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Best and worst states for doctors in 2019: See where your state landed

Physicians in the Great Plains and Midwest states tend to have higher wages and the least expensive malpractice insurance, WalletHub analysis finds.

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Source: WalletHub
This interactive map allows you to hover over each state to see its ranking; 1 is considered the best state for physicians, according to the analysis, and 51 is considered the worst. Source: WalletHub

If you’re a physician in Montana or Wisconsin, your job satisfaction is likely significantly higher than it would be if you resided in Washington, D.C. or New York, according to personal finance website WalletHub, which recently released its 2019 list of the best and worst states for doctors.

After examining average annual wages, projected competition, the cost of malpractice insurance and other metrics in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., WalletHub ranked each state for physician-friendliness based on two key dimensions: “opportunity and competition” and “medical environment.”

The opportunity and competition category comprised factors such as physician wages, hospitals per capita and the insured population rate, while the medical environment category took into account aspects such as the quality of public hospitals, the punitiveness of state medical boards and malpractice issues. Learn more about the methodology here.

Physician wages, adjusted for cost of living, are highest in South Dakota and Mississippi and lowest in New York and Washington, D.C., WalletHub found. Another key finding: Malpractice insurance is priciest in Illinois and New York and most affordable in Nebraska and South Dakota.

With the exception of Idaho and Mississippi, Great Plains and Midwestern states filled out WalletHub’s top 10 list, while its bottom 10 included several coastal states with heavily populated urban areas and a high cost of living.

Here are 2019’s top 10 best states to practice medicine in, according to WalletHub:

1. Montana
2. Wisconsin
3. Idaho
4. Minnesota
5. Iowa
6. South Dakota
7. Kansas
8. Nebraska
9. Mississippi
10. North Dakota

Here are 2019’s 10 worst states to practice medicine in, according to WalletHub:

42. Vermont
43. Massachusetts
44. Maryland
45. Delaware
46. Hawaii
47. Connecticut
48. New Jersey
49. Rhode Island
50. Washington, D.C.
51. New York

View the full list of all 50 states and Washington, D.C., at WalletHub.

Related reading:

These 10 US cities saw the highest doctor pay growth in 2018

The 10 cities where doctors are most in demand

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