Physician burnout declined for the third year in a row, with 41.9% of physicians reporting at least one symptom of burnout in 2025, a new report from the American Medical Association (AMA) found.
That’s down from 43.2% of physicians in 2024 and 48.2% in 2023, according to the organization.
Nearly 19,000 physicians from 106 health systems across the U.S. were surveyed from January to December 2025 for the AMA’s 2025 Organizational Biopsy. Thirty-five of the organizations are recognized health systems in the AMA’s Joy in Medicine Program, now in its seventh year.
The specialties reporting the highest burnout rates include emergency medicine (49.8%), urological surgery (49.5%), hematology and oncology (49.3%), obstetrics and gynecology (45.7%), radiology (45.2%), family medicine (45%), general surgery (43.8%), cardiology (43.5%) and gastroenterology (43.5%).
Lowest rates of burnout were reported among these five specialties: infectious diseases (23.3%), nephrology (29.3%), dermatology (31.5%), psychiatry (31.6%) and anesthesiology (39.2%).
Workplace stress also saw a decline in 2025. Nearly forty-three percent of physicians reported “feeling a great deal of stress” because of their job, though that’s down from 45.1% in 2024.
Job satisfaction remained stable amongst physicians between 2024 and 2025 at 76.5% and 77%, respectively. Moreover, 75.9% of respondents working full-time hours reported job satisfaction, while 78.1% of part-time physicians reported satisfaction.
“2025 marked another year of progress in reducing overall physician burnout levels,” said AMA President Bobby Mukkamala, M.D, in a statement. “This reflects broad gains in engagement, well-being, and perceived support across organizations. However, burnout varies widely by medical specialty, driven by differences in workload, administrative burden, clinical environment, staffing support, and the day-to-day realities of practice. Building effective, lasting solutions requires better understanding where physicians are struggling—and why.”