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Study: Over 1,370 Doctors Flee Israel in Brain-Drain Surge
(MENAFN) At least 1,370 doctors departed Israel between 2023 and 2025, according to new research from Tel Aviv University that points to a worsening exodus from the country's medical workforce.
An Israeli newspaper published the findings Sunday.
Under the study's methodology, a doctor is counted as having left if they spent more than 270 days outside Israel during their first year abroad and never returned for a stretch longer than three consecutive months afterward.
Prof. Itay Ater, one of the study's authors, said economists had been sounding the alarm since 2023 over a mounting exit of skilled workers as Israel weathered political and security instability.
He traced the earliest warning signs to the government's judicial overhaul campaign, noting that concern deepened sharply following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and the war that erupted afterward.
The research zeroed in on physicians over age 45 — typically specialists who have finished their training and shoulder much of the responsibility for mentoring younger doctors. One in five doctors who left during the three-year span fell into that older bracket, a pattern the study flagged as troubling.
Certain specialties absorbed outsized losses. Roughly 116 ophthalmologists, dermatologists, and ear, nose and throat specialists exited the country — 6.2% of all physicians in those fields — while 188 surgeons, close to 6% of that specialty's total workforce, also left.
The Tel Aviv region posted the steepest departure rate in the country, with 5.4% of its doctors leaving, the study found.
The data lands just after Israel's Finance Ministry reported last week that nearly 24% of specialist physicians at public hospitals are approaching retirement age in the near term. A further 25% have already passed retirement age yet remain on the job to help offset staffing shortfalls.
Ater cautioned that the direction of the trend, more than the current numbers, is what should raise alarm — and warned it could accelerate further after Israel's general election, set for Oct. 27.
The report adds to a growing body of evidence pointing to rising emigration out of Israel. A separate Tel Aviv University study released in August found that 268,509 Israelis left the country for at least three months between 2023 and 2025 — a figure Israel's public broadcaster KAN called a record.
Israeli media coverage has tied the surge in departures to the ongoing war, the soaring cost of living, and the political crisis stemming from the government's push to curb judicial authority.
A Kantar poll conducted for KAN in August found that roughly one in five Israelis had weighed emigrating over the prior two years, while 12% said the outcome of the coming election could sway their decision on whether to stay.
An Israeli newspaper published the findings Sunday.
Under the study's methodology, a doctor is counted as having left if they spent more than 270 days outside Israel during their first year abroad and never returned for a stretch longer than three consecutive months afterward.
Prof. Itay Ater, one of the study's authors, said economists had been sounding the alarm since 2023 over a mounting exit of skilled workers as Israel weathered political and security instability.
He traced the earliest warning signs to the government's judicial overhaul campaign, noting that concern deepened sharply following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and the war that erupted afterward.
The research zeroed in on physicians over age 45 — typically specialists who have finished their training and shoulder much of the responsibility for mentoring younger doctors. One in five doctors who left during the three-year span fell into that older bracket, a pattern the study flagged as troubling.
Certain specialties absorbed outsized losses. Roughly 116 ophthalmologists, dermatologists, and ear, nose and throat specialists exited the country — 6.2% of all physicians in those fields — while 188 surgeons, close to 6% of that specialty's total workforce, also left.
The Tel Aviv region posted the steepest departure rate in the country, with 5.4% of its doctors leaving, the study found.
The data lands just after Israel's Finance Ministry reported last week that nearly 24% of specialist physicians at public hospitals are approaching retirement age in the near term. A further 25% have already passed retirement age yet remain on the job to help offset staffing shortfalls.
Ater cautioned that the direction of the trend, more than the current numbers, is what should raise alarm — and warned it could accelerate further after Israel's general election, set for Oct. 27.
The report adds to a growing body of evidence pointing to rising emigration out of Israel. A separate Tel Aviv University study released in August found that 268,509 Israelis left the country for at least three months between 2023 and 2025 — a figure Israel's public broadcaster KAN called a record.
Israeli media coverage has tied the surge in departures to the ongoing war, the soaring cost of living, and the political crisis stemming from the government's push to curb judicial authority.
A Kantar poll conducted for KAN in August found that roughly one in five Israelis had weighed emigrating over the prior two years, while 12% said the outcome of the coming election could sway their decision on whether to stay.
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