AB saw 1,400 more family doctor registrations last quarter

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta recently released their third quarter Physician Resources in Alberta update for 2025.

According to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, there were 12,769 registered physicians at the end of June 2025. That’s a net increase of 442 over the previous quarter and a net increase of 643 over the same period in 2024.

Of the 18 communities listed in their report, all but two saw an increase in the number of registered physicians. Brooks and Lloydminster each lost 1 registration.

Calgary, unsurprisingly, had the largest net increase, at 202, and Edmonton had the second highest, at 141, followed by Grande Prairie, at 9.

Lethbridge gained 6 physician registrations.

That quarterly net increase of 442 was a result of 487 new registrations and 45 cancellations:

Of the new registrations, 15 were for physicians who returned to Alberta and 274 who were trained outside of Alberta. When we compare that with the 3 who left Alberta, we get a net migration of 286 physicians into the province. Remember, that is for registrations. Theoretically, a doctor could leave Alberta but maintain their registration in the province.

The numbers reflect the physicians who maintained an active licence within the applicable quarter; it cannot be interpreted as those who are actively practising. . . . These counts do not necessarily reflect physicians’ functional area of practice, or even if they have an active clinical practice.

“Methodology”. Physician Resources in Alberta Quarterly Update: Oct 01, 2020 to Dec 30, 2021, pp. 1,3.

Let’s look at the registration numbers over the last 9 years or so (I couldn’t find any CPSA data beyond 2016):

Quarter	Number	Change
Jul–Sep 2025	12,769	3.59%
Apr–Jun 2025	12,327	1.68%
Jan–Mar 2025	12,123	-0.73%
Oct–Dec 2024	12,212	0.71%
Jul–Sep 2024	12,126	3.15%
Apr–Jun 2024	11,756	1.07%
Jan–Mar 2024	11,632	-0.9%
Oct–Dec 2023	11,738	1.1%
Jul–Sep 2023	11,608	3.1%
Apr–Jun 2023	11,260	1.2%
Jan–Mar 2023	11,132	-2.4%
Oct–Dec 2022	11,407	0.5%
Jul–Sep 2022	11,346	2.5%
Apr–Jun 2022	11,069	0.9%
Jan–Mar 2022	10,965	-1.7%
Oct–Dec 2021	11,153	-0.1%
Jul–Sep 2021	11,167	2.2%
Apr–Jun 2021	10,927	0.6%
Jan–Mar 2021	10,866	-2.3%
Oct–Dec 2020	11,120	-0.3%
Jul–Sep 2020	11,152	2.3%
Apr–Jun 2020	10,905	0.9%
Jan–Mar 2020	10,812	-1.2%
Oct–Dec 2019	10,948	0.4%
Jul–Sep 2019	10,906	2.9%
Apr–Jun 2019	10,599	0.8%
Jan–Mar 2019	10,519	-1.5%
Oct–Dec 2018	10,674	0.4%
Jul–Sep 2018	10,630	2.7%
Apr–Jun 2018	10,351	0.7%
Jan–Mar 2018	10,274	-1.0%
Oct–Dec 2017	10,376	0.0%
Jul–Sep 2017	10,379	2.9%
Apr–Jun 2017	10,088	1.0%
Jan–Mar 2017	9,991	-0.6%
Oct–Dec 2016	10,048	0.0%
Jul–Sep 2016	10,043	3.4%
Apr–Jun 2016	9,713	1.2%
Jan–Mar 2016	9,596	-1.2%

Let’s look at all the third quarters together. First, we’ll compare third quarter registrations to first quarter registrations.

This was the largest percentage-based increase over the previous quarter since at least 2016.

And here are the 10 third quarters with how much they’ve changed from the previous third quarter.

Physician registrations in the third quarter this year were the best we’ve seen since 2016, which itself had held the previous record. Oddly enough, our lowest third quarter was in 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the first quarter of 2019, the last quarter before the UCP took power, Alberta physician registrations have grown by 2,250, or 21.39%%.

By comparison, Alberta saw a net increase of 1,513 physician registration under the NDP. That’s an increase of 16.52%, and that was over just 4 years; the UCP have now been in power for over 6 years.

Before we get too excited, we should keep in mind that while the number of physician registrations has indeed increased, so has the overall population. Comparing the registration increase with the population increase can help us determine whether the number of registrations is keeping up with—or even exceeding—the population, which could lead to improved access to medical care.

In the first quarter of 2019, just before the UCP took power, Alberta had 4,324,254 residents and 10,519 registered physicians, leaving us with 1 physician for every 411.09 residents.

At the end of September 2025, there were 5,029,346 residents and 12,769 physicians. That’s 1 physician for every 393.87 residents, an improvement.

This is the best third quarter ratio we’ve seen, as demonstrated in the chart below. In fact, this is the best ratio we have seen in any quarter since at least 2016.

Keep in mind that these are all physicians, including specialists. So, while the number of registered doctors might have increased recently, that doesn’t mean access to acute care has improved.

More on that in a moment.

Now, how do these registration break down by where they came from and where they went to?

Well, 141 of the 415 new registrations were from people trained in the province, compared to 143 in the third quarter of 2024. 274 were new registrations from outside Alberta and 56 were “restored”. In 2024, those numbers were 222 and 39, respectively, in the third quarter.

There were 15 registrations for physicians who returned to Alberta, compared to 12 in 2024. However, 3 of the 45 cancelled registrations were from physicians who left the province, as I pointed out earlier, leaving a net migration gain of 286 physicians when added to the 274 registrations from physicians trained from outside Alberta.

Of the remaining 42 cancellations, 10 physicians retired and 1 died, compared to 13 and 1 in 2024. As well, there were 27 removed registrations. These were for physicians who were suspended or were licensed for a limited period and have since been removed from the register. This number was 21 in the second quarter of 2024.

Finally, 4 physicians voluntarily erased their registrations. During the third quarter of 2024, 7 did so.

Oh, and I just want to point out that out of those 12,769 registered physicians, only 5,879 are registered in family medicine. That’s a jump of nearly 1,400 from the 4,480 we saw in the previous quarter.

Keep in mind that last month, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta designated all family medicine physicians and general practitioners, who were previously identified as non-specialists, as specialists in family medicine to better align with the services they provide and to make Alberta consistent with other Canadian jurisdictions.

That accounted for 1,231 of the new 1,400 family medicine registrations, which means Alberta had an increase of just 169 family doctors outside of this classification change.

With that huge increase comes an improvement in the per capita coverage of family doctors. We had 1 registered family doctor per 855.48 residents in the third quarter of 2025, the first time our ratio has dropped below 1,000 residents.

Remember, however, that a significant improvement in that ratio was because of a change in classification, not because of a massive increase in the number of people who are actually practicing family medicine.

We will have to see how the ratio changes as time goes on and we have more data with the classification changes.