🔶 Brain drain; nearly 1,400 doctors leaving Israel in three years

A new study from Tel Aviv University, carried out using data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, relies on demographic records and information related to medical licenses and examines the trend of doctors leaving Israel in recent years. Its findings have been reported by Israeli media.

According to the study’s estimates, 416 doctors left Israel in 2023, 530 doctors in 2024, and roughly 419 doctors in 2025 for at least one year. It is noted that the 2025 figure is still an initial estimate.

Comparing these numbers with the similar period in the previous decade shows that the number of doctors who left the country in 2023 to 2025 was about 94% higher than the 2013 to 2015 period. In 2013 to 2015, a total of 705 Israeli doctors had left for a similar duration.

This trend is not limited to young doctors or people who went abroad for training and specialization.

Based on the study’s findings, about 20% of the doctors who left Israel in 2023 to 2025 were 45 years old or older. The number of these individuals was reported as 281. This issue is important because part of the doctors who left consists of experienced and specialized personnel.

The reports related to the study also indicate that in 2023 and 2024, about two-thirds of the doctors who left Israel were graduates of medical schools within Israel. Therefore, the departure trend is not limited only to doctors trained outside Israel.

An increase in the departure of doctors across various specialties, including pediatrics, ophthalmology, and dermatology, as well as across different geographic areas in Israel, has been observed.