Orthopaedic Surgery
Restoring the musculoskeletal system, from arthroplasty to trauma, with a heavily operative week and near-universal subspecialty fellowship.
- Training
- 5 years
- Entry
- Direct from medical school
- Apply through
- ERAS
- Match through
- NRMP Main Match
- Accredited programs
- 216
Among the 31 specialties
What sets Orthopaedic Surgery apart most is interviews per position: 2.4×, more than 3 of 28.
Every rail is one dot per specialty, ordered lowest to highest, so all six read as one profile. Dots stack where specialties share a value. Orthopaedic Surgery’s is the coloured dot — point anywhere along a rail to name the others.
- Programs
- Programs: 216. More than 23 of the 31 specialties reporting; fewer than 7. Reported range across specialties: 5 to 820.
- Training length
- Training length: 5 years. Longer than 22 of the 31 specialties reporting; shorter than 3. Reported range across specialties: 2 years to 7 years.
- Interviews per position
- Interviews per position: 2.4×. More than 3 of the 28 specialties reporting; fewer than 24. Reported range across specialties: 1.0× to 5.0×.
- Residents in training
- Residents in training: 5,067. More than 20 of the 30 specialties reporting; fewer than 9. Reported range across specialties: 99 to 40,131.
- States and territories
- States and territories: 45. More than 20 of the 31 specialties reporting; fewer than 9. Reported range across specialties: 4 to 52.
- First-year resident pay
- First-year resident pay: $67K. Higher than 9 of the 28 specialties reporting; lower than 17. Reported range across specialties: $60K to $73K.
Programs ranges from 5 to 820 across 31 specialties. The middle half sit between 82 and 210.
Training length ranges from 2 years to 7 years across 31 specialties. The middle half sit between 3 years and 5 years.
Interviews per position ranges from 1.0× to 5.0× across 28 specialties. The middle half sit between 2.7× and 3.5×.
Residents in training ranges from 99 to 40,131 across 30 specialties. The middle half sit between 718 and 6,616.
States and territories ranges from 4 to 52 across 31 specialties. The middle half sit between 35 and 46.
First-year resident pay ranges from $60K to $73K across 28 specialties. The middle half sit between $67K and $69K.
Every accredited program
Grouped by state, alphabetical within each. We don’t rank programs. Open any row for its deadlines, salary, visas, and reported outcomes.
216 across 45 states
Alabama3
Arizona3
Arkansas1
California17
Colorado1
Connecticut2
District of Columbia3
Florida12
Georgia4
Hawaii2
Illinois7
Indiana1
Iowa1
Kansas2
Kentucky2
Louisiana4
Maryland5
Massachusetts4
Michigan17
Minnesota2
Mississippi1
Missouri5
Nebraska2
Nevada2
New Hampshire1
New Jersey11
New Mexico1
New York20
North Carolina5
North Dakota1
Ohio16
Oklahoma2
Oregon2
Pennsylvania16
Puerto Rico2
Rhode Island1
South Carolina3
Tennessee4
Texas16
Utah1
Vermont1
Virginia4
Washington2
West Virginia2
Wisconsin2
What the sources report
Published by the bodies that collect them. Each figure carries the year it describes, which is not always the year it was published.
Most recent reported
- Orthopedic Surgery program signals availableApplicants to participating Orthopedic Surgery residency programs in the 2027 MyERAS season
- 30signalsAAMC, 2027 ERAS season
- ACGME accredited program countAll programs on the official ACGME Orthopaedic Surgery roster
- 216programsACGME, 2026-2027
- Categorical Orthopaedic Surgery tracksOrthopaedic Surgery categorical tracks
- 227tracksNRMP, 2026-2027
- NRMP live directory track countOrthopaedic Surgery tracks
- 227tracksNRMP, 2026-2027
- Preliminary Orthopaedic Surgery tracksOrthopaedic Surgery preliminary tracks
- 0tracksNRMP, 2026-2027
- Applicants ranking at least one Orthopaedic Surgery programAll applicants who ranked at least one Orthopaedic Surgery program in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 1,652applicantsNRMP, 2026
- Orthopaedic Surgery position fill rateOrthopaedic Surgery PGY-1 positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 100%NRMP, 2026
- Orthopaedic Surgery positions filledOrthopaedic Surgery PGY-1 positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 963positionsNRMP, 2026
- Orthopaedic Surgery positions offeredOrthopaedic Surgery PGY-1 positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 963positionsNRMP, 2026
- Orthopaedic Surgery positions unfilled after the matching algorithmOrthopaedic Surgery PGY-1 positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 0positionsNRMP, 2026
- Orthopaedic Surgery programs participating in the 2026 MatchOrthopaedic Surgery programs in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 223programsNRMP, 2026
- USMLE Step 2 CK mean for U.S. MD seniors matched to preferred Orthopaedic Surgery specialtyConsenting U.S. MD seniors matched to preferred Orthopaedic Surgery specialty (n=587)
- 257pointsNRMP, 2024
- USMLE Step 2 CK mean for U.S. MD seniors not matched to preferred Orthopaedic Surgery specialtyConsenting U.S. MD seniors not matched to preferred Orthopaedic Surgery specialty (n=203)
- 246pointsNRMP, 2024
Specialties that measure like this one
Nearest on the six measures above — length, competitiveness, scale, geography, pay. Not a claim that the work is similar, and not a recommendation.
- General SurgeryFive years of broad operative training that is as much perioperative decision-making as it is time in the operating room, and the gateway to most surgical fellowships.
- OtolaryngologyHead and neck surgery spanning oncology, airway, otology, and endocrine work — broad operative range in a small, tightly-knit field.
- UrologySurgical and medical care of the urinary tract, heavily endoscopic and robotic, matched early through the AUA rather than the NRMP.
- Obstetrics & GynecologySurgical and primary care for one population, combining continuity clinic, operative gynecology, and the unpredictability of labor and delivery.
How each measure is made
- Training length
- How many years the accredited residency itself runs. Specialties you enter at PGY-2 need a separately matched preliminary or transitional year before this clock starts, and any fellowship comes after it.Accredited length across programs in this specialty. A few specialties run both lengths — Emergency Medicine has three-year and four-year programs — and are shown as a range.
- Residents in training
- How many residents the specialty holds at once, counting every training year at every program. It is a measure of the field’s size rather than of its annual intake — divide by the training length for a rough sense of how many start each year.Total approved positions across all training years, summed across programs.
- Programs
- How many separately accredited residency programs the specialty has. Each one is its own application, its own interview, and its own line on your rank list.Accredited programs currently published in our directory.
- States and territories
- How many states and territories have at least one program. This is the geography question: a specialty with 400 programs across 20 states is far more concentrated than one with 100 spread across 45.Distinct states with at least one published program.
- First-year resident pay
- What you are paid during your first year of training, before any of it becomes an attending salary. The spread across specialties is narrow — this is not the number that separates them.Median PGY-1 stipend across programs — what you are paid during residency, not what the specialty earns afterwards.
- Interviews per position
- How many applicants a program interviews for each position it offers — at 4×, a program with ten spots interviews about forty people. It is a read on how far the field narrows at the interview stage, not on how many applied.Median interviews a program conducts for each position it offers.