The 2026 National Resident Matching Program’s Specialties Matching Service confirmed gastroenterology as one of the most sought-after fellowships in graduate medical education.
Of 759 positions offered across 254 programs, 755 were filled, placing GI among the highest-demand subspecialties in the SMS. Only four programs had at least one unfilled position.
Here are four key takeaways from the 2026 Match results in gastroenterology:
1. The specialty is overwhelmingly filled by U.S. graduates, but international medical graduates play a meaningful role
Of the 755 filled positions, U.S. MD graduates accounted for 421 (55.8%), the largest single group. U.S. DO graduates filled 114 positions (15.1%), while non-U.S.international medical graduates filled 162 (21.5%) and U.S. IMGs filled 58 (7.7%). Canadian graduates accounted for a very small share.
Gastroenterology’s U.S. MD fill rate, 55.5%, is notably lower than surgical subspecialties such as colon and rectal surgery’s 73.6% or pediatric surgery’s 89.4%.
2. Competition has remained intense and stable over five years
Gastroenterology has maintained a fill rate above 99% every year from 2022 to 2026:
| Year | Positions offered | Overall fill rate | U.S. MD fill rate |
| 2022 | 616 | 99.7% | 60.2% |
| 2023 | 657 | 99.8% | 59.4% |
| 2024 | 690 | 99.7% | 57.1% |
| 2025 | 727 | 99.6% | 55.6% |
| 2026 | 759 | 99.5% | 55.5% |
The number of positions has grown by 23% since 2022, yet the overall fill rate has barely moved. Applicant volume has grown commensurately, with 1,247 active applicants ranking GI as their preferred specialty in 2026, up from 974 in 2022.
3. Non-U.S. IMGs have steadily increased their presence
Non-U.S. IMGs filled 162 positions in 2026, 21.3% of all filled spots, up from 17.4% in 2022. Their representation has grown each year alongside the overall expansion of the field.
By contrast, the U.S. MD fill rate has declined modestly, from 60.2% in 2022 to 55.5% in 2026, because the number of positions has grown faster than the pool of U.S. MD applicants. In absolute terms, U.S. MD graduates filled more positions in 2026 (421) than in 2022 (371).
4. Applicant rank-choice behavior reflects the field’s desirability
In the combined specialties Medicine Match, 1,247 applicants ranked GI, and 1,241 of them listed it as their preferred specialty. Of those preferring GI:
- 28.1% matched to their first-choice program
- 10.3% to their second choice
- 6.9% to their third choice
- 15.2% to a program ranked fourth or lower
- 38.5% did not match at all, despite preferring GI
That 38.5% unmatched rate among preferred-specialty applicants is the highest single-specialty failure rate in the field, underscoring how competitive gastroenterology remains even for applicants who have committed to it as their top choice. Only 9 of 1,241 preferred-GI applicants matched into a different subspecialty, meaning the vast majority who failed to match in GI did not land elsewhere in the Medicine Match.
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