Female representation in radiology continues to trend upward, new residency data show

Female representation in radiology continues to trend upward, according to new data from the National Resident Matching Program released May 29. 

Women accounted for about 28.3% of interventional radiology applicants this cycle, up 5.4 percentage points from the figure tallied in 2022 (at 22.9%). The gain was even more pronounced in diagnostic imaging, climbing 10.1 percentage points since 2022, up to 36.6%. 

Final numbers were similar, with 36.6% of female applicants matching in diagnostics (up from 29.9% in 2022) and 28.7% matching in interventional imaging (up from 24.5%). 

“Radiology has long lagged other specialties in gender diversity,” Francis Deng, MD—a Baltimore-based radiologist, researcher, former NRMP board member and match expert—told Radiology Business by email. “The discrepancy arises at the point of students choosing which specialties to apply for. The match data are the earliest window into the future radiologist workforce demographics. While it is only a short-term trend over four years (the NRMP only started collecting demographic data in 2022), the latest numbers do suggest the funnel is tightening.”

More women are choosing to apply to diagnostic radiology, which may be driven by a combination of general trends in medical student demographics. The proportion of all students who are women has increased steadily and, for several years, women have been the majority, added Deng, a neurorad and assistant professor with Johns Hopkins. Improved recruitment and mentoring of female medical students likely also have played a part, he added. 

“Though still well below gender parity, surpassing one-third female representation in back-to-back years marks a meaningful shift for a field historically dominated by men and foreshadows a more diverse radiology workforce in the coming years,” Deng told Radiology Business. 

As an aside, he added, there is no evidence that pro-diversity selection measures taken by residency program directors are driving the increase in female representation. While in years past from 2022 to 2024, women applicants had slightly higher match rates in diagnostic imaging, there was not a difference in female representation among applicants and matched candidates. Deng previously analyzed some of these trends in a study published by the Journal of the American College of Radiology in October.

Overall, there were 52,498 applicants who registered for the 2025 Main Residency Match, the highest figure on record. Of those, 47,208 certified rank-order lists of programs, an increase of 2,355 from last year, the NRMP said. Among programs, the number of certified positions offered grew to a record figure of 43,237. Of those, 40,041 were first-year (PGY-1) positions, an all-time high and increase of 1,547 over 2024. Almost half of the increase is attributed to internal medicine, which added 671 positions in this year’s match. 

After the matching algorithm was processed, 37,667 of the 47,208 applicants obtained first-year positions, NRMP reported recently. This represents a 79.8% match rate. All combined radiology programs offered a total of 1,451 positions this year, an all-time high for Match Day and 5.2% year-over-increase, Radiology Business reported in March.

 You can find more about the latest National Resident Matching Program data release here, including the full results report and a recorded webinar that provides further insight.