In most developed countries, the number of new medical graduates has increased noticeably in recent years. This is primarily in response to concerns about current or possible future shortages of doctors as well as to increase domestic supply and reduce reliance on foreign-trained personnel. According to the OECD's latest Health at a Glance report, the average number of medical graduates per 100,000 of the OECD's population stood at 12 in 2015. Several years ago, Ireland introduced new Graduate Entry Programmes that enabled students with an undergraduate degree in a certain subject to obtain a medical degree in only four years. That has seen the quota of Irish medical graduates rise sharply and it now boasts 24 per 100,000 of the population, the highest in the OECD. Denmark comes second for medical student output with 19.5 per 100,000 people while Australia has 15.8. Interestingly, Australia posted the fastest increase in students finishing medical school with its graduates growing 2.7 times between 2000 and 2015. The United States also saw its graduate numbers increase gradually over the past decade, though it is still far behind the likes of Ireland, Denmark and Australia with 7.5 per 100,000 people. As a result of projected doctor shortages, Japan has also launched its own initiative to increase enrolment in medical education, though it has yet to yield real results. In 2015, it had 6.4 medical graduates per 100,000 of its population. Source
