The National Residency Match Program has released its results for the 2026 appointment year, its largest in the program’s 42-year history with more than 15,000 applicants.
Four new subspecialties joined the Specialties Matching Service, including bone and soft tissue pathology, hematopathology and molecular genetic pathology. A new single-specialty match for forensic psychiatry was also introduced.
Here are 10 other data points from this year’s Match results:
1. Of the 15,358 positions offered, an increase of 738 positions (5%) from the 2025 appointment year, 12,963 (84.4%) were filled. Just over half of the position increase is attributable to the new subspecialties that joined the SMS.
2. Of the 6,606 programs that submitted certified rank order lists, an increase of 272 programs from last year, 4,993 (75.6%) filled all their positions.
3. There were 26 subspecialties that filled 90% or more of the positions offered while an additional 49 subspecialties filled 75% or more positions.
4. Eight subspecialties (geriatric medicine, medical genetics, adolescent medicine, child abuse, pediatric endocrinology, pediatric nephrology, pediatric rehabilitation medicine, and emergency radiology) filled fewer than 50% of their positions.
5. The five specialties with the highest percentages of positions filled by U.S. citizen graduates of international medical schools (U.S. IMGs) include critical care Medicine, geriatric medicine, developmental and behavioral Pediatrics, interventional cardiology, and endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism.
6. The five specialties with the highest percentages of positions filled by non-U.S. citizen graduates of international medical schools (non-U.S. IMGs) include Nephrology, Interventional Cardiology, Molecular Genetic Pathology, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, and Hematopathology.
7. The number of U.S. MD graduates matched was 6,947, an increase of 139 from 2025.
8. The number of U.S. DO graduates matched was 2,150, an increase of 215 from 2025.
9. Among U.S. IMGs, 1,377 matched, an increase of 27 from 2025.
10. Among non-U.S. IMGs, 2,451 matched, an increase of 199 from 2025.
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