Annual average compensation for U.S. physicians in four medical specialties surpassed $500,000 in 2024, according to Medscape’s “Comparing Your Pay Against Your Peers’: Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2025.“
Orthopedic specialists topped the list as the highest-paid physicians last year, while those practicing public health and preventive medicine reported the lowest earnings.
With the exception of anesthesiology, all seven of the top-earning specialties in 2024 have consistently ranked among the 10 highest-paid specialties in each of the last five editions of the annual report.
Medscape’s report is based on responses from 7,322 physicians working across 29 specialties who were surveyed from Oct. 3 to Jan. 15.
Below are 29 physician specialties ranked by 2024 compensation, per the report:
- Orthopedic and orthopedic surgery: $543,000
- Radiology: $520,000
- Plastic surgery: $516,000
- Cardiology: $506,000
- Anesthesiology: $499,000
- Gastroenterology: $495,000
- Urology: $485,000
- Otolaryngology: $473,000
- Oncology and hematology: $452,000
- Dermatology: $424,000
- General surgery: $420,000
- Critical care: $410,00
- Pathology: $395,000
- Ophthalmology: $394,000
- Pulmonary medicine: $387,000
- Emergency medicine: $374,000
- OB-GYN: $367,000
- Nephrology: $359,000
- Physical medicine and rehabilitation: $354,000
- Psychiatry: $336,000
- Neurology: $322,000
- Allergy and immunology: $312,000
- Internal medicine: $286,000
- Rheumatology: $277,000
- Infectious diseases: $277,00
- Diabetes and endocrinology: $277,000
- Family medicine: $276,000
- Pediatrics: $258,000
- Public health and preventive medicine: $257,000
