Happiness: Which U.S. physicians say they are losing ground

When it comes to happiness, several groups of U.S. physicians are reporting shrinking levels of satisfaction.

According to a Medscape survey released in July 2026, several groups of physicians surveyed this spring reported that they were less happy than three years ago. That included female physicians (32% said they were less happy), male physicians (28% were less happy) and physicians over 40 (32% said they were less happy).

The Medscape data showed that happiness among U.S. physicians varied by specialty. (To rate happiness, Medscape asked physicians to assess their odds of balancing personal happiness with their career.) The happiest physicians worked in dermatology (91% said they were happy), allergy/immunology (85%), gastroenterology (85%) and psychiatry (85

Among internists, 66% said they were happy. (The survey didn’t identify hospitalists.) That was the third lowest rate of happiness in Medscape’s survey, better than only emergency medicine (64%) and general surgery (60%). Specialties at the bottom of the happiness list were roughly 30 points below the happiest physicians.

Medscape’s analysis of the survey results said that while about 40% of all U.S. physicians reported that their levels of happiness haven’t changed in the last three years, the number of unsatisfied physicians is still big enough to be a problem. The report noted that “for a profession where burnout is at crisis levels, stagnation isn’t stability.”

The Medscape survey also found that just over half of all physicians (51%) were burned out, depressed or both. Just under one-third (31%) of all physicians said they were burned out, while 5% said they were depressed.

A Becker’s report  that looked at several years of Medscape data found big differences in happiness levels among U.S. physicians in the last few years. Among infectious disease physicians, for example, there was a 19% jump in the number of physicians who said they were happy. Rheumatology saw an 11% bump, while neurology saw a 9% increase.

Allergy and immunology saw a 9% drop in the number of physicians who said they were happy in the 2026 Medscape survey, while general surgery saw an 8% decrease and pathology saw a 5% drop.

Recent data on physician happiness and career satisfaction has shown a slightly rosier picture than Medscape’s recent survey. AMA survey data published this spring, for example, found that hospitalists had similar satisfaction rates as most physicians, with 76.3% saying they’re satisfied. Among all physicians, by comparison, 77% said they were satisfied.

The AMA data also reported that hospitalists felt a little less job-related stress than other physicians, with 40.5% of hospitalists feeling a lot of work-related stress compared to 42.9% of all physicians.

Hospitalists were also a little less likely to experience burnout, with 38.6% reporting at least one symptom of burnout compared to 41.9% of all physicians.

Looking back a little farther, data from the 2024 Today’s Hospitalist survey found that 88% of adult hospitalists said they were satisfied with their job. The numbers were even higher for pediatric hospitalists—92.3%. Academic hospitalists reported the same level of satisfaction: 92.3%.

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