Georgia Civic DataPhysicians by Specialty
Practicing physicians per 100,000 residents in each Georgia county, all physicians and core specialties, 2006-2024.
- 2006–2024
- biennial
- 1.0.0
- a1067a05febc
Overview
How many actively licensed physicians practice in each Georgia county and statewide, and physicians per 100,000 residents: all physicians, and the core specialties family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery, emergency medicine (from 2013) and psychiatry (from 2017), from the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce's license-renewal surveys, for 2006, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2024. No county figures are available for the years between.
Row grain: One row per year, county_fips, tract_geoid, specialty.
physicians_per_100k — Physicians per 100,000 Residents (rate_per_population)
The single headline value most answers want.
Variables
Every column in the fact table. The code is the exact field name the API returns.
| Column | Type | Unit | Range | Null? | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
year | integer | — | — | no | Year the board gives the figures: the year printed on its county table (2006, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2017) or the end year of its two-year license-renewal survey cycle (2020 = 2019-2020, 2022 = 2021-2022, 2024 = 2023-2024). See year_meaning.Full description▾Year the board gives the figures: the year printed on its county table (2006, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2017) or the end year of its two-year license-renewal survey cycle (2020 = 2019-2020, 2022 = 2021-2022, 2024 = 2023-2024). See year_meaning. |
county_fips | string | — | — | yes | 5-digit FIPS code of the county where the physicians practice, matched from the board's county name through the counties dimension. NULL on the Georgia (state) row.Full description▾5-digit FIPS code of the county where the physicians practice, matched from the board's county name through the counties dimension. NULL on the Georgia (state) row. |
tract_geoid | string | — | — | yes | Always NULL: the board reports by county. Kept for the health domain's standard key shape.Full description▾Always NULL: the board reports by county. Kept for the health domain's standard key shape. |
specialty | string | — | — | no | Physician specialty: all physicians, or one of the board's core specialties.Full description▾Physician specialty. all = every practicing physician, whatever the specialty (or none recorded); the other values are the board's core specialties, each the physician's primary reported specialty: family_medicine (printed Family Practice in 2006 and 2008), internal_medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics_gynecology (OB/GYN), general_surgery, emergency_medicine (from 2013) and psychiatry (from 2017). Subspecialties are not included (child and adolescent psychiatry is not psychiatry; pediatric cardiology is not pediatrics). The core specialties do not overlap but do not add up to all. all is missing in 2013 and 2015, when the board printed no all-physicians count. 8 allowed values▾
|
num_physicians | integer | — | yes | Actively licensed physicians practicing in the county in the specialty, as the board counts them from license renewals: printed in its county tables (2006-2017; three blank cells in 2013 and 2015 read as 0) or summed from its dashboard file (2020-2024; a county with no physician of a core specialty is 0). The state row is the sum of the 159 counties. The numerator of physicians_per_100k.Full description▾Actively licensed physicians practicing in the county in the specialty, as the board counts them from license renewals: printed in its county tables (2006-2017; three blank cells in 2013 and 2015 read as 0) or summed from its dashboard file (2020-2024; a county with no physician of a core specialty is 0). The state row is the sum of the 159 counties. The numerator of physicians_per_100k. | |
num_population | integer | — | yes | The county's population as the board gives it beside the counts: its population estimate for the year. For 2022 and 2024 it is the U.S. Census Bureau's county estimate as first published, for July 1, 2022 and July 1, 2023 (the 2024 rows divide by the 2023 estimate, which the board's 2024 county report labels 2023 Population); the 2013 and 2017 state totals also equal the Census Bureau's estimates for those years as first published. 2008 is from the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget; the board names no source for 2006, 2015 or 2020. Later Census vintages revise these estimates. The same on every specialty row of a county and year: never add it across specialties. The state row is the sum of the counties. The denominator of physicians_per_100k.Full description▾The county's population as the board gives it beside the counts: its population estimate for the year. For 2022 and 2024 it is the U.S. Census Bureau's county estimate as first published, for July 1, 2022 and July 1, 2023 (the 2024 rows divide by the 2023 estimate, which the board's 2024 county report labels 2023 Population); the 2013 and 2017 state totals also equal the Census Bureau's estimates for those years as first published. 2008 is from the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget; the board names no source for 2006, 2015 or 2020. Later Census vintages revise these estimates. The same on every specialty row of a county and year: never add it across specialties. The state row is the sum of the counties. The denominator of physicians_per_100k. | |
physicians_per_100k | number | — | yes | Practicing physicians in the specialty per 100,000 county residents.Full description▾Physicians per 100,000 residents: our calculation, num_physicians x 100,000 / num_population, unrounded. Matches every rate the board printed (2006-2017) and its dashboard's all-physicians rate (2020-2024) to the published precision, except two board inconsistencies: Barrow 2006 family medicine (printed 21.9, computed 23.6 from 14 physicians) and Union 2013 pediatrics (printed 0.0 for 1 physician). For several counties or years, pool as SUM(num_physicians) x 100,000 / SUM(num_population). In a small county one physician moves the rate a lot. |
Filters
Query parameters the fact endpoint accepts. Comma-separated values are OR within a parameter; multiple parameters AND together.
| Parameter | Kind | Allowed values | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
year | year_exact | any value | — |
year_min | year_range | any value | — |
year_max | year_range | any value | — |
detail | detail | countiesstates | enum-enforced, default: counties |
county_fips | foreign_key | any value | multi-value |
tract_geoid | foreign_key | any value | multi-value |
specialty | categorical | 8 allowed values▾
| multi-value, enum-enforced |
Example requests
Run these against the base URL — they return live data.
All rows (first page), counties level
curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/health/physicians_by_specialty"counties data for 2024
curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/health/physicians_by_specialty?year=2024"Filtered to specialty = family_medicine for 2024
curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/health/physicians_by_specialty?year=2024&specialty=family_medicine"One county (FIPS 13121), 2024
curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/health/physicians_by_specialty?county_fips=13121&year=2024&detail=counties"Download 2024 as CSV
curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/health/physicians_by_specialty?year=2024&format=csv"Notes & limitations
NULL handling
- Zero is a real, reported value.
Limitations
Only 2006, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2024: no county table from the board is available for the years between. Counts come from license-renewal surveys (self-reported). Specialties are the board's core list, which grew: emergency medicine from 2013, psychiatry from 2017, and no all-physicians total in 2013 or 2015. In 2022 and 2024, 2,195 and 1,860 physicians (7.9% and 6.7%) have no recorded specialty: they count in all but in no specialty, so specialty counts in those years may be low and a drop from 2020 (when every physician had one) can partly reflect missing specialties. A physician counts in one specialty, the primary one reported: subspecialists are not in the core values (child and adolescent psychiatrists are not in psychiatry, pediatric subspecialists not in pediatrics, gynecologic oncologists not in obstetrics_gynecology), and the core specialties add up to about half of all physicians, not to all. Physicians per 100,000 residents is our calculation from the board's counts and the board's own population figures (its estimate for the year: the Census Bureau's county estimates as first published in 2022 and 2024, which use the July 1, 2022 and July 1, 2023 estimates, and apparently in 2013 and 2017; 2008 from the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget), so it can differ from a rate on the latest Census estimates, which later vintages revise. It matches every rate the board printed to the printed 0.1 except two board inconsistencies: Barrow County 2006 family medicine (14 physicians, printed 21.9, computed 23.6) and Union County 2013 pediatrics (1 physician, printed 0.0). Three count cells printed blank in 2013 and 2015 (Murray pediatrics; Jenkins and Jones internal medicine) are read as 0, as their printed 0.0 rates and the 2015 totals show. State rows are the sum of all 159 counties, equal to the totals the board prints. In a small county one or two physicians move the rate a lot, and some county counts jump between editions (Chattahoochee, home of Fort Benning: 0 in 2020 and 2022, 92 in 2024); the source also changed from the board's county PDF tables (through 2017) to its dashboard file (2020 on), so compare the two eras with care. The board suppresses nothing: there are no NULLs, and a 0 is a real count (9 or 10 counties had no physician at all in 2020-2024). Physician demographics and Medicaid/Medicare acceptance are in the board's file but not in this table. tract_geoid is always NULL.