Australian GP workforce and recruitment statistics

By Sam Gillette, Founder of Taro

Every figure on this page is drawn from a named public source, linked beside it. Compiled and checked August 2026. If you cite this page, please also cite the underlying source.

The headline numbers:

• 39,449 GPs practising in Australia, but full-time-equivalent supply is falling (DoHAC, 2024)
• 1 in 3 GPs intend to stop practising within 5 years (RACGP, 2025)
• Nearly 7 in 10 GPs report burnout (RACGP, 2025)
• 15% of final-year medical students want a GP career (Medical Deans, 2025)
• An average full-time GP writes roughly $6,500 a week in billings (Cubiko Touchstone data, 2022)

The workforce today

39,449 GPs were practising in Australia in 2023, up 1.5% on the year before. But the full-time-equivalent workforce fell over the same period: 29,215 FTE in 2023, down 2.4% from 29,920 in 2022. More GPs, less GP time. (Department of Health and Aged Care, GP Supply and Demand Study, August 2024)

The average GP's full-time-equivalence fell from 0.79 to 0.74 between 2018 and 2023: the average GP works fewer hours than five years ago. (DoHAC, GP Supply and Demand Study, 2024)

16% of GPs are aged 65 or over, and 41.4% trained overseas. (AMA General Practice Facts, from DoHAC Health Workforce Data, 2020-21)

The shortage: two projections

Two published models estimate the GP shortfall. They use different methods and horizons, so they're listed separately:

• Deloitte Access Economics (for Cornerstone Health, 2022) projects a shortfall of 11,392 full-time GPs by 2032, almost one in three of the workforce that would be needed. The same report projects city GP demand up 47% by 2032 while city GP supply falls 15%.
• The Department of Health's own model (GP Supply and Demand Study, 2024) estimates a shortfall of more than 2,400 FTE GPs today, growing to roughly 3,900 by 2028 and 8,900+ FTE by 2048 on an unmet-demand basis.

The models disagree on size; neither projects the gap closing.

Where the shortage lands: distribution

Australia had 112 FTE GPs per 100,000 people in 2023, down from 115 the year before. (RACGP Health of the Nation, from DoHAC data)

The distribution is worse than the average: remote (MM6) areas have 68 GPs per 100,000 against 127 in MM4 regional centres. (RACGP Health of the Nation)

More than half of people in outer-regional and remote areas wait 24 hours or more for an urgent GP appointment, against 44% in major cities. Nationally, 47% waited 24 hours or more in 2024-25. (RACGP Health of the Nation; ABS Patient Experiences 2024-25)

Demand and access

• 167.7 million GP attendances were billed to Medicare in 2024-25, totalling $9.7 billion in benefits. (DoHAC Medicare statistics, 2024-25)
• 83.4% of Australians aged 15+ saw a GP in the last 12 months. (ABS Patient Experiences 2024-25)
• GP attendances per person fell to 6.15 in 2024-25 from a peak of 7.36 in 2021-22. (AIHW)
• Only 67.2% of patients could always see their preferred GP when they needed to. (ABS Patient Experiences 2024-25)
• 7.7% delayed or skipped a GP visit due to cost, down from 8.8% the year before. (ABS Patient Experiences 2024-25)

Bulk billing

Two different metrics, often confused:

• 77.9% of GP services were bulk billed in 2024-25 (up from 77.3%), ranging from 93.8% in south-west Sydney to 53.9% in the ACT. (DoHAC Medicare statistics; this counts services)
• 40.2% of GP clinics fully bulk-bill new adult patients as of January 2026, roughly double a year earlier after 1,007 clinics switched. (Cleanbill Blue Report 2026; this counts clinics, by phone survey, and the methodology is contested by government)
• The long-run service rate peaked at 89% in 2020 and fell to 77% by 2023. (AIHW, bulk billing 1984-2024)

The pipeline

• 15% of final-year medical students name general practice (including rural generalism) as their preferred future specialty. (Medical Deans ANZ, MSOD National Data Report 2025)
• 32.9% of the average graduating cohort actually entered GP or rural generalist training in 2025. (InsightPlus/MJA, from RACGP and ACRRM enrolment data, October 2025)
• Almost half of GPs would now recommend general practice as a career, up from 38% in 2023. (RACGP Health of the Nation 2025)

Burnout and attrition

• 32% of GPs intend to stop practising within five years, and half of those say they're leaving earlier than they'd originally planned. (RACGP Health of the Nation, survey of 3,006 GPs)
• 63% are considering reducing their practising hours. (RACGP Health of the Nation 2025)
• Nearly 7 in 10 GPs report burnout. (RACGP Health of the Nation 2025)
• 68% name the increasing complexity of presentations as their top challenge. (RACGP Health of the Nation 2025)

What recruitment costs

• Australian recruitment agencies typically charge 15-25% of the candidate's annual salary per permanent placement, and hard-to-fill senior roles reach 20-30%+. Fees are calculated on the total package including super. (Manpower Australia, 2026)
• An average full-time GP writes roughly $6,500 a week in billings, about $336,000 a year. (Cubiko Touchstone benchmark data, 2022)
• LinkedIn research has long estimated that around 70% of professionals are not actively job-seeking, which is why vacancies that rely on applicants compete for a minority of the market. (LinkedIn Talent Solutions)

Sources

Linked inline above. Primary datasets: Department of Health and Aged Care Health Workforce Data and Medicare statistics; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; ABS Patient Experiences; RACGP Health of the Nation; Medical Deans ANZ MSOD; Deloitte Access Economics; Cleanbill; Manpower Australia; Cubiko.

This page is updated as new editions of these reports are published. Last checked: August 2026.