Island 31.8 South Carolina 29.8 Kentucky 29.3 New Jersey 29.0 Tennessee 28.5 Texas 27.9 Ohio 26.5 Nevada 25.7 Illinois 24.4 Louisiana 23.2 California 23.0 Hawaii 21.8 Indiana 19.5 Missouri 16.7 Alabama 14.9 Arkansas 12.0 Mississippi 6.9

Distribution of PAs by Urban-Rural Area Status

The majority of PAs work in large, urban areas with more than one million people

Urban - more than 1 million people: 50.2%

Urban - 250,000 to 1 million people: 23.9%

Urban - less than 250,000 people: 10.7%

Rural - more than 20,000 people adjacent to metro area: 3.7%

Rural - more than 20,000 people not adjacent to metro area: 1.5%

Rural - 2,500 to 19,999 people adjacent to metro area: 4.0%

Rural - 2,500 to 19,999 people not adjacent to metro area: 1.0%

Rural - less than 2,500 people adjacent to metro area: 2.3%

Media Downloads

Feel free to use these any of these high-quality PNG graphics in your publication with appropriate attribution. You can download a zip file of all the images by clicking here.

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<p><a href='https://www.thepalife.com/?p=22413&preview=true'><img src='https://www.thepalife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/PHYSICIAN-ASSISTANT-DEMOGRAPHICS-INFOGRAPHIC.jpg' alt='Physician Assistant Demographic Infographic ' width='800px' border='0' /></a></p><br />

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Source: The AAPA Salary Report

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