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Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

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ACS
match day

Surgery Residencies Continue to Grow in 2025 Match

March 25, 2025

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Friday, March 21, US medical students learned where they matched. Breaking last year’s record, an all-time high 52,498 applicants registered in the 2025 Main Resident Match, representing a 4.1% increase since 2024.

The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) reported another large increase in non-US citizen international medical graduates (up 14.4%) and osteopathic seniors (up 4.5%), which drove much of the growth. The total number of certified residents grew to 47,208, which is a 5.3% increase against 2024.

The Match included 6,626 certified programs—another all-time high—offering 43,237 PGY-1 and PGY-2 training positions, including those offering two new specialties in Public Health and Preventative Medicine and Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The fill rate for all training positions was 94.3% (40,764) for all certified programs.

Surgery Specialties Remain Highly Competitive

Match data show that residencies in the surgical specialties are highly desirable, with fill rates of at least 98.9%.

Specialty

Fill Rate

Positions

Unfilled Positions

Orthopaedic Surgery

100%

929

0

Plastic Surgery (Integrated)

100%

221

0

Vascular Surgery

100%

102

0

Thoracic Surgery

100%

54

0

General Surgery

99.8%

1,778

4

Otolaryngology

99.7%

394

1

Obstetrics-Gynecology

99.1%

1,587

1

Neurological Surgery

98.9%

268

3

Despite the increase in positions, primary care saw some of the lowest fill rates, with Family Medicine at 85%, or 805 unfilled positions; Pediatrics at 95.3%, or 147 unfilled positions; and Internal Medicine at 96.7%, or 357 unfilled positions.

All Surgery Disciplines Grow, Led by General Surgery

The 2025 Match Day shows that available and filled positions for all surgical disciplines continue to grow. Available general surgery positions, in particular, have been rising steadily over the years, increasing 14% from 6 years ago. In 2020, 1,536 slots were offered, compared with 1,569 in 2021, 1,622 in 2022, 1670 in 2023, 1,717 in 2024, and 1,787 this year.

Match Day and growing the surgical workforce are areas of keen interest to the ACS. View Bulletin articles from the last 2 years to learn more: