The 10 best states for physicians

What are the best states for physicians?

Like most things in life, choosing where to practice medicine comes with pros, cons and trade-offs. Some physicians want to practice in a big city, others a one-stoplight town — and everything in between.

But besides personal and lifestyle reasons, there are some states that are better for physicians than others in terms of finances, competition and other criteria.

In the 2020 Best States to Practice project, our partner publication Physicians Practice compiled some publicly available data to provide a perspective on what states can be best described as “physician friendly.”

For our analysis, our editors ranked the states based on 2019 data covering five categories:

• Average salary
• Highest/lowest malpractice premiums
• The 2019 cost of living index
• Tax climate (state collections per capita)
• Physician density
• Malpractice premium costs

Physicians Practice obtained the data from publicly available sources.

The list should not be taken as ranking which states are better than others. It simply provides physicians with some objective data they can use when making their career decisions.

See the entire Best States to Practice at Physicians Practice’s website.​