Physician pay has climbed steadily in recent years amid specialty shortages and a competitive recruiting market.
Medscape’s 2026 Physician Wealth and Debt Report, which surveyed 5,916 physicians across more than 29 specialties between Sept. 5 and Dec. 17, found that 19% of physicians now report a net worth of $5 million or more. In 2023, that share was 11%. The 8-percentage-point jump was the largest movement in any wealth bracket in the survey.
The rest of the distribution helps explain where those new multimillionaires came from. The share of physicians worth $2 million to $4,999,999 fell from 29% to 25%, and the share worth $500,000 to $999,999 dipped from 16% to 14%. Physicians with a net worth under $500,000 held nearly steady at 24%, compared with 25% in 2023. Combined, 63% of physicians now report a net worth of at least $1 million, up from 59% three years earlier.
The pattern points to a profession whose middle is moving up rather than one minting a handful of new outliers. Fewer physicians sit in the $2 million to $5 million range because more of them have moved past it.
That movement is not spread evenly. Physicians in procedural specialties are far more likely to have crossed the $5 million mark, and Medscape found that physicians who perform high volumes of procedures reported higher net worth than those in more patient-focused specialties. Radiology and orthopedics tie for the top spot, with 39% of physicians in each specialty reporting a net worth of $5 million or more. Cardiology follows at 35%, then anesthesiology at 31% and plastic surgery at 29%.
At the other end, 9% of rheumatologists report a net worth of $5 million or more, roughly one-fourth the rate of orthopedic surgeons. Pediatrics and physical medicine and rehabilitation each sit at 10%, and family medicine at 11%.
Medscape’s specialty-level reports show the climb happening within the top-earning fields, too. The share of orthopedists worth $5 million or more rose to 39% in 2026 from 35% in 2024. Among cardiologists, that share climbed to 35% from 29%, while the share of cardiologists worth less than $500,000 fell to 12% from 18%.
The wealth gains come alongside rising compensation at the top of the pay scale. Neurosurgeons earn an average of $829,161, according to Doximity’s 2026 Physician Compensation Report, a 10.7% increase over the prior year. Ten specialties now average more than $600,000. SullivanCotter’s 2026 survey found median total cash compensation for adult medical specialties has grown 25.2% over five years, and the average starting salary for physicians has reached $419,000, according to AMN Healthcare, with signing bonuses offered in 87% of search engagements. Even so, no specialty has yet crossed $1 million in average annual pay.
The gains are also uneven across physician demographics. Among male physicians, 22% report a net worth of $5 million or more, compared with 14% of female physicians. Female physicians are also more likely to fall at the bottom of the scale: 29% report a net worth below $500,000, compared with 19% of male physicians.
By race and ethnicity, 21% of white physicians and 18% of Asian American physicians report a net worth of $5 million or more. That share is 10% for both Black and Hispanic/Latinx physicians, who are also the most likely to report a net worth under $1 million, at 48% and 53%, respectively.
Where that wealth sits says something about how it was built. Retirement accounts make up the largest share of physicians’ net worth, at 38%, followed by homes and other real estate at 27%. Financial investments outside retirement accounts account for 14% and cash for 10%. Business equity and other nonfinancial investments make up just 2%.
That profile looks nothing like the top of the physician wealth ladder. Of the 15 healthcare billionaires on the 2026 Forbes 400 list, four are physicians, and each built a fortune on equity in a company rather than clinical income. Thomas Frist Jr., MD, who co-founded Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare with his father in 1968, ranks No. 32 with a net worth of $33.6 billion. Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, who leads ImmunityBio and NantWorks, ranks No. 151 at $10.3 billion.
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