The table provides information on the number of doctors in Australia in 1986, 1996 and 2006, whereas the bar charts demonstrate the breakdown of them according to gender and place of birth in the same years.
The quantity of doctors serving in Australia stood at 23,720 in the initial year. Each consecutive decade saw an increase of more or less 6,000, finishing the period with 35,450.
The ratio of males to females in the study was 3:1 (75% versus 25%) in 1986. The percentage of the former then steadily declined to end at just over 60%, while that of the latter grew to just under 40% in 2006.
In terms of the place of birth, the majority of doctors were Australians, whose proportion was roughly two times greater than that of non-citizens (approximately 35%). By the end of the period, however, there was a marked decline in the share of Australians, and thanks to a rise in the figure for those having foreign origins, both categories shared an identical 50%.
Overall, the number of physicians in Australia rose noticeably, with males, despite decreasing in percentage, showing greater proportions than their female counterparts over the period in question. As for the place of birth, Australians witnessed a decline and non-Australians experienced the reverse, eventually sharing the same percentage.