Dermatologist

The skin, hair and nail doctor. Five years of residency, regular hours, and one of the hardest residencies in Canada to get into.

Typical pay: $311,000a year
Time to qualify: 11 to 13 yearsafter high school
Demand: Good
Licence needed: Yesregulated job

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Quick answers

How much does a dermatologist make in Canada?

The median pay is about $311,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $126,000 at the lower end to about $607,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.

How long does it take to become a dermatologist in Canada?

11 to 13 years after high school, on the usual route.

What does it cost to become a dermatologist?

$88,500 to $164,500 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.

Do you need a licence to work as a dermatologist in Canada?

Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.

What is the job outlook for a dermatologist in Canada?

Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.

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Dermatologist salary in Canada

What you earn and what it costs to get there.

What dermatologists make

Median

$311,000

Lower end

$126,000

Upper end

$607,000

Job Bank does not give dermatologists a figure of their own. It pools them with all medical specialists: a median of about $311,000 a year (low $126,000, high $607,000) for 2023 to 2024. Most doctors in Canada bill the provincial health plan, and published billing figures are gross payments before office and practice costs, not take-home pay. Cosmetic work is paid privately by patients and is not part of provincial billing.

What the health plan pays

About $414,000

Median gross clinical payment, dermatology doctors, 2024 to 2025

CIHI (Canadian Institute for Health Information) counts 731 doctors in this group. The middle 60% were paid $183,000 to $733,000. This is billing before office, staff and other practice costs, not take-home pay. Read from CIHI's data tables, downloaded in a browser with Claude in Chrome on 6 November 2026, because cihi.ca refuses our checker.

During residency

$73,000 to $99,000

A year in Ontario from July 1, 2025, in postgraduate years 1 to 5 (PGY1 to PGY5), over the 5 years of dermatology residency

Set by the 2023 to 2026 agreement between PARO (Professional Association of Residents of Ontario) and Ontario's teaching hospitals, which ran to June 30, 2026. These are its latest published rates. Other provinces have their own agreements and pay scales.

Private-pay work

Not covered by medicare

Botox, fillers, laser and cosmetic procedures are paid by the patient

Some dermatologists do none of it. Others build a practice that is mostly cosmetic.

What it costs to get there

Undergrad degree (3 to 4 years): $7,000 to $10,000 a year
Medical school, the MD (doctor of medicine), 3 to 4 years: $15,000 to $28,000 a year
MCAT (medical school admission test), applications, interviews: $2,000 to $5,000
Licensing exam (the MCCQE, the national medical exam) and the Royal College certification exam: $1,500 for the MCCQE, plus several thousand for the Royal College exam

Roughly, all in

$88,500 to $164,500

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

The low end is a three year undergraduate degree and the shortest medical school at the cheapest tuition, plus the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test), the MCCQE (Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination) and the Royal College certification exam. The high end is a four year degree and a medical school near $28,000 a year with the full set of application, interview and exam fees. The years of dermatology residency after medical school are paid work, so they add training time but no tuition. Typical debt at the end of medical school is $80,000 to $150,000 once living costs and interest are counted, and office equipment, lasers above all, comes later.

Typical debt at the end of medical school is $80,000 to $150,000. Setting up an office adds equipment costs later, especially for lasers.

Benefits

Pension only if salaried
Almost all dermatologists are self-employed. Ontario residents are in HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) during training.
Union contract during residency
Provincial residents' associations negotiate pay, call limits and leave.
Malpractice coverage
Through the CMPA (Canadian Medical Protective Association), mostly reimbursed by the province. Fees are low for dermatology.
Office hours
Almost no nights, weekends or emergencies. One of the best lifestyles in medicine.

How to become a dermatologist in Canada

The exact path from high school to qualified.

The path to becoming a dermatologist, step by step

Same road as every doctor, then a match with only 32 spots across Canada in 2026.

1
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Top marks in biology, chemistry, math and English. You need a very high average for a science undergrad.
2
Bachelor's degree
3 to 4 years
Any major works. Keep a GPA (grade point average) above 3.8, volunteer, do research. Write the MCAT (medical school admission test).
3
Medical school, the MD (doctor of medicine)
3 to 4 years
Admission is very competitive, and most applicants are turned down. Classes, then clinical rotations. Dermatology electives and research are close to required for the match.
4
Dermatology residency
5 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). Skin clinics, skin surgery, pathology of skin, pediatric skin and hospital consults.
5
Certification and licence
End of residency
Pass the Royal College exam to become FRCPC (Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada), then register with your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons.

High school courses that help you become a dermatologist

Biology and chemistry
Required for nearly every pre-med path.
Calculus and functions
Physics
Tested on the MCAT (medical school admission test). Lasers are physics.
Visual arts
Dermatology is diagnosis by looking. A trained eye for colour and pattern is the core skill.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school: 11 to 13
Med school admission: Very competitive, most applicants are turned down
Residency match: Among the most competitive in Canada: 32 spots in the 2026 CaRMS (residency matching service) match
Total tuition: $66,000 to $152,000
Paid while training?: Only during residency

Heavily regulated

You need a licence from your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons to practise, and Royal College certification to call yourself a dermatologist. Many cosmetic clinics are run by other kinds of doctors or by nurses; only a certified dermatologist can use the title. The Royal College credential is national, so moving provinces is mostly paperwork.

Quebec routeIn Quebec? The route is different. 2 more cards.

The path in Quebec

In Quebec you apply to medical school straight from CEGEP (public college), with no bachelor's degree first.

1
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V math (Technical and Scientific, or Science option), chemistry and physics. These are the entry courses for the CEGEP (public college) science program.
2
Science DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
A 2 year CEGEP (public college) program (200.B1), offered in English at Dawson and the other English colleges. Take the biology and chemistry courses medical schools ask for.
3
Medical school, straight from CEGEP
4 to 5 years
No bachelor's degree needed. McGill and Montréal start with a 1 year preparatory year, Laval and Sherbrooke do not. You need a top R-score (the CEGEP ranking score), the Casper test and interviews.
4
Dermatology residency
5 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service), as in the rest of Canada. McGill trains in English, Montréal, Laval and Sherbrooke in French. The first year or so covers internal medicine and related fields.
5
Royal College exam and CMQ (Collège des médecins du Québec) permit
End of residency
Pass the Royal College exam. The CMQ, the Quebec college of physicians, then issues your permit and specialist certificate once you show French. A Quebec high school diploma counts.
6
Get a hospital position
Before you start
Every specialist working in a Quebec hospital must hold a spot in its PEM (plan d'effectifs médicaux, the medical staffing plan). The health ministry approves how many each hospital gets.

Dermatology residencies in Quebec

McGill University: 5 years, in English, at four Montreal teaching hospitals including the Montreal Children's
Université de Montréal: 5 years, in French, at four Montreal hospitals including Sainte-Justine
Université Laval: 5 years, in French, at Laval's teaching hospitals
Université de Sherbrooke: 5 years, in French. The first 2 in Sherbrooke, the last 3 in another Quebec program

The French programs expect strong spoken and written French. Sherbrooke asks for the top level, C2, or an exemption.

What helps you get ahead as a dermatologist

Things you don't need, but that help.

Fellowships that change the job

Optional 1 to 2 year add-ons after residency.

Mohs surgery
Remove skin cancers layer by layer while checking each under the microscope. Procedure-heavy.
Pediatric dermatology
Eczema, birthmarks and rare genetic skin disease in children.
Dermatopathology
Read skin biopsies under the microscope.
Cosmetic and laser dermatology
Private-pay procedures. Business skills matter as much as medical ones.

Nice-to-haves before med school

Research experience
Dermatology programs weigh publications heavily. Start early.
Fine motor skills
Drawing, sewing, instrument playing. Skin surgery is delicate.
French
Opens Ottawa, New Brunswick and Quebec programs.
A backup plan
Most students who want dermatology do not match to it. Have a second specialty you would be happy in.

What being a dermatologist is really like

Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.

What a dermatologist does day to day

Thirty to fifty patients, most visits 5 to 15 minutes: acne, eczema, psoriasis, warts, rashes nobody else could figure out, and full-body checks for skin cancer. You biopsy suspicious spots, freeze or cut out others, and prescribe. One or two half-days a week may be minor surgery or cosmetic work. Home by 5 p.m. most days.

The honest pros and cons of being a dermatologist

The good

Regular hours and almost no emergencies
A mix of public and private pay
You can see a problem and often fix it the same visit
Skin cancer caught early is cured, and you catch a lot of it

The hard parts

The residency match is a long shot even for top students
Very high patient volume can feel like a treadmill
Waitlists to see you can be a year long, and patients are frustrated
A decade of school and six figures of debt

Work life

Typical hours: 40 to 50 a week, weekdays
Remote work: Some photo-based virtual consults
Physical demand: Low
Unionized: Residents yes, attending doctors no

Similar paths

Things nobody tells you about being a dermatologist

Things people don't tell you.

The most common cancer

Counting all types, skin cancer is the most common cancer in Canada. Most is curable if caught early, which is why dermatologists spend so much time looking at moles.

The largest organ

Your skin weighs about 4 kilograms and covers about 2 square metres. Dermatologists learn to recognize thousands of named conditions that show up on it.

How a dermatologist compares

Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.

More health careers in Canada

Doctors first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.

Where these numbers come from

Last checked November 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.