Every PA number that matters, with its source and its year.
Salary, schools, applicants, debt and the job market โ pulled from BLS, NCCPA, ARC-PA, PAEA and AAPA. If a number doesn't exist, I'll tell you that instead of making one up.
- 201,038 board certified PAs (NCCPA, Dec 2025)
- $135,880 median pay (BLS, May 2025)
- 362 accredited program locations (live)
- 91.5% first-time PANCE pass rate (NCCPA, 2025)
You've seen it. The "average PA student debt is $112,500" that shows up on forty websites with no primary source anywhere. The "32% acceptance rate" that isn't an acceptance rate at all.
The same handful of numbers get copied from blog to blog until nobody remembers where they came from. This page is the antidote.
Here's my promise: every number comes with a source and the year the data describes. Where the profession genuinely doesn't publish something, I say so โ because "nobody measures this" is more useful to you than a confident-sounding fake.
Bookmark it. Then dig into the interactive data hub below โ it's organized by topic, so jump straight to what you need. ๐
Who actually runs the PA profession?
Five organizations do most of the work โ and people mix them up constantly. Here's who does what, in plain English.
NCCPA
The only certifying body for PAs in the U.S. They write the PANCE, PANRE and PANRE-LA, and the Certificates of Added Qualification. Their annual Statistical Profile is the best data we have on who we are.
ARC-PA
Accredits PA programs. No ARC-PA accreditation, no PANCE for its graduates. Their tables are the only authoritative count of programs, and they move after every commission meeting.
PAEA
The education association. They run CASPA, publish the Program and Student Reports, and write the End of Rotation and End of Curriculum blueprints.
AAPA
Our professional society and lobbying arm. They publish the Salary Report and drive the state-by-state fight over practice laws.
APPAP
Covers PA residencies and fellowships. ARC-PA accreditation of postgraduate programs has been optional since 2020, so the accredited list is a small slice of what exists. Weighing one? Read our full guide to PA postgraduate programs.
PA History Society
Keeps the story of where we came from, starting with the first class at Duke in 1965. Worth an hour of your time if you've never read it.
PA programs are on ARC-PA probation right now (this count updates live). That's a high number, and it includes some names that would surprise you. Check any program's status yourself before you apply โ a school's marketing page will never tell you.
A caveat about PAEA data. Program Report 36 is still PAEA's most recent edition, and it's built on the 2021 program survey. Student Report 6 uses 2022 data. Anyone quoting "current PAEA figures" on tuition, class size or GPA is quoting those years, whether they say so or not. Every PAEA figure on this page is labeled with its real vintage.
Why does every source give a different PA salary?
Because they're measuring different things. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
- BLS says $135,880 (May 2025). The median wage employers report for 162,150 salaried PAs. The most rigorous number, and the backbone of every state and metro comparison.
- NCCPA says $125,000 (2025 profile). What PAs report themselves, across all their PA jobs, in banded ranges โ which is why NCCPA medians land on tidy numbers and so many specialties tie.
- AAPA says $140,000 (2025 income, 2026 Salary Report). Self-reported too, but as exact figures and total compensation.
None of them is wrong. They're different lenses, and the honest move is to show you all of them instead of picking the flattering one. What you should never do is average them, or put an NCCPA specialty number next to an AAPA one. Cardiothoracic surgery reads $162,045 in NCCPA's data and $184,072 in AAPA's. That gap is method, not disagreement.
Now the geography. Nine of the ten highest-paying metro areas are in California, topping out in San Jose at a $223,640 median ($207,660 mean, BLS May 2025). Before you start browsing Bay Area listings, know that cost of living reshuffles the state ranking: AAPA's own cost-adjusted ranking puts Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri on top, and our live BLS-based ranking also has Oklahoma first. A $223,000 salary in San Jose and a $130,000 salary in Tulsa are closer than they look. ๐
Want the full breakdown? Our PA salary report goes state by state with cost-of-living adjustments, and the hourly rate calculator tells you if a per-diem or 1099 offer is actually fair.
What are the best states to practice as a PA?
Big paychecks in expensive states can be an illusion. So we adjust every state's median PA pay for its cost of living (BLS wages ร the BEA's regional price parities). Here's where a PA's paycheck goes furthest:
| # | State | Cost-of-living adjusted | Actual median |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma | $155,448 | $136,550 |
| 2 | Vermont | $153,627 | $150,490 |
| 3 | Washington | $153,589 | $164,360 |
| 4 | Iowa | $153,563 | $134,770 |
| 5 | New Jersey | $152,282 | $165,690 |
| 6 | New Mexico | $151,737 | $139,920 |
| 7 | Oregon | $150,714 | $155,780 |
| 8 | South Dakota | $150,362 | $133,200 |
| 9 | North Dakota | $150,013 | $133,450 |
| 10 | California | $149,612 | $165,650 |
Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 state medians, adjusted with BEA regional price parities (2024). Updates live.
Notice Oklahoma: 18th in raw pay, first once you account for what things cost. Several top states also let experienced PAs practice without a specific supervising agreement (see shift #3 below), which is worth weighing alongside pay.
- PA salary by cost of living โ all 50 states, D.C. and 51 metro areas, with a buying-power calculator
- How much do PAs make? โ the full salary explorer
- Is my hourly rate fair? โ for per-diem, part-time and 1099 offers
- Find your state PA chapter โ your best local source for jobs and practice-law news
- The best websites for a PA job search
What are PAs actually practicing?
This is the number that keeps me up at night, and it gets almost no attention.
Family medicine's share of PAs, 2016 to 2025 (NCCPA). It's no longer the largest specialty in this profession โ surgical subspecialties passed it.
Primary care overall โ family medicine, general internal medicine and general pediatrics combined โ slipped from 23.7% in 2021 to 21.4%.
I work in a county health department clinic and at a homeless persons health project. I see what happens on the other end of that trend line. Every point that moves out of primary care is a patient somewhere who waits longer.
And I don't think PAs are choosing this in a vacuum. The share of newly certified PAs who say educational debt shaped their primary-care-versus-specialty decision nearly doubled in four years, from 13.3% to 23.4%. Among those still job hunting, it's 36%. When debt makes the call, it points toward specialty care by roughly two to one.
That's not a character flaw in new grads. That's a policy failure โ and it's fixable.
What does it take to get into PA school?
Here's the typical CASPA journey for an applicant who gets in (PAEA Student Report 6):
Nearly 29% are reapplicants. If you're staring down a rejection, sit with that one. You are in extremely good company.
Average GPA is 3.6 overall and 3.5 science. Average patient care hours of an entering class: 3,235. Average age at matriculation: 25.2.
There is no national PA school acceptance rate
Not from PAEA, not from CASPA, not from ARC-PA. The "33.8%" you'll find everywhere comes from Student Report 6 and means something else entirely: programs that accepted you divided by programs you applied to, averaged only across students who got in somewhere. Everyone rejected everywhere is left out by design. It measures how many acceptances successful applicants collected โ not your odds.
I'd rather you know that than repeat a number that makes you feel worse than the truth warrants.
"Average GRE 153 / 157 / 160"
The GRE analytical writing section is scored 0 to 6, so a 160 there isn't a low score โ it's an impossible one. The real averages: verbal 153.1, quantitative 152.7, analytical writing 4.1. (And plenty of programs don't want the GRE at all โ see PA schools that don't require the GRE.)
Building your application? Start with the PA school application timeline, track everything in the applicant logbook, and see who actually gets into PA school. When you're ready to choose where to apply, PA School Finder has current data on every accredited program.
What will PA school cost you, and what will you owe?
Tuition is where most websites get it wrong. They quote PAEA's last program survey, which is built on 2021 data. We track every program's published cost on PA School Finder instead, school by school, from each program's own website โ and the numbers below update automatically as schools change their prices.
$111,725
Median whole-program cost with required fees, in-state rate, across 327 accredited programs that publish it.
$95,122 โ $124,227
Half of all programs land in this range. The other half are cheaper or pricier โ sometimes a lot.
48 programs
cost under $75,000 all-in at the in-state rate. Most are public programs, so residency matters.
Tuition alone (no fees) runs a median of $106,805 in-state and $110,250 out-of-state. And remember, that's before rent, food and a car for 24โ30 months. Want to sort every program by cost? Use the PA Program Picker or filter by state on PA School Finder.
Source: PA School Finder program data, compiled from each accredited program's published tuition and fees. Updates live.
Median educational debt of a newly certified PA (NCCPA, 2024 new certificants; undergrad and grad combined). Mean $129,179. 87.6% carry some debt, and 32.3% owe $175,000 or more.
Here's the part that should make you angry: that median was also $137,500 in 2020. Four years with no movement, while starting salaries rose 21%.
For comparison, the median medical school graduate owes $215,000 (AAMC, Class of 2025) โ but 70% of MDs carry debt versus 87.6% of new PAs, and MDs get paid through residency.
The good news: the money to offset this is real and underclaimed. 5.6% of new PAs are NHSC scholars or in loan repayment programs โ triple the 1.8% in 2020. If you're willing to work where the need is greatest, the scholarships and loan repayment guide walks through every program: NHSC, HRSA, IHS, state programs and the military. I was an NHSC scholar. It shaped my whole career, and I'd do it again.
Should you do a PA residency?
Most PAs never do one, and you don't need one. But if you want to jump into a demanding specialty fast โ emergency medicine, critical care, surgery, oncology โ a postgraduate residency or fellowship can compress years of on-the-job learning into about a year.
369
active PA residency and fellowship tracks in our directory.
18
Accreditation is optional, so most good programs aren't accredited. Ask about outcomes instead.
$75,000
median, among the 140 programs that publish one.
Here's the trade-off nobody puts in the brochure: a year at a resident's stipend instead of a new-grad salary costs you roughly $40,000โ$60,000 in income. For some PAs that's the best money they'll ever spend. For others, a great first job with a strong mentor teaches the same things โ and pays for it.
Where the programs are, by specialty: critical care & trauma, emergency medicine, primary & urgent care, cardiology & cardiothoracic surgery, surgery, oncology & hematology, orthopedics, hospital medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry and more.
Find a PA residencyRead the residency guide
Source: PA School Finder residency directory (cross-checked against ARC-PA and APPAP). Counts update live. APPAP is the professional home for postgraduate programs.
Five big shifts reshaping the PA profession
The title change is real law in six states
AAPA's House of Delegates adopted "physician associate" in 2021. Since then it has moved from resolution to statute: Oregon (2024), Maine and New Hampshire (2025), and Iowa, Delaware and Alaska (2026). Alaska got there over a governor's veto. Kansas and Wisconsin recognize both titles without a full statutory change.
Federal law hasn't moved. "Physician assistant" appears in 658 sections of the Code of Federal Regulations; "physician associate" in exactly one. CMS, DEA and the VA are unchanged. AAPA's guidance: use "physician associate" at your discretion if your state has enacted it โ after checking your employer, licensing board, payors and malpractice carrier.
The PA Licensure Compact exists โ but doesn't work yet
30 states have enacted it, with Pennsylvania becoming the 30th in October 2026. That's remarkable momentum. But no privileges have been issued; the commission projects them for early 2027. If you read that PAs can already practice across state lines through the compact, that isn't true yet.
Ten states have cut the legal tether to a physician
Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming no longer require a specific supervisory or collaborative agreement. Most attach an experience gate โ 4,000 hours in Maine, 6,000 in Delaware and South Dakota, 8,000 in Montana.
Nine of them meet AAPA's full "Optimal" standard, which also requires a PA-inclusive regulatory board and direct payment. And Kentucky authorized Schedule II prescribing in April 2026.
The PANCE and EOR blueprints changed, and PANRE-LA isn't the default
A new PANCE content blueprint took effect for every exam from January 2025, with a new passing standard: fifteen organ-system content areas, eight task areas, and a new Professional Practice domain at 6%. Sections dropped from 121 to 110 while the disease list grew from about 616 to 681. Studying from anything built on the 2019 blueprint? It's out of date.
The End of Rotation exams changed too. PAEA moved its EOR exams to new blueprints in July 2026, realigned to the PANCE blueprint โ Internal Medicine, for example, is now organized around organ systems. If your EOR prep still follows the old topic lists, it's time to switch. (Smarty PANCE is fully updated to the 2025 PANCE blueprint and every new 2026 PAEA End of Rotation blueprint.)
On recertification, PANRE-LA is an option you apply for in year 6 to start in year 7 โ miss that window and you take the traditional PANRE. Both cost $350 and use the same blueprint. 84,044 PAs have enrolled across five cohorts, but NCCPA has never published a percentage, so be skeptical of anyone who quotes one.
Federal student loan caps could shrink the pipeline
A new federal student loan rule took effect July 1, 2026 that may limit how much future PA students can borrow. AAPA surveyed more than 4,500 PAs, students and pre-PAs: 86% relied on, or expect to rely on, federal loans.
This is the least-covered story on this list and possibly the most consequential. If the only way into this profession is borrowing, and borrowing gets capped, the profession narrows to people who already have money. That's the opposite of what got me here.
What's happening to PAs in the rest of the world?
The international picture changed more in the last two years than in the previous twenty, and almost all of it is the United Kingdom.
UK physician associates came under General Medical Council regulation in December 2024. Then, in July 2025, the Leng Review landed โ and it was not gentle. It recommended renaming the role "physician assistant," barred PAs from seeing undifferentiated patients outside defined protocols, required two years in secondary care before general practice, and mandated a named supervising doctor.
The fallout was fast. The Royal College of Physicians closed its Faculty of Physician Associates. At least seven universities suspended PA courses, PCN-employed PA numbers fell 16% from their 2024 peak, and the PA union filed a judicial review. The GMC registration deadline is 13 December 2026; after it, practising as a PA in the UK without registration is a criminal offence.
I don't say any of this with satisfaction. It's a cautionary tale about a profession scaling faster than its regulatory scaffolding, and every American PA should understand it.
Designated PAs a regulated profession in 2025, with registration scheduled to open in October 2026.
PAs are regulated in seven provinces, and British Columbia now licenses them for emergency departments.
The most mature framework in the world: full protected title, independent prescribing within specialty, and 2,465 registered PAs.
Ghana quietly has the largest PA workforce in Africa. Australia is effectively dormant โ no training programs and no registration.
Our series on the PA profession around the world goes deeper on each country.
What should every future PA read?
Numbers tell you where the profession is. These books tell you why it matters. They're the ones I keep handing to students โ and they'll make you a better clinician and a better interviewee.
Being Mortal
What medicine gets wrong at the end of life, and how to get it right. Required reading for anyone who wants to care for people, not just treat them.
When Breath Becomes Air
A neurosurgeon's memoir written as he faced his own diagnosis. You will not forget it.
The Checklist Manifesto
Why simple checklists save lives โ and a smart way to think about errors in every clinic you'll ever work in.
Rough Sleepers
Dr. Jim O'Connell and decades of caring for Boston's homeless. I care for unhoused patients every week, and this one hits home.
Anything by Yuval Noah Harari
I love every one of his books. Start with Sapiens โ a sweeping history of us that will change how you think about people, and you'll be seeing a lot of them.
Anything by Malcolm Gladwell
I've read every one of his books. Great for curiosity, great for interview small talk, and great for thinking differently.
How to Write Your Physician Assistant Personal Statement
My own book, for the one part of your application you fully control.
Want more? Here's my big list of the very best books for PAs โ clinical references, study guides and the books that shaped me.
Where PAs read and argue
- JAAPA โ the peer-reviewed clinical journal, published monthly by AAPA.
- The Journal of PA Education โ PAEA's journal, for the education side of the house.
- AAPA News Central โ where profession news breaks first.
- The Physician Assistant Forum โ still the most active place PAs, students and pre-PAs talk to each other honestly.
When do these numbers change?
Every source on this page releases on its own schedule. Here's the calendar, so you know what's coming:
| Source | What it updates | Usually lands |
|---|---|---|
| BLS OEWS | National, state and metro PA wages | Spring |
| NCCPA Statistical Profile | Workforce, income, specialty mix | May (by-specialty edition in late summer) |
| AAPA Salary Report | Total compensation | May |
| NCCPA new graduates | Debt, job search, first jobs | Fall |
| BLS Employment Projections | Ten-year job growth | Late summer |
| ARC-PA | Program counts and accreditation status | After each commission meeting |
| PAEA reports | Tuition, class size, applicant profile | Program Report 37 is overdue |
| CASPA | New application cycle | Late April |
Two things I'm watching closely: the first PA Licensure Compact privileges, projected for early 2027, and how the UK settles after its December 2026 registration deadline.
Spot a number that's gone stale before I do? Tell me. I'd genuinely rather be corrected than be wrong in public.
Turn these numbers into your next move
- Who gets into PA school? โ the applicant profile in plain English
- How much do PAs make? โ the full salary explorer
- Healthcare experience required for PA school
- Scholarships, grants and loan repayment
- PA research reports โ every major source and how fresh it is
- Will AI phase out PAs? Not on my watch
So, is this still the best job in medicine?
I've been a PA since 2004, and I still think so. The data says this profession is growing far faster than the job market as a whole (BLS projects +21% from 2025 to 2035), that 87.6% of us are satisfied with the career, and that new grads find a job in a median of two months with two or more offers in hand.
It also says we're drifting out of primary care, that debt is doing the steering, and that a third of us report at least one symptom of burnout.
Both things are true. That's the PA life.
If you're on your way in and want a hand with the parts of the application you actually control, my team and I are here โ with options at every budget, because I remember what my budget looked like.
Personal statement editingMock interviewsPre-PA consulting
Thanks for reading. I'm here for you.
Stephen Pasquini, PA-C
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Straight out of the @family_med_pa post and @firstlineguide. I tried to find the citation here but didnโt see it.
Thanks so much Josh! I have updated the post and added the attribution with a link to @family_med_pa post. I really appreciate you bringing this to my attention.
Stephen
I like this information. It encapsulates the essential data and helps put our profession in perspective. I will print this out and give a copy to my employer, in a private practice.
Thank you for your kind words! I’m thrilled to hear that you found the guide useful and that it helped put our profession into perspective. It’s a great idea to share this information with your employer, especially in a private practice setting where understanding the role and impact of PAs can be crucial. If you or your employer have any questions or need further clarification, feel free to reach out. Let’s continue to elevate our profession together!
Have a wonderful day!๐คฉ
Stephen Pasquini PA-C