International medical graduates in the United Kingdom statistics & facts

International doctors in the UK at a glance

The NHS has always relied on doctors trained abroad, but never as much as today. In 2024, 138,405 licensed doctors in the UK had obtained their primary medical qualification outside the UK, 42 percent of all licensed doctors, according to the General Medical Council (GMC). In 2017 the share was 33 percent. International medical graduates now make up the majority of new doctors: in 2024, 20,060 doctors who qualified abroad joined the UK workforce, two-thirds of all those taking up a licence and 9,676 more than UK graduates. At the same time, more of them are leaving, and the GMC has warned that the NHS can no longer assume they will stay. This report sets out where international doctors come from, where they work and how their numbers are changing. Our overview of doctors in the United Kingdom covers the workforce as a whole.

The GMC classifies doctors by where they gained their primary medical qualification (PMQ): the UK, the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland, or the rest of the world. Doctors who qualified outside the UK and EEA are known as international medical graduates (IMGs). They usually join the register by passing the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) test, through sponsorship by an approved body, or through a recognised postgraduate qualification. PMQ is different from nationality: many British citizens qualify abroad, and many doctors who qualified in the UK are foreign nationals.

A growing share of the workforce

The share of licensed doctors who qualified outside the UK has risen every year. In 2017, 80,008 of 242,642 licensed doctors had qualified abroad, 33 percent. By 2022 the figure was 114,613, or 38.7 percent, and in 2023 it reached 128,418, or 41 percent. In 2024, 138,405 doctors, 42 percent, held a non-UK primary qualification. Over the same period the number of UK-qualified doctors grew more slowly, from 162,634 in 2017 to about 189,700 in 2024.

From a third to more than two-fifths: The share of doctors trained abroad rose from 33 percent in 2017 to 42 percent in 2024.

The growth is driven entirely by doctors from outside Europe. Between 2017 and 2022, the number of IMGs rose from 58,222 to 90,095, an increase of 55 percent, while doctors who qualified in the EEA increased only from 21,786 to 24,518. As a result, IMGs made up 30.4 percent of licensed doctors in 2022, compared with 24.0 percent in 2017, while the EEA share fell slightly from 9.0 to 8.3 percent. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of licensed doctors who qualified abroad grew by 41 percent, against 9 percent for UK graduates.

IMGs up 55 percent: International medical graduates grew from 58,222 to 90,095 in five years.

International doctors now dominate new joiners

Since 2019 more international graduates than UK graduates have joined the medical workforce each year. Counting doctors who take up a licence for the first time, the GMC recorded 3,840 IMGs and 7,024 UK graduates in 2017. By 2019 the IMG figure had risen to 8,018, overtaking UK graduates for the first time. In 2023, 17,912 IMGs took up a licence, more than double the 8,265 UK graduates, and in 2024 the figures were 18,630 and 9,237. EEA routes are not shown in the chart, because that series changes sharply after 2021 following Brexit and is not comparable over time.

Two IMGs for every UK graduate: In 2024, 18,630 international graduates took up a licence, against 9,237 UK graduates.

A small number of countries account for most international joiners. In 2021, the largest numbers of new joiners from outside the UK had qualified in India (1,820), Pakistan (1,741), Egypt (1,312), Nigeria (1,248) and Sudan (542). In 2022, India (2,402) and Pakistan (2,372) each accounted for 16 percent of non-UK joiners, and Nigeria for 1,616, up from just 181 in 2014. By 2023, more than half of all non-UK joiners, 52 percent, had qualified in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt or Bangladesh. The fastest-growing source in 2023 was Bulgaria, with 622 joiners, of whom 435 were British nationals who had studied medicine there.

South Asia and Africa lead: India and Pakistan each supplied more than 1,700 new joiners in 2021.

Nationality of NHS hospital doctors

Nationality data from NHS England give a complementary view. In June 2025, 36.3 percent of the 158,471 doctors working in NHS hospital and community health services in England were not British. After British doctors (99,806), the largest groups were Indian (12,820), Pakistani (6,925), Egyptian (4,600) and Nigerian (3,512). Irish, Malaysian, Sri Lankan, Greek, Sudanese, Bangladeshi and Italian nationals each numbered more than 1,200.

India leads: 12,820 Indian nationals worked as doctors in NHS hospitals in England.

The make-up has shifted from Europe to Asia and Africa. In September 2010, 70.6 percent of hospital doctors with a known nationality were British, 17.6 percent Asian, 7.0 percent from the EU and 3.4 percent African. After the EU referendum, the British share peaked at 74.1 percent in June 2016 and the EU share at 9.7 percent. By June 2025, the British share had fallen to 63.7 percent, while Asian nationals made up 19.9 percent and African nationals 7.7 percent, more than double their 2016 share. The EU share fell to 7.2 percent.

Africa nearly tripled: African nationals rose from 2.7 percent of hospital doctors in 2016 to 7.7 percent in 2025.

More international doctors are leaving

International doctors are also leaving in greater numbers. Among doctors who qualified outside the UK and had worked for a UK employer, 3,824 left in 2021, 3,968 in 2022 and 3,869 in 2023, before a jump of 26 percent to 4,880 in 2024. Their leaver rate, at 4.3 percent in 2024, is consistently higher than that of UK graduates, at 3.2 percent. In a GMC news release in June 2026, the regulator warned that the NHS can no longer assume that much-needed international doctors will stay. Our report on doctors leaving the UK looks at reasons and destinations.

Up 26 percent in a year: 4,880 internationally qualified doctors left UK practice in 2024.

Treatment and opportunity

International doctors face specific challenges, from adapting to a new health system to finding training posts. One long-standing concern is that employers refer doctors who qualified abroad to the GMC more often. In the five years to 2020, employers referred 0.70 percent of doctors with a non-UK qualification, compared with 0.28 percent of UK graduates. The gap has narrowed considerably: for 2020 to 2024 the rates were 0.28 percent and 0.15 percent. The background is explained in detail in this analysis of why ethnic minority and overseas-trained doctors are referred to the GMC more often↗, and the full regulatory data in our report on GMC fitness to practise statistics.

Gap narrowing: The referral rate for doctors qualified abroad fell from 0.70 percent to 0.28 percent.

Access to training is the other major issue. In 2024, 22,027 of 79,171 doctors in UK training posts had qualified abroad. From 2026, the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act gives UK graduates and doctors with substantial NHS experience priority for foundation and specialty training, and in 2026 the share of accepted specialty training offers going to non-prioritised applicants fell from 27.95 percent to 1.75 percent. Details are in our report on specialty training in the UK. Many international doctors also work in non-training roles: the number of locally employed doctors in England and Wales rose from 11,892 in 2014 to 38,394 in 2024, a group that includes many IMGs and that reported the sharpest fall in job satisfaction in 2025, as our report on burnout among UK doctors shows.

Outlook

International recruitment has allowed the UK medical workforce to grow by more than a third since 2017, but it has also made the NHS dependent on doctors who have choices elsewhere. Rising departures, tighter access to training and global competition from countries such as Australia mean that the share of new doctors from abroad may fall in the coming years. Our reports on the demographics of UK doctors, doctor pay and GPs explore related trends.

International doctors in numbers

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