The table and charts show information about the doctors between 1986 and 2006 in Australia.
Overall, number of doctors in Australia showed upward trend, starting from 1986 to 2006.Although male doctors remained the dominant majority group, female doctors’ proportion increased steadily. Additionally, in 1986 and 1996 Australian-born trend was preeminent. However, in the final year 2006 Australian-born and overseas trends showed same proportion.
In 1986, total workforce stood at 23,720 medical practitioners. This figure climbed to 29,060 in 1996, before reaching a peak of 35,450 by 2006. In terms of gender distribution, male doctors showed the highest figures over the 20 years, which was around the 75%. However, in following decades male practitioners saw am decrease, by 2006 it dropped to 60%. Female docots remained an increase over the two decades, their proportion reached from 25% to around 40%.
Looking at the origin of country, Australian-born doctors were heavily preeminant in 1986, more than 60%. Overseas-born practitioners remained approximately 37% in 1986. After a decade gap slightly narrowed, local-born doctors’ figure dropped from around 60% to 57% and in the same year foreign-born practitioners’ proportion increased from around 38% to 41%. By the final year 2006, native-born and overseas-born doctors’ proportion remained exactly 50% each.