Where do NC’s international medical graduates come from?
By Evan Galloway
Sep 13, 2019
- International Medical Graduates (IMGs) are physicians who received their medical education outside of the United States, Puerto Rico, or Canada. As of 2018, 15.5% of North Carolina physicians are IMGs. This is below the national median of 19.1%.
- The number of IMGs in North Carolina has more than doubled since 2000. IMGs from Pakistan have tripled, and IMGs from Nigeria have more than tripled. In 2018, North Carolina had six times the number of IMGs educated in the Caribbean as it did in 2000, but a majority of these physicians are United States citizens who sought medical education outside the US.
- India is the largest source of IMGs for North Carolina.
| Country | 2000 | 2018 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caribbean | 123 | 741 | 6.0x |
| Nigeria | 51 | 176 | 3.4 |
| Pakistan | 71 | 217 | 3.0 |
| India | 429 | 1,079 | 2.5 |
| Other | 971 | 1,642 | 1.7 |
| Total | 1,645 | 3,855 | 2.3x |
- The concentration of IMGs in different areas of practice varies. In 2018, IMGs comprised 43% of the hospitalists in North Carolina, but only made up 12% of the family medicine physician workforce.
- 30% of North Carolina IMGs practice in primary care, which is nearly the same percentage as graduates of US medical schools (29%). This contrasts with national data implying that IMGs are more likely to enter primary care practice.
Funding & Acknowledgements
The HPDS is maintained by the Program on Health Workforce Research and Policy at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in collaboration with the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers Program (AHEC), and the state’s independent health professional licensing boards. Ongoing financial support is provided by the NC AHEC Program Office. Although the NC HPDS maintains the data system, the data remain the property of their respective licensing board. This information or content and conclusions are those of the authors and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by NC AHEC. To learn more about NC AHEC please visit: https://www.ncahec.net.
