Number of physicians in Italy 2021, by discipline

In 2021, in Italy, there were a total of approximately 243 thousand physicians working in the public and private health care sector combined. This figure included over 48 thousand general practitioners and 194 thousand specialist practitioners. Among the latter category, there were almost 16.2 thousand pediatricians, roughly 14.3 thousand cardiologists, and approximately 12.8 thousand anesthesiologists.

General practitioners

General practitioners in Italy represent one of the largest categories of physicians in Italy. Lombardy, which is the most populated Italian region, has the highest number of general practitioners, with almost six thousand. However, the region with the highest share of general practitioners was Sardinia, with 9.3 family doctors per 10,000 inhabitants.

Dentists

As of 2021, the estimated number of dentists in Italy was 49.7 thousand, slightly lower than the figure recorded in previous years. The density of practicing dentists was roughly 0.84 per 1,000 inhabitants during the same year. The Italian region with the lowest number of patients per dentist was Liguria, followed by Abruzzo and Lazio.