Primary care generalist vs. specialty physician visits distribution U.S. 1980-2013

This statistic shows the distribution of visits to primary care generalists and specialty physicians in the U.S. from 1980 to 2013. In 2011, some 57 percent of physician visits in the U.S. were visits to primary care generalists like, for example, family and general practitioners.

Distribution of visits to primary care generalists and specialty physicians in the U.S. from 1980 to 2013

Characteristic	Primary care generalists	Specialty care physicians
2013*	49.1%	50.9%
2012*	53.2%	46.8%
2011	56.8%	43.2%
2010	55.2%	44.8%
2009	55.9%	44.1%
2008	59.6%	40.4%
2007	57.4%	42.6%
2006	57.5%	42.5%
2005	58.8%	41.2%
2004	56.7%	43.3%
2003	58.5%	41.5%
2002	59.9%	40.1%
2001	56.8%	43.2%
2000	58.9%	41.1%
1999	57.6%	42.4%
1998	62.6%	37.4%
1997	61.1%	38.9%
1990	63.6%	36.4%
1980	66.2%	33.8%

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Release date

September 2018

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Region

United States

Survey time period

1980 to 2013

Supplementary notes

Type of physician is based on physician’s self-designated primary area of practice. Primary care generalist physicians are defined as practitioners in the fields of general and family practice, general internal medicine, general obstetrics and gynecology, and general pediatrics and exclude primary care specialists. Primary care generalists in general and family practice exclude primary care specialties, such as sports medicine and geriatrics. Primary care internal medicine physicians exclude internal medicine specialists, such as allergists, cardiologists, and endocrinologists. Primary care obstetrics and gynecology physicians exclude obstetrics and gynecology specialties, such as gynecological oncology, maternal and fetal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology critical care medicine, and reproductive endocrinology. Primary care pediatricians exclude pediatric specialists, such as adolescent medicine specialists, neonatologists, pediatric allergists, and pediatric cardiologists.
Values not included in the pdf version of the report were taken from the Health, United States, trend tables.
* In 2012 and 2013, data exclude visits to community health centers; in 2006–2011, data include visits to community health centers (2%–3% of visits to physician offices in 2006–2011 were to community health centers). Prior to 2006, visits to community health centers were not included in the survey.

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