There are nineteen medical specialties a US medical graduate can enter straight out of school, and around 107 subspecialties underneath them. Residency runs two years at the short end and five at the long end, and what the work earns varies more than threefold across the list.
Every figure on this page is sourced. Training length and the number of physicians in training come from the ACGME Data Resource Book, wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and match competitiveness from the NRMP. Each specialty links through to a full guide covering the careers inside it.
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Every specialty here takes ten to thirteen years. See where you are on that path, and what the year you are in has to produce.
Every stage from first semester to practising, how long each specialty takes, and what to do in the year you are in now.
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All nineteen medical specialties compared
Every one of the medical specialties below is sorted by how many physicians are training in it, so the largest fields sit at the top.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Specialty | Residency years | Median wage | Positions filled | Subspecialties | In training |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal Medicine | 3 | $256,560 | 95.2% | 20 | 34,086 |
| Family Medicine | 3 | $244,180 | 83.6% | 4 | 15,687 |
| Surgery | 5 | $414,010 | 99.8% | 5 | 10,074 |
| Pediatrics | 3 | $210,040 | 94.4% | 18 | 9,845 |
| Emergency Medicine | 3 | $335,550 | 95.6% | 5 | 9,752 |
| Psychiatry | 4 | $281,870 | 97.4% | 6 | 8,481 |
| Anesthesiology | 4 | $391,490 | 100.0% | 7 | 7,802 |
| Obstetrics and Gynecology | 4 | $292,910 | 99.9% | 5 | 6,178 |
| Diagnostic Radiology | 4 | $420,860 | 94.9% | 6 | 4,770 |
| Neurology | 4 | $248,560 | 99.6% | 7 | 3,900 |
| Pathology | 4 | $312,400 | 99.7% | 10 | 2,400 |
| Urology | 5 | $265,930* | separate match | 2 | 1,934 |
| Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation | 4 | $265,930* | 100.0% | 5 | 1,810 |
| Ophthalmology | 3 | $300,080 | separate match | 1 | 1,790 |
| Dermatology | 3 | $328,730 | 100.0% | 3 | 1,704 |
| Allergy and Immunology | 2 | $265,930* | separate match | none | 342 |
| Preventive Medicine | 2 | $265,930* | 100.0% | 1 | 169 |
| Nuclear Medicine | 3 | $420,860* | separate match | none | 77 |
| Medical Genetics | 2 | $265,930* | 100.0% | 2 | 60 |
Residency length and residents in training from the ACGME Data Resource Book, 2024-2025. Wages from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Positions filled from NRMP Results and Data, 2026 Main Residency Match, Table 1A. Ophthalmology and urology run their own matches, so they carry no NRMP figure. An asterisk marks a wage taken from the BLS category "Physicians, all other", because that specialty has no occupation code of its own.
General practitioner or specialist
A general practitioner treats the whole patient across every system, and in the US that means family medicine, general internal medicine or general pediatrics. The work is broad, continuous and mostly outpatient, and the training is three years.
A specialist narrows to one system, one technique or one population, and either trains longer in residency or adds a fellowship afterwards. The trade is depth for breadth. Specialists earn more on average and see a narrower slice of medicine; general practitioners keep patients for decades and can practise almost anywhere.
Neither is a lesser path. Family medicine and internal medicine are also the two largest fields on this page, and both open onto fellowships if you change your mind later.
MD or DO
Both are fully licensed physicians in the United States. They prescribe, operate and specialise on the same terms, and they sit the same specialty board exams. An MD is trained in allopathic medicine, a DO in osteopathic medicine, which adds training in osteopathic manipulative treatment on top of the same core curriculum.
Since 2020 residency training has run through a single accreditation system, so MD and DO graduates apply to the same ACGME programmes through the same match. The practical differences now are the entrance exam (MD applicants sit the USMLE, DO applicants can sit the COMLEX, the USMLE, or both), the application service, and the fact that some competitive specialties still fill a large majority of their positions with MD seniors. The table above shows which ones.
The odds of getting into medical school covers what each route asks of an applicant.
Every specialty and the subspecialties underneath it
Each subspecialty below is a separate ACGME-accredited fellowship you enter after residency. Follow a specialty through for what the work involves, what it earns and how competitive it is.
- Allergy and Immunology no ACGME-accredited subspecialties beneath it.
- Anesthesiology (seven) pain medicine, adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology, critical care medicine, pediatric anesthesiology, regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine, obstetric anesthesiology, pediatric cardiac anesthesiology.
- Dermatology (three) micrographic surgery and dermatologic oncology, dermatopathology, pediatric dermatology.
- Diagnostic Radiology (six) neuroradiology, pediatric radiology, abdominal radiology, musculoskeletal radiology, nuclear radiology, neuroendovascular intervention.
- Emergency Medicine (five) pediatric emergency medicine, medical toxicology, emergency medical services, sports medicine, undersea and hyperbaric medicine.
- Family Medicine (four) hospice and palliative medicine, sports medicine, geriatric medicine, clinical informatics.
- Internal Medicine (twenty) cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease and critical care medicine, hematology and medical oncology, gastroenterology, nephrology, infectious disease, endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism, rheumatology, critical care medicine, interventional cardiology, clinical cardiac electrophysiology, geriatric medicine, sleep medicine, advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology, clinical informatics, pulmonary disease, transplant hepatology, interventional pulmonology, adult congenital heart disease, medical oncology.
- Medical Genetics (two) molecular genetic pathology, medical biochemical genetics.
- Neurology (seven) neurocritical care, vascular neurology, epilepsy, clinical neurophysiology, neuromuscular medicine, neurodevelopmental disabilities, neuroendovascular intervention.
- Nuclear Medicine no ACGME-accredited subspecialties beneath it.
- Obstetrics and Gynecology (five) maternal-fetal medicine, gynecologic oncology, reproductive endocrinology and infertility, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, complex family planning.
- Ophthalmology (one) ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery.
- Pathology (ten) selective pathology, hematopathology, cytopathology, forensic pathology, neuropathology, blood banking/transfusion medicine, clinical informatics, pediatric pathology, medical microbiology, chemical pathology.
- Pediatrics (eighteen) neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric critical care medicine, pediatric cardiology, pediatric hematology/oncology, pediatric emergency medicine, pediatric gastroenterology, pediatric endocrinology, pediatric hospital medicine, pediatric pulmonology, pediatric infectious diseases, pediatric nephrology, developmental-behavioral pediatrics, pediatric rheumatology, adolescent medicine, child abuse pediatrics, clinical informatics, sports medicine, pediatric transplant hepatology.
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (five) sports medicine, brain injury medicine, pediatric rehabilitation medicine, spinal cord injury medicine, neuromuscular medicine.
- Preventive Medicine (one) undersea and hyperbaric medicine.
- Psychiatry (six) child and adolescent psychiatry, addiction medicine, consultation-liaison psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry.
- Surgery (five) surgical critical care, vascular surgery - independent, complex general surgical oncology, pediatric surgery, hand surgery.
- Urology (two) urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, pediatric urology.
Common questions about medical specialties
What specialties are in the medical field?
This page covers the nineteen that hold their own ACGME-accredited residency or fellowship and that a US medical graduate can enter directly. Underneath them sit around 100 more subspecialties, each entered through a fellowship after residency. Internal medicine alone opens onto twenty.
What doctor specialties are most popular?
By the number of physicians currently in training, internal medicine is the largest by a wide margin, with 34,086 residents. Family Medicine (15,687), Surgery (10,074), Pediatrics (9,845) follow. Those counts come from the ACGME Data Resource Book and measure how many residents a specialty trains, which is a fair proxy for how many doctors it employs.
What are the most respected medical specialties?
No official ranking exists, and any list claiming one is somebody's opinion. What can be measured is how contested each specialty is in the residency match. In the 2026 Main Match the specialties filling the highest share of their positions with US MD seniors were dermatology (74.2%), anesthesiology (70.5%), obstetrics and gynecology (68.3%). Competitiveness and respect are different things, and plenty of doctors would argue the hardest work sits in the fields that fill most easily.
What is the best specialty as a doctor?
The one whose day-to-day work you would still choose in year fifteen. Three things separate the specialties in practice, and all three sit in the table above. How long the training runs, what the work earns, and how hard the path is to get onto. The highest-earning fields here are diagnostic radiology ($420,860), surgery ($414,010), anesthesiology ($391,490). Setting and geography move a physician's earnings more than the specialty label does, so treat the figures as a constraint rather than a ranking.
How long does it take to become a specialist?
Four years of undergraduate study, four of medical school, then two to five of residency depending on the specialty. That is ten to thirteen years in total before you practise independently, and a fellowship adds one to three more.
Medical School Specialties: Overview
Best Medical Schools for Different Specialties
Where to go next
Choosing a specialty happens later than the timeline suggests. Almost nobody commits before their third-year clerkships, and the thing that keeps every door on this page open is your MCAT score and your application.
- Studying for the MCAT now? The live MCAT course runs one cohort at a time with 515+ scorers teaching it.
- Want one-on-one help? MCAT tutoring pairs you with a mentor who scored in the range you are aiming at.
- Building an application rather than a score? Medical school admissions coaching covers the school list, the essays and the interviews.
- Wondering where to apply? The medical school hub lists every state and province with a program.
- Just browsing? The free MCAT resources are a good place to start, and student score stories show what the jumps look like.
- Every accredited residency program in the country is searchable in ACGME's public directory.