Geriatrician

The doctor for older adults. Memory, falls, frailty and too many pills, five years of residency after medical school, and more older patients every year.

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

Click through it

Start

Download PDFDownload the one-pagerPDF

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.

Compare where to study thisUniversities across Canada and Ontario colleges side by side for nursing and personal support Compare with other careersPay, time, cost, the path in and the pros and cons, side by side

Or jump to a part

Quick answers

How much does a geriatrician 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 geriatrician in Canada?

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

What does it cost to become a geriatrician?

$75,000 to $170,500 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.

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

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

Or read the whole thing here

Geriatrician salary in Canada

What you earn and what it costs to get there.

What geriatricians make

Median

$311,000

Lower end

$126,000

Upper end

$607,000

Job Bank does not give geriatricians a figure of their own. Its page for geriatricians uses the figure for all medical specialists: a median of about $311,000 a year (low $126,000, high $607,000) for 2023 to 2024. Provincial medians run from about $207,000 in Nova Scotia to about $344,000 in Manitoba and $343,000 in Quebec. 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. Geriatric visits are long and there are no procedures. Many jobs are salaried. It varies by province and by how you bill.

What the health plan pays

About $429,000

Median gross clinical payment, internal medicine, which CIHI groups with its subspecialties such as geriatric medicine, 2024 to 2025

CIHI (Canadian Institute for Health Information) counts 14,004 doctors in this group. The middle 60% were paid $219,000 to $726,000. 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 on the scale from July 1, 2025, in postgraduate years 1 to 5 (PGY1 to PGY5): 3 years of internal medicine, then 2 of geriatric medicine

Set by the 2023 to 2026 agreement between PARO (Professional Association of Residents of Ontario) and Ontario's teaching hospitals, the latest scale published. Other provinces have their own agreements and pay scales.

Long visits

An hour per new patient

A full geriatric assessment takes 60 to 90 minutes

You cannot rush a person with memory loss, six diagnoses and twelve medications. Long visits mean fewer patients billed in a day. Many geriatricians take a hospital salary instead.

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 two Royal College exams (internal medicine, then geriatric medicine): $1,500 for the MCCQE, plus two Royal College exam fees of several thousand dollars each

Roughly, all in

$75,000 to $170,500

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

The low end is three years of undergraduate study at $7,000 a year, a three year medical degree at $15,000 a year, and the exam and application fees. The high end is four years of each at the top of the range, plus MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) costs, the MCCQE (Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination), and two Royal College exams, one for internal medicine and one for geriatric medicine, at several thousand dollars each. The five residency years are paid work. Many graduates leave medical school with large debts.

Many graduates leave medical school with large debts. Five paid residency years help you pay it down.

Benefits

Pension often, if salaried
Hospital and academic contracts are common in geriatrics. Ontario residents are in HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) during training and often after.
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. About $2,600 a year in Ontario in 2026, low because there are no procedures.
Light call
Little overnight work. One of the more predictable schedules in hospital medicine.

How to become a geriatrician in Canada

The exact path from high school to qualified.

The path to becoming a geriatrician, step by step

You become an internal medicine doctor first, then a specialist in older adults.

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.
4
Internal medicine residency
3 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). Hospital wards, the ICU (intensive care unit) and clinics. In year 3 you apply to the subspecialty match.
5
Geriatric medicine residency, then certification
2 years
Memory clinics, falls and frailty, rehab units, long-term care and hospital consults on older patients. Pass the Royal College exams to become FRCPC (Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada) and register with your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons.

High school courses that help you become a geriatrician

Biology and chemistry
Required for nearly every pre-med path.
Calculus and functions
Physics
Tested on the MCAT (medical school admission test).
Psychology and English
Half the job is talking with frightened families and untangling memory problems.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school: 11 to 13
Med school admission: Very competitive, most applicants are turned down
Total tuition: About $66,000 to $152,000
Paid while training?: Only during residency, 5 years of it

Heavily regulated

You need a licence from your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons to practise, and Royal College certification in both internal medicine and geriatric medicine. Both are national credentials, so moving provinces is mostly paperwork. Quebec requires working French. Family doctors can also add a year of care-of-the-elderly training; that is a different credential and does not make someone a geriatrician.

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
Internal medicine, then geriatric medicine
5 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). 3 years of internal medicine, then 2 of geriatrics. Montréal, McGill, Laval and Sherbrooke share one 24 month network program, taught in French.
5
Royal College exam and CMQ (Collège des médecins du Québec) permit
End of residency
Pass the Royal College exams. 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.

Medical schools in Quebec

Université de Montréal: 1 preparatory year plus 4 years, in French, in Montreal or Trois-Rivières
McGill University: Med-P preparatory year plus 4 years, in English in Montreal or in French in Gatineau
Université Laval: 4 years (or 4.5 to 5 at your own pace in Quebec City), in French, in Quebec City, Lévis or Rimouski
Université de Sherbrooke: 4 years, in French, in Sherbrooke, Longueuil or Chicoutimi

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.

What helps you get ahead as a geriatrician

Things you don't need, but that help.

Focus areas that shape the job

Memory and dementia
Diagnosing and managing Alzheimer's and other dementias. The biggest single part of most practices.
Orthogeriatrics
Co-managing older patients with broken hips alongside surgeons. Shortens stays and saves lives.
Rehabilitation
Running a rehab unit that gets people home after a stroke or a fall.
Long-term care
Medical director of a nursing home. Part-time, steady, and desperately needed.

Nice-to-haves before med school

Time with older people
Volunteering in a seniors' home tells you fast whether this is your specialty.
Patience
Visits are slow by design.
French
Opens Ottawa, New Brunswick and Quebec programs.
Liking whole-person medicine
Geriatrics is about function and quality of life, not one organ.

What being a geriatrician is really like

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

What a geriatrician does day to day

A morning consult on the ward: an 88-year-old admitted after a fall, confused, on eleven medications. You spend an hour with her and her daughter, cut four drugs, order a walker and a home safety visit. Then memory clinic: two new patients with possible dementia, each a 90-minute assessment with cognitive tests and a family interview. Afternoon on the rehab unit or at a long-term care home. Lots of team meetings with nurses, therapists and social workers. Home at a normal hour.

The honest pros and cons of being a geriatrician

The good

Regular hours and light call
Needed more as the country ages
You often make people dramatically better just by stopping pills
Team-based work with nurses and therapists, not solo

The hard parts

Long visits and no procedures to bill
11 to 13 years of training after high school
Dementia does not get better, and families grieve in front of you
Long-term care homes are short of everything, and you feel it

Work life

Typical hours: 40 to 50 a week
Remote work: Some virtual follow-ups and nursing home calls
Physical demand: Low to moderate
Unionized: Residents yes, attending doctors no

Similar paths

Things nobody tells you about being a geriatrician

Things people don't tell you.

One in five Canadians is a senior

Statistics Canada estimates that 19.5% of Canadians, almost one in five, were 65 or older on July 1, 2025. In Newfoundland and Labrador it was 25.2%, the first province or territory past one in four. Every one of them is a potential patient.

Low risk, low insurance

In Ontario in 2026, a geriatrician pays the CMPA (Canadian Medical Protective Association) about $2,600 a year for malpractice protection. A general surgeon pays about $14,600, more than five times as much.

How a geriatrician 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.