In 2022, 442 Irish doctors were issued with temporary work visas for Australia. This is a significant number of doctors compared with the total that Ireland trains each year (725 graduated in 2021).
Ireland has a long history of doctor emigration. UK research estimated that 71% of Ireland’s medical graduates of 1950-66 had emigrated by 1969. There was little interest in measuring doctor emigration back then, and little has changed in the past half a century.
