To ensure access to quality health care for residents, Arkansas policymakers, healthcare organizations, and community leaders constantly work to train, recruit, and retain physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers. The development of a strong healthcare workforce pipeline requires strategic planning and insight into both the current health workforce landscape and future needs.
This dashboard, based on 2025 Arkansas State Medical Board licensure files and 2023 claims data, examines the supply, characteristics, and distribution of Arkansas’s specialty physician workforce. The dashboard is intended to inform policymakers, healthcare leaders, and other stakeholders so they can make evidence-based decisions about the training and recruitment of physicians to meet current and future demand.
The dashboard is part of ACHI’s ongoing efforts to support evidence-based decisions about Arkansas’s health workforce. Additional dashboards examine the state’s supply of primary care physicians, general surgeons, and obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN) physicians. We have also looked at the time, education, and training required on the multi-step journey to become a physician in Arkansas.
Residency Training Locations of Active Arkansas Physicians
Arkansas has made considerable progress in developing the state’s health workforce pipeline in recent years, with a special focus on educating and training future physicians, both through the development of new medical schools and efforts to expand residency positions.
Historically, physicians are generally more likely to practice in the state where they complete their residency. Among the 934 active physicians identified in Arkansas State Medical Board licensure data who reported a residency completion date between 2021 and 2025, 58% completed their residency in Arkansas.
Among physicians whose residency was in Arkansas:
- 56% attended an Arkansas medical school.
- 44% attended an out-of-state medical school.
Among physicians whose residency was out of state:
- 67% attended an out-of-state medical school.
- 33% attended an Arkansas medical school.
Active Physician Density by Specialty and Location in 2023
The table below summarizes data from the Association of American Medical Colleges’ U.S. Physician Workforce Data Dashboard. The data show active physician density per 100,000 residents by specialty category, allowing for comparison of Arkansas’s physician supply across different specialties relative to national rates and rates from two selected states.
Mississippi and Oklahoma were selected as comparison states because they face many of the same workforce and healthcare system challenges as Arkansas. All three states have comparable population sizes, large rural populations, geographic challenges that affect provider recruitment and retention, and similar socioeconomic and chronic disease burdens. These states also share similarities in the scale and structure of their graduate medical education programs. Exploring these national and state comparisons provides additional context to determine whether differences by specialty reflect broader regional patterns or suggest workforce gaps unique to Arkansas.
| Specialty Category | National (per 100,000) | Arkansas (per 100,000) | Mississippi (per 100,000) | Oklahoma (per 100,000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allergy and Immunology | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Anesthesiology | 13 | 9 | 8 | 11 |
| Cardiovascular Disease | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| Child and Adolescent Psychology | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology | 1 | 1 | Not reported1 | 1 |
| Clinical Neurophysiology | 1 | 1 | Not reported1 | 0 |
| Dermatology | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Emergency Medicine | 15 | 10 | 12 | 11 |
| Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Family Medicine/ General Practice | 37 | 49 | 31 | 40 |
| Gastroenterology | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| General Surgery | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Geriatric Medicine | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Hematology and Oncology | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Hospice and Palliative Medicine | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Infectious Disease | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Internal Medicine | 38 | 20 | 23 | 19 |
| Internal Medicine/ Pediatrics | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Interventional Cardiology | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Nephrology | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Neurological Surgery | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Neurology | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Neuroradiology | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Obstetrics and Gynecology | 13 | 9 | 11 | 9 |
| Ophthalmology | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Orthopedic Surgery | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Otolaryngology | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Pain Medicine and Pain Management | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Pathology | 6 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| Pediatric Anesthesiology | 1 | 1 | Not reported1 | 1 |
| Pediatric Cardiology | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Pediatric Critical Care Medicine | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Pediatrics | 19 | 13 | 12 | 12 |
| Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Plastic Surgery | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Preventive Medicine | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Primary Care | 97 | 87 | 70 | 74 |
| Psychiatry | 12 | 8 | 5 | 8 |
| Pulmonary Disease | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Radiation Oncology | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Radiology and Diagnostic Radiology | 9 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| Rheumatology | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Specialties with <2,500 Active Physicians2 | 31 | 16 | 14 | 24 |
| Sports Medicine | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Sports Medicine (Orthopedic Surgery) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Surgical Critical Care (Surgery) | 1 | 1 | Not reported1 | 1 |
| Thoracic Surgery | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Urology | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Vascular and Interventional Radiology | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Vascular Surgery | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Source: Association of American Medical Colleges’ U.S. Physician Workforce Data Dashboard.
Underlying sources: AMA Physician Professional Data, U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
- “Not reported” indicates values that have been masked due to small numbers.
- Aggregate category reported by AAMC for specialties with fewer than 2,500 active physicians nationally.