About ten years of university and residency, then work that is needed in every province.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $232,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $91,000 at the lower end to about $435,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
9 to 11 years after high school, on the usual route.
$74,000 to $163,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
Very high demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$232,000
Lower end
$91,000
Upper end
$435,000
Job Bank's figure for family physicians is a median of about $232,000 a year (low $91,000, high $435,000) 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. Clinic owners pay rent and staff out of billings. It varies by province and by how you are paid.
About $322,000
Median gross clinical payment, family doctors, 2024 to 2025
CIHI (Canadian Institute for Health Information) counts 47,842 doctors in this group. The middle 60% were paid $151,000 to $516,000. 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.
$73,000 to $80,000
A year in Ontario from July 1, 2025, in postgraduate years 1 and 2 (PGY1 and PGY2), the 2 years of family medicine 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. It is real money, but you are also carrying the debt from medical school.
Up to $60,000 in loan forgiveness
Federal student loan forgiveness over 5 years, plus provincial and town incentives
The federal government forgives up to $60,000 of Canada student loans over 5 years for family doctors working in rural areas and small communities. Many provinces and towns that are short on doctors add signing bonuses and retention payments on top. The amounts vary.
Roughly, all in
$74,000 to $163,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a three year undergraduate degree plus a cheaper medical school, the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) and applications, and the two licensing exams. The high end is a four year undergraduate degree and an Ontario medical school charging close to twenty eight thousand dollars a year. Residency is paid work, so it adds no tuition, but it does come with several more years of modest income while the debt sits there. Quebec students at Quebec schools pay a fraction of this. Many students also borrow for living costs, and that debt and its interest are not counted here.
Many students also borrow for living costs, so debt at graduation is often higher than tuition alone. Quebec students at Quebec schools pay a fraction of this.
Fee-for-service
Bill the province per visit or procedure. Most common.
Capitation
Fixed amount per patient on your roster per year. Common in Ontario family health organizations.
Salary
Community health centres, some hospitals and the North.
Blended
Mix of the above, increasingly the norm.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Long, competitive, and very structured.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Top marks in biology, chemistry, math and English. You need a very high average to get into a pre-med undergrad.
Bachelor's degree
3 to 4 years
Any major works, but most take life sciences. Keep a GPA (grade point average) above 3.8, do research and volunteer. Write the MCAT (medical school admission test).
Medical school (MD, doctor of medicine)
3 to 4 years
19 schools in Canada, the newest opening in 2026. Admission is very competitive. Two years of classes, then two years of clinical rotations. McMaster and Calgary run 3-year programs.
Family medicine residency
2 years
Matched through CaRMS (the national residency matching service). Paid, supervised practice in clinics and hospitals.
Licensing and certification
During and after residency
Pass the MCCQE Part 1 (the national medical exam) and the CCFP exam (family medicine certification), then register with your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Biology and chemistry
Required for nearly every pre-med path.
Calculus and functions
Physics
On the MCAT (medical school admission test).
English
Communication is half the job, and the MCAT tests reasoning.
You need a licence from your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons to practise. The College can investigate complaints, restrict your licence, and requires ongoing education. Family doctors are also certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (the CCFP designation).
In Quebec you apply to medical school straight from CEGEP (public college), with no bachelor's degree first.
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.
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.
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.
Family medicine residency
2 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). 2 years in a university family medicine clinic, in a city or a region. An optional third year adds skills such as emergency or palliative care.
Family medicine exam and CMQ (Collège des médecins du Québec) permit
End of residency
Pass the CFPC (College of Family Physicians of Canada) exam. The CMQ, the Quebec college of physicians, then issues your permit once you show French. A Quebec high school diploma counts.
Get a spot in the territorial staffing plan
Before you start
New family doctors need approval under the PTEM (plans territoriaux d'effectifs médicaux, the territorial staffing plans) to work in a region. The main application window is December 1 to 15.
Montréal and Laval set a minimum R-score (the CEGEP ranking score) of 33 for CEGEP applicants in 2026. McGill's Med-P year is only for recent CEGEP graduates.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Emergency medicine (CCFP-EM)
One extra year. Work emergency room (ER) shifts.
Sports medicine, palliative care, addiction medicine
One-year enhanced skills programs.
Obstetrics
Delivering babies as a family doctor. Rewarding, and in short supply.
Hospitalist work
Caring for admitted patients on shifts instead of running a clinic.
Research experience
Publications help at some schools.
Long-term volunteering
Quality and consistency beat quantity.
French
Opens the door to Ottawa, New Brunswick and Quebec programs.
A rural background
Many schools give rural applicants a boost.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Twenty to forty patient visits, each about 10 to 15 minutes: check-ups, prescriptions, referrals, mental health, chronic disease. Then paperwork: charting, lab results, forms, phone calls. Family doctors who run their own clinic are also small business owners managing rent, staff and billing.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
About 5.9 million adults in Canada had no regular family doctor, nurse practitioner or primary care team in 2025, down from 6.5 million in 2022, by the OurCare survey estimates. Every province is trying to recruit family doctors.
It covers biology, chemistry, physics, psychology and critical reasoning. It is run by the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) in the United States.
CaRMS, the residency matching service, matches graduating students to residency spots using the same algorithm that won a Nobel Prize in economics. You rank programs, they rank you, the computer decides.
Quebec residents at Quebec medical schools pay around $4,000 to $5,000 a year, versus $25,000 or more at the University of Toronto.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Doctors first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
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.
Tell us about this page. A person reads every message.
No email app on this device? Use Gmail instead: report a mistake in Gmail or say what you like in Gmail.