The trend: Hispanic and Black people are underrepresented in the clinician workforce compared to the broader US population, according to a KFF analysis of 2023 industry data (the most recent year of publicly available information).

Digging into the data: Black people account for 12% of the US population, compared with only 6% of the physician labor force. Meanwhile, Hispanic people make up around 20% of the country’s residents, but just 7% are doctors.

• The difference between the share of the population and the share of physicians who are Hispanic was over 15 percentage points in 7 US states. In some of those states, Hispanic people make up between 40% and 50% of the population.
• Similarly, in five states and DC, the gap between the share of the population and the share of providers who are Black was at least 15 percentage points.

These discrepancies are not as acute among other racial groups. For context, white people account for 63% of doctors and 58% of the US population. And Asian people are overrepresented in the medical community, accounting for 21% of doctors but 12% of the US population.

Why it matters: Many patients are more comfortable seeing a doctor with a similar background to them, including the same race or ethnicity. And some are willing to trade convenience to do so.

• Around half (48%) of Black patients and 39% of Hispanic patients said the HCP’s gender, race, or ethnicity had at least a moderate impact on the decision to book with them, per CMI Media Vitals Consumer 2024/25 survey.
• 55% of Black consumers and 45% of Hispanic consumers say they’d travel 30 to 90 minutes for a matching demographic HCP.
• 12% of Hispanic patients and 9% of Black patients have experienced language or cultural barriers when accessing healthcare.

What it means for providers and marketers: The Trump administration’s anti-DEI push will likely drive many health systems and medical groups to scale back diversity recruitment efforts for clinical staff.

However, organizations and marketers can take additional steps to mitigate existing barriers that multicultural consumers encounter when accessing care. These include investing in multilingual staff who will communicate with patients in their preferred language and partnering with local community groups that have established relationships with diverse populations.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Not a subscriber? Click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.