The most accurate information held by the Medical Council in relation to the number of doctors who are clinically active in Ireland arises from the annual retention process between May and August each year, when doctors are required to retain their registration by completing the annual retention application form. This retention data provides insight into the number of doctors currently employed in the Irish health service.
It is important to note that there are certain cohorts of doctors who do not undergo retention, most notably doctors undertaking their internship, as these doctors join and work in posts allocated by the HSE, usually for a period of 12 months, and then must apply to transfer their registration if they wish to continue practising after completion of their internship. In addition, doctors who join the Register after 30 April in a given year, would not be included in the retention figures until the completion of the exercise in the following year. Further information on the retention process is available in the workforce intelligence reports published on the Medical Council website. The Medical Council’s 2024 report is available at: www.medicalcouncil.ie/news-and-publications/reports/medical-workforce-intelligence-report-2024.pdf
In 2025, 29,428 doctors retained their registration, of whom 22,257 (75.6%) were clinically active in Ireland. The table below provides an overview of doctors retaining their place on the Register and those clinically active in the Republic of Ireland from 2022 to 2025. As data on nationality is not readily available across all datasets, this information has been broken down by basic medical qualification, where doctors are grouped as graduates from Irish Medical Schools, graduates from the EU or UK, or graduates from an international medical school outside of Ireland, the EU or the UK.
Table: Doctors Retaining and Self-Reporting Practising Medicine in Ireland broken down by Basic Medical Qualification from 2022 – 2025
|
-
|
Retained
|
Clinically Active in Ireland
|
|
2025
|
|
|
|
Total
|
29,428
|
22,257
|
|
Ireland
|
14,249
|
12,599
|
|
EU or UK
|
4,509
|
3,090
|
|
International
|
10,670
|
6,568
|
|
2024
|
|
|
|
Total
|
26,591
|
20,962
|
|
Ireland
|
13,739
|
12,230
|
|
EU or UK
|
4,062
|
2,902
|
|
International
|
8,790
|
5,830
|
|
2023
|
|
|
|
Total
|
24,794
|
19,328
|
|
Ireland
|
13,413
|
11,709
|
|
EU or UK
|
3,676
|
2,661
|
|
International
|
7,705
|
4,958
|
|
2022
|
|
|
|
Total
|
23,108
|
18,839
|
|
Ireland
|
13,037
|
11,862
|
|
EU or UK
|
3,387
|
2,582
|
|
International
|
6,684
|
4,395
|
Higher Education Authority (HEA) data in the table below shows the number of graduates in medicine in each of the last five academic years from 2020/21 to 2024/25.
|
Graduates by year
|
2020
|
2021
|
2022
|
2023
|
2024
|
|
Medicine
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Medicine Undergraduate
|
900
|
885
|
860
|
905
|
915
|
|
Medicine Graduate Entry
|
235
|
270
|
390
|
425
|
430
|
|
|
1,135
|
1,155
|
1,250
|
1,330
|
1,345
|
HEA data is rounded to the nearest 5
Under the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, the HSE has responsibility for proposing the annual intake of postgraduate trainees required for each medical specialty. The National Doctors Training and Planning Unit in the HSE undertakes long-term medical workforce planning to ensure that postgraduate training capacity aligns with the future healthcare needs of the population and the projected demand for consultants and specialists across the health service. Workforce planning models analyse current workforce capacity, projected retirements, demographic change, evolving models of care, and anticipated service demand, and works back through the medical training pipeline to inform the number of intern, Basic Specialist Training and Higher Specialist Training places required over time. The NDTP’s recently published Medical Workforce Report 2025–2026 is available at: www.medicalcareers.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Medical-Workforce-Report-2025-2026-FINAL-DIGITAL.pdf
Ireland’s Future Health and Social Care Workforce paper published in December 2025 sets out an evidence-based strategic direction for the health and social care workforce for the next 15 years. It covers the entire health and social care sector, including public, private and voluntary. The paper is available at: www.assets.gov.ie/static/documents/c68b88d0/Irelands_Future_Health_and_Social_Care_Workforce.pdf
The paper shows an increase in demand for medical practitioners from 2023-2040 of 31%. The supporting Technical Note, which outlines the technical approach used to calculate workforce projections, can be found at: www.assets.gov.ie/static/documents/5c7b3e74/Future_HSC_Workforce_Technical_Note.pdf
It is important to note that the workforce demand projections incorporate the outputs of the recently completed Health Service Capacity Review. This was delivered by the ESRI in collaboration with the Department of Health and HSE and estimated demand for services across Acutes, Long-Term Care and GP services. The demand scenarios included are the result of a series of workshops involving Department of Health and HSE officials over 2024 and 2025. Detail on how these outputs were incorporated into the growth rates for the workforce demand model can be found on page 3 of the Technical Note (link above). GP consultations are projected to grow from 19.4 million in 2023 to between 23.9 million and 25.2 million by 2040, a growth rate of between 23% and 30%. Further detail can be found here: www.esri.ie/publications/projections-of-national-demand-and-workforce-requirements-for-general-practice-in
