Table 3.

Numbers and percentages of doctors who gave each specialty as their first choice of long-term career: UK medical graduates of 2015, 2012, 2009, 2008 and 2005 surveyed 1 year after graduation: detailed specialty breakdown

Grouped/individual specialty	Graduation year (Numbers)			Graduation year (%)
	2005, 2008 and 2009 (N=8537)	2012 (N=2313)	2015 (N=3040)	2005, 2008 and 2009 (N=8537)	2012 (N=2313)	2015 (N=3040)
General practice	2669	694	844	31.3	30.0	27.8
Hospital medical specialties	2266	626	805	26.5	27.1	26.5
Cardiology	285	77	71	3.3	3.3	2.3
Chest medicine	188	45	52	2.2	1.9	1.7
Clinical pharmacology	9	1	1	0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Dermatology	125	43	59	1.5	1.9	1.9
Endocrinology	75	15	23	0.9	0.6	0.8
Gastroenterology	184	52	56	2.2	2.2	1.8
General medicine	747	165	257	8.8	7.1	8.5
Genitourinary medicine	46	24	26	0.5	1.0	0.9
Geriatrics	134	73	94	1.6	3.2	3.1
Infectious diseases	112	29	39	1.3	1.3	1.3
Nephrology	76	26	34	0.9	1.1	1.1
Neurology	140	29	36	1.6	1.3	1.2
Occupational medicine	1	2	3	<0.1	0.1	0.1
Rheumatology/Rehabilitation	77	29	33	0.9	1.3	1.1
Tropical medicine	26	7	6	0.3	0.3	0.2
Surgery	1573	358	492	18.4	15.5	16.2
Cardiac surgery	19	8	18	0.2	0.3	0.6
Ear, nose and throat	117	35	47	1.4	1.5	1.5
General surgery	517	75	167	6.1	3.2	5.5
Neurosurgery	86	21	23	1.0	0.9	0.8
Ophthalmology	138	38	71	1.6	1.6	2.3
Oral and maxillofacial surgery	45	12	16	0.5	0.5	0.5
Trauma and orthopaedic surgery	323	76	95	3.8	3.3	3.1
Paediatric surgery	55	16	14	0.6	0.7	0.5
Plastic surgery	163	40	36	1.9	1.7	1.2
Urology	64	19	21	0.7	0.8	0.7
Vascular surgery	39	7	9	0.5	0.3	0.3
Anaesthesia	1063	301	480	12.5	13.0	15.8
Anaesthesia	746	212	367	8.7	9.2	12.1
Intensive care/anaesthesia	349	114	146	4.1	4.9	4.8
Paediatrics	786	216	261	9.2	9.3	8.6
Emergency medicine	411	105	171	4.8	4.5	5.6
Psychiatry	331	95	165	3.9	4.1	5.4
Child/adolescent psychiatry	33	4	3	0.4	0.2	0.1
Forensic psychiatry	17	6	1	0.2	0.3	<0.1
General psychiatry	272	84	160	3.2	3.6	5.3
Learning disabilities	2	0	0	<0.1	0.0	0.0
Psychogeriatrics	10	0	0	0.1	0.0	0.0
Psychotherapy	5	2	0	0.1	0.1	0.0
Obstetrics and gynaecology	501	127	164	5.9	5.5	5.4
Pathology	228	67	97	2.7	2.9	3.2
Forensic medicine	16	0	5	0.2	0.0	0.2
General pathology	22	4	8	0.3	0.2	0.3
Genetics	25	10	9	0.3	0.4	0.3
Haematology	101	35	46	1.2	1.5	1.5
Histopathology	27	7	12	0.3	0.3	0.4
Immunology	7	3	7	0.1	0.1	0.2
Microbiology	36	8	12	0.4	0.3	0.4
Radiology	180	57	92	2.1	2.5	3.0
Radiotherapy and oncology	182	58	78	2.1	2.5	2.6
Public health	83	29	28	1.0	1.3	0.9
Community health	10	6	9	0.1	0.3	0.3
Family planning	8	6	8	0.1	0.3	0.3
General Community health	2	0	1	<0.1	0.0	<0.1
Other medical specialties	72	13	21	0.8	0.6	0.7
Not stated	18	88	105	0.2	3.8	3.5
Non-medical	65	16	44	0.8	0.7	1.4

Notes: The grouped specialty total in bold may be lower than the total of each individual specialty belonging to that group: if a respondent gave ‘Anaesthetics’ as their tied first choice with ‘Intensive care/anaesthesia’, this would only result in one count at the grouped specialty level.

Linear trend statistics across the cohorts: general practice (χ² ₁=12.9, P<0.001), hospital medical specialties (χ² ₁=0.0, P=0.961), surgery (χ² ₁=11.0, P<0.001), anaesthesia (χ² ₁=19.9, P<0.001), paediatrics (χ² ₁=0.8, P=0.367), emergency medicine (χ² ₁=2.3, P=0.129), psychiatry (χ² ₁=12.0, P<0.001), obstetrics and gynaecology (χ² ₁=1.1, P=0.295), pathology (χ² ₁=2.3, P=0.133), radiology (χ² ₁=8.2, P=0.004), radiotherapy and oncology (χ² ₁=2.3, P=0.132), public health (χ² ₁=0.0, P=0.967), community health (χ² ₁=4.7, P=0.030), other medical specialties (χ² ₁=1.2, P=0.283), not stated (χ² ₁=206.7, P<0.001) and non-medical (χ² ₁=9.7, P=0.002).