Two years after the emergency medicine residency match rate fell to 81.8%, the specialty’s fill rate is approaching its prepandemic norm.
In 2023, an unprecedented 555 emergency medicine positions went unfilled. The next year, the fill rate increased to 95.5%, and in 2025, it rose to 97.9% — mostly due to more DO and international applicants matching to the specialty. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergency medicine fill rate averaged between 98% and 99%.
Overall, compared to last year, the National Resident Matching Program saw a 5.3% increase in certified applicants to 47,208 and a 4.2% increase in positions to 43,237, according to preliminary data.
Here are three more things to know:
1. Applicants
- DO seniors achieved an all-time high in their PGY-1 match rate at 92.6%.
- More than 11,000 active applicants are international medical graduates. Compared to 2024, participation from non-U.S. citizens increased 14.4%.
2. Specialties
- A record number of primary care specialty programs, 20,300, were offered this year. Overall, primary care specialties recorded a 93.5% fill rate.
- Internal medicine’s fill rate is 96.8%.
- From 2023 to 2024, the pediatrics fill rate fell from 97.1% to 91.8%. In 2025, pediatrics saw a 95.3% fill rate.
- Family medicine noted a smaller fill rate, declining from 87.8% in 2024 to 85% in 2025.
- Interest in obstetrics and gynecology remains high despite the effects from the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. Out of 1,604 OB-GYN residency positions, only one categorical position and nine preliminary PGY-1 positions went unfilled, resulting in a 99% fill rate.
3. How applicants affected fill rates
- International medical graduates filled 33.3% of categorical internal medicine positions, 20.4% of categorical pediatrics positions and 17.6% of family medicine positions.
- U.S. DO seniors increased the percentage of filled positions in several specialties, including child neurology by 4.9 percentage points, medicine-pediatrics by 1.8 percentage points and orthopedic surgery by 1.3 percentage points.
- U.S. MD seniors saw a 16.7 percentage point increase in categorical radiation oncology’s fill rate, followed by anesthesiology with a 1.8 percentage point increase and psychiatry by a 1.5 percentage point increase.
Access the National Resident Matching Program’s Match Day 2025 data here.
