The Racial and Ethnic Diversity of the Family Physician Workforce in Non-Metropolitan and Metropolitan Counties

Overview of Key Findings ▪ The family physician workforce is becoming more racially diverse; however, non-metropolitan family physicians are not. ▪ Using data from over 24,000 family physicians who either registered to continue their American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) certification or completed the graduate survey from 2017 to 2019, we found that early career family physicians are more diverse than later career physicians (66.9% vs. 72.8% White; 58.3% vs. 44.0% female) but, in both groups, the percentage of White non-metropolitan family physicians was even higher (82.7% to 90.5%). ▪ Minority non-metropolitan family physicians, particularly Black and Native American/Alaska Native physicians, are more likely to practice in persistent poverty counties. The lack of resources in these counties may make delivering health care harder.