The top metro areas for radiologists to practice
A new analysis released on Tuesday explores the top 10 metropolitan areas for radiologists to practice.
Salary transparency firm Marit Health analyzed factors including regional physician compensation, medical liability insurance premiums and housing affordability to reach its conclusions. It also factored in family friendliness, commute times, and health and fitness scores.
Minnesota’s Twin Cities were labeled as the best geography for radiologists to land a gig, ahead of Dallas-Fort Worth and Portland, Oregon.
“For physicians with flexibility on location, the data makes a clear case, and Minneapolis earns its top ranking,” Marit Health said in a blog post published July 7. “Strong compensation, below-average malpractice premiums, short commutes, and high marks for family friendliness (the factors that hit a physician's schedule and bottom line most directly) all point in the same direction.”
Minneapolis-St. Paul also ranked No. 1 across the other four specialties analyzed: anesthesiology, emergency and internal medicine, and pediatrics. Meanwhile, Portland also was No. 2 across anesthesiology, EM and pediatrics, while Dallas took the second spot in internal medicine. Minneapolis particularly ranked well for physician compensation, commutes, insurance costs and family friendliness, Marit noted. However, the Twin Cities were “middle of the pack” when it came to housing affordability and health/fitness opportunities.
Dallas generally outranked Portland when it comes to salaries and affordability, but at the cost of longer commutes and lower health/fitness scores. Both cities were similar in terms of insurance premiums and family friendliness. Marit also highlighted Richmond, Virginia, as a “surprise contender, especially for pediatrics and radiology.” The community scored high marks for its short commutes, housing affordability and reasonable insurance rates. This puts Richmond on par with other larger metros such as Seattle and Chicago, despite it generally offering lower salaries.
Marit compiled its list using its own salary and job listings for full-time, experienced (3+ years), employed (w-2), nonacademic radiologists. It also gathered median home values from Zillow, median commute times from the U.S. Census Bureau, and insurance costs from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. City-level family friendliness and health and fitness rankings also came from Marit’s data.
Here are the top 10 metro areas for radiologists in 2026:
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
- Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
- Portland, Oregon
- Richmond, Virginia
- Washington, D.C.
- San Francisco, California
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Chicago, Illinois
- Seattle, Washington
- Boston, Massachusetts
Marit also previously released an analysis of its data in February, showing that female radiologists earn about $94,000 less than their male colleagues. Another study from the company released last September said that radiologists earn the second highest on-call pay among physicians, behind only neurosurgeons.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.