Family Medicine
Comprehensive primary care across all ages, often including obstetrics and inpatient.
Family physicians manage longitudinal care from newborn through end-of-life: chronic disease, acute care, prevention, mental health, women's health, occasionally OB and inpatient. Scope is wider than any other specialty by training design. You can practice in nearly any setting including rural, urban, FQHC, academic, sports, hospitalist, urgent care.
Lifestyle & practice
Highly variable. Outpatient clinic 40 to 50h is typical. Comp $250k to $300k median, less in academic, more in rural with broad scope. Highest demand specialty in the US by job openings.
Common fellowship paths
- Residency length
- 3 years
- Median comp
- $250k to $300k
- Job availability
- Excellent, especially rural
High-signal external links curated for residents and applicants.
- American Academy of Family Physicians ↗
Specialty society with extensive CME and policy work.
- AAFP Board Review ↗
Standard board prep.
- American Family Physician journal ↗
AAFP's clinical-review journal.
- Family Medicine forum (SDN) ↗
Long-running medical career forum with active specialty subforums.
Positions
5213
All applicants
4702
Seats / app
1.11
From NRMP Charting Outcomes 2024 (most recent biennial publication). Source PDFs: MD Seniors / DO Seniors / IMG. NRMP publishes Charting Outcomes every other year, so this should refresh in early 2026 with the 2025 cycle data.
| Pool | Step 1 | Step 2 | Pubs | Research | AOA % | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MD_seniors | 217 | 244 | 4.2 | 2.1 | 9.4 | 1170 |
| DO_seniors | 213 | 240 | 2.8 | 1.6 | — | 1034 |
| US_IMG | 209 | 228 | 2.7 | 1.8 | — | 470 |
| Non_US_IMG | 217 | 231 | 3.7 | 2.0 | — | 386 |
Per-applicant-type match rates and mean Step scores published by NRMP every two years. Each row is one applicant pool in one cycle. Step scores reflect what matched applicants in that cycle achieved, not what programs require today.
| Year | Type | Match rate | Matched (n) | Step 1 | Step 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | MD_Senior | 99.0% | 1170 | 217 | 244 |
| 2024 | DO_Senior | 98.1% | 1034 | — | 240 |
| 2024 | IMG | 67.8% | 470 | — | 228 |
| 2022 | MD_Senior | 98.3% | 1219 | 225 | 241 |
| 2022 | IMG | 58.5% | 483 | 211 | 225 |
| 2020 | MD_Senior | 96.8% | 1341 | 221 | 238 |
| 2020 | DO_Senior | 94.6% | 1167 | 218 | 233 |
| 2018 | MD_Senior | 96.3% | 1438 | 220 | 237 |
| 2018 | IMG | 53.1% | 519 | 211 | 225 |
| Pool | Share |
|---|---|
| MD_seniors | 35.7% |
| DO_seniors | 31.9% |
| US_IMG | 17.1% |
| Non_US_IMG | 15.4% |