It’s not quite double-digit growth, but it’s pretty close. The latest physician salary report from Medscape reveals that radiologist salaries grew 9% in 2025, with medical imaging seeing the third-highest growth rate among the specialties tracked.
The new Medscape report found that radiologists had an average annual salary of $571k in 2025, up 9% compared to $520k in 2024 and $498k in 2023.
- Radiology ranked #3 among the 29 physician specialties tracked by the survey, trailing only orthopedic physicians and surgeons ($611k) and cardiologists ($575k).
Radiology’s numbers mark the second straight year of strong salary growth for the specialty, a welcome trend given anemic growth in 2023, when salaries rose only 3.1% – not enough to keep ahead of inflation.
- Indeed, industry experts analyzing the new Medscape numbers called the figures a “return to normalization” for physician pay gains.
Medscape reported a generally “positive vibe” to the survey compared to a year earlier, with more respondents saying they felt fairly paid (53% vs. 48%), and eight specialties reporting average annual compensation over $500k. Other important findings included…
- Technology-driven efficiency appears to be helping physician productivity, enabling doctors to see more patients and generate more work-related relative value units.
- Rising demand for services in orthopedics, radiology, and cardiology is driving pay growth, especially given the static supply of physicians.
- The new data – and improving physician sentiment – could indicate that medicine is climbing out of the trough of doctor burnout that bottomed out during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The gender gap between salaries for male and female physicians was $102k, worsening slightly compared to last year (31% vs. 29%).
- The average workweek shortened slightly (49 vs. 50 hours).
The Takeaway
Medscape’s new salary survey findings are positive news for radiologists – and indeed all physicians – and are a welcome departure from the days of burnout and stagnant wage growth. So far, predictions that AI will take jobs from radiologists remain far in the future.
