The table shows the total number of doctors in Australia from 1986 to 2006, while the bar charts compare the doctors by their sex and birth place over the same period. Overall, there was a noticeable rise in the total number of health professionals in Australia, with an increasing number of women entering the healthcare system. Notably, the gap between the numbers of native and foreign doctors in Australia shrank to an equality.
As for the gender of the doctors in Australia, the shares of male and female doctors followed opposite trends. In 1986, among 23,720 doctors, a dominating 75% were men and only a quarter were women. Since then, the percentage of male doctors began to decrease, reaching just below 70% after a decade, when the total number of doctors in Australia was 29,060. This pattern continued further, and after another ten years, the share of female doctors was slightly below 40%.
Regarding the birthplace of the doctors, the number of doctors from overseas countries increased considerably over the period. Initially, the share of doctors born in Australia was over 60%, a figure that then decreased slightly to below 60% in 1986. It is worth mentioning that, starting at over 40% in 1986, the percentage of foreign doctors accounted for exactly half of the total in 2006, which was 35,450.