Robert C. Bowman, M.D.
The following graphic represents changes in birth origins and other characteristics in US allopathic medical student over the past 40 years.
Birth Origins and FP Choice for text
More details on the smaller groups below.
The rural background designation by AAMC involves towns of less than 10000 and may be a mixed group. However the consistency of the data collection indicates that those admitted from small towns have been declining in rural and urban areas. Again a concern about education. Those in rural areas by birth origin have been stable for decades. Minorities and rural born students were largely left out of the medical school expansion. Cost, Quality, Access, and Physician Workforce Expansion Both had decreases in probability of admission over this time period from 1970 - 1982 Probability of admission tables Most still believe that expansion improved distribution and diversity. It did not.
Newer medical schools created after the creation of family medicine and integrating primary care training did do better in admissions and physician distribution.
Note that age and birth origins are important interactions to understand
Younger students are far more likely to be urban and foreign born. Those likely to choose family medicine and other distributional careers and locations increase with each year of age.