Canadian doctors' income: what physicians really make

If you search "how much do doctors make in Canada," you will usually find a number that sounds impressive and a paragraph that explains very little. People also search for variations like "how much does a Canadian doctor make," "doctors and salaries," "physician earnings," "medical doctor pay," "doctor wage," "how much do dr make a year," "how much does a doctor get," and "how much do MDs make."

That is the problem with this topic. The headline figures are real, but they are often misunderstood. In Canada, many physicians are not simple salaried employees in the way people imagine. A large share are effectively running a professional practice, billing through public systems, paying overhead, and then taking home what remains. So when someone says a doctor in Canada "makes" $300,000 or $500,000, the first question should be: gross billings, salary, or net income after expenses?

That distinction matters a lot. It is the difference between a flashy number and the actual economics of medical practice.

The short answer: doctors in Canada can earn very well, but the range is wide

According to CIHI, average gross clinical payment per physician in Canada was $383,000 in 2023-2024. Broken down by broad specialty group, the average was $324,000 for family medicine physicians, $406,000 for medical specialists, and $556,000 for surgical specialists. Those are real national figures, and they are the best place to start if you want a country-level view. They are also the figures most people cite when comparing "doctor earnings Canada" or "Canadian doctors income" across sources.

But those are gross clinical payments, not personal take-home pay. They do not automatically equal a doctor's salary, and they do not reflect taxes or the cost of running a clinic. The College of Family Physicians of Canada notes that about 28% of family physicians' gross income goes toward overhead, and also states that family medicine remains the lowest-paid medical specialty in Canada.

So yes, Canadian doctors can earn high incomes. But it is still sloppy to treat gross billings as if they are the same as after-expense earnings. That is why summaries of doctors pay in Canada can be misleading without context.

Why "doctor salary in Canada" is a misleading phrase

A lot of public discussion uses the word "salary," but physician compensation in Canada is more mixed than that. When people ask about the salary of a Canadian doctor or the salary for a doctor in Canada, they often conflate gross billings with take-home pay. CIHI reports that in 2023-2024, 72% of gross clinical payments came through fee-for-service, while 28% came through alternative payment models. That means the system still relies heavily on billing-based compensation rather than a single uniform salary structure.

Job Bank data also shows that many family physicians are self-employed rather than conventionally salaried. Depending on the province, a large share of general practitioners and family physicians work as self-employed professionals. For example, Job Bank reports self-employment rates of 65% in Ontario, 68% in British Columbia, and 73% in Alberta for this occupation.

That is one of the biggest reasons this topic gets confusing. When people compare "doctor salary" across countries, they often compare a Canadian physician's gross practice revenue against an employed doctor's salary somewhere else. That is not a clean comparison.

How much do family doctors make in Canada?

If you are specifically asking about family physicians, there are two useful ways to answer. People often frame this as "how much does a medical doctor earn" or "how much do doctors earn in a year" in family practice.

The first is the CIHI gross-payment view. Nationally, family medicine physicians averaged $324,000 in gross clinical payments in 2023-2024.

The second is the Job Bank wage view, which reflects labour-market wage reporting rather than billing totals. Job Bank currently shows that family physicians in Canada usually earn between $90,826 and $435,240, with a median of $232,227.

Those numbers are not contradictory. They are measuring slightly different things. The Job Bank figure is more useful for employment-market context. The CIHI figure is more useful for understanding the scale of physician billings in Canada's public system. If you are trying to understand what a family doctor personally keeps, neither number tells the whole story on its own, because overhead and taxes still have to be taken into account. Put differently, the salary of an MD in family medicine depends on practice model, expenses, and taxes.

This is why some people think family doctors are underpaid while others think they are obviously doing very well. In a sense, both reactions are responding to incomplete versions of the same data.

Specialists usually earn more, and surgeons more still

At a broad level, Canadian specialist incomes follow the pattern most people would expect: family medicine is lower, medical specialties are higher, and surgical specialties are higher again.

CIHI's 2023-2024 national numbers put average gross clinical payments at:

• $324,000 for family medicine,
• $406,000 for medical specialists, and
• $556,000 for surgical specialists.

That does not mean every surgeon is wealthy or every family doctor is struggling. It does mean that specialty choice has a major impact on earnings. The College of Family Physicians of Canada has been explicit about the compensation gap, arguing that family physicians are under-remunerated relative to their role in the system. This spread in doctor earnings reflects the mix of procedures, complexity, and time demands.

In plain language, this means that asking "how much do doctors make in Canada?" is a bit like asking "how much do lawyers make?" The category is too broad to be very meaningful until you know the field, the practice model, and the setting.

Location matters more than people expect

Province also changes the picture.

CIHI reports that the average gross clinical payment per physician ranged from $318,000 in Nova Scotia to $429,000 in Alberta in 2023-2024. For example, people often ask "how much do doctors make in Ontario?"; the answer depends on provincial fee schedules, alternative payment models, and local practice costs.

That does not automatically mean Alberta is "better" for every doctor. Different provinces use different payment structures, have different mixes of urban and rural practice, and impose different business realities around clinic staffing, lease costs, and service demand. Still, the provincial spread is real, and anyone seriously looking at physician earnings in Canada should expect location to matter.

You can also see this in salaried and contract-based models. In British Columbia, Doctors of BC's 2024-2025 salary contract rates show general practice ranges such as:

• $221,934 to $277,418 for Defined Scope B,
• $238,170 to $297,713 for Defined Scope A, and
• $249,320 to $311,650 for Full Scope non-JSC community practice, with higher ranges for some rural categories.

That is a good reminder that not every doctor in Canada is operating under the exact same compensation framework.

"Doctor starting pay" depends on whether you mean residents or independent physicians

This is another place where online content often gets messy.

If by "starting pay" you mean a newly practising independent doctor after residency, the answer depends on specialty, province, billing model, and whether the physician is entering a clinic, hospital contract, or community practice. There is no single national starting salary table for fully licensed physicians. Per-hour estimates -- "how much does a medical doctor make an hour" -- are tricky because schedules, call, and unpaid administrative time vary widely.

If by "starting pay" you mean a resident doctor, the numbers are much lower and much more structured. In British Columbia, the Resident Doctors of BC wage schedule shows a Resident I annual salary of $67,292.34 effective after April 1, 2025, rising to $69,311.11 after April 1, 2026.

That gap matters. People sometimes jump from "medical student" to "doctor income" and assume the high attending-level numbers apply immediately. They do not. There is a long training period in between, and resident compensation is a very different category from independent physician earnings.

There is still strong demand for family doctors

Income is only one side of the story. Demand matters too, especially for family medicine.

CIHI reports that for the first time since the mid-1990s, growth in the supply of family physicians lagged behind population growth for two consecutive years beginning in 2023. The number of family physicians per 100,000 population fell from 124 in 2022 to 120 in 2023 and 119 in 2024.

Job Bank also continues to show solid labour-market demand. The employment outlook for general practitioners and family physicians is currently listed as Good in Ontario and Very good in provinces such as Alberta and Nova Scotia for the 2025-2027 period. Job Bank also explicitly links demand to population aging, retirements, and difficulty filling some positions, particularly in certain regions.

That is one reason physician-income content draws so much attention. People are not only asking whether doctors earn well. They are also asking whether the path is secure, needed, and likely to remain in demand. In Canada, especially in primary care, the answer is clearly yes.

What internationally trained doctors should understand

For doctors outside Canada, the income numbers can look attractive. In many cases, they are attractive. But income should never be separated from the structure of practice.

In Canada, a physician may need to think about licensing, provincial eligibility, compensation model, practice overhead, and whether they are entering a fee-for-service, blended, alternative-payment, or contract-based environment. That is why two doctors with apparently similar "income" can end up with very different real financial outcomes.

This is especially relevant for family physicians looking at Canada from abroad. The opportunity can be strong, but the real question is not just "How much can I bill?" It is "What will my actual practice look like, and what will I keep after the system around me takes its share?"

That is a much smarter question.

So, do doctors make good money in Canada?

If you are asking "how much do Canadian doctors earn" or "how much money can a doctor make," the honest answer is: it depends. Yes. In any reasonable national comparison, doctors in Canada are high earners. CIHI's current figures make that obvious.

But the more honest answer is this: many doctors in Canada generate strong gross income, yet the route from gross billings to personal income is not simple. Specialty matters. Province matters. Practice model matters. Overhead matters. Whether you are employed or effectively operating a small business matters.

That is why good content on this topic should not stop at a big number.

If you are a patient, the takeaway is that physician pay is more complicated than headlines suggest.

If you are a student, the takeaway is that medicine can still be financially rewarding, but not all specialties or practice models are equal.

If you are an internationally trained doctor considering Canada, the takeaway is that there is real opportunity here, especially in family medicine, but you should understand the business and system structure just as clearly as the income potential. Canada needs primary care capacity, and the demand is real.

And if you are looking at the numbers because you are thinking seriously about relocating, that is exactly where the conversation becomes practical. High-level earning potential matters, but so do licensing, placement, clinic structure, and long-term fit. For companies like Careviv working around healthcare access and physician capacity, that is the real-world part of the story that sits behind the search term.

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