Median pay for cardiologists 35 and younger fell about 19% in 2025, even as overall cardiology compensation reached a record high, according to an October MedAxiom’s 2026 Cardiovascular Provider Compensation and Production Survey.
Early-career cardiologists earned a median $476,850 in 2025, down from $586,769 in 2024. It was the second straight annual decline for the group. Over the same period, overall median compensation per full-time cardiologist rose nearly 5%, to $727,712 from $694,954, and every cardiology subspecialty posted its highest median pay in the survey’s history.
MedAxiom described the decline as surprising, given how hard cardiology programs are working to recruit physicians. The report doesn’t collect starting salary data, so it uses physicians 35 and younger as a proxy for early-career pay.
The drop comes as the cardiology workforce thins and ages. Physician full-time equivalents per 1,000 patients fell from 0.59 in 2021 to 0.50 in 2025. Advanced practice provider FTEs rose only from 0.33 to 0.39 over the same period. At the other end of the career curve, 27% of cardiologists are 61 or older, and fewer than half of those 71 and older still take calls.
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