The dental workforce could reach gender parity by 2040 — an estimate based on 2021 data from the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute.
From 2009 to 2019, the percentage of dental school graduates who are women rose from 46 percent to 50.6 percent. As a result, women make up a growing percentage of dentists, increasing from 24.1 percent in 2010 to 35.5 percent in 2020.
"Dental school enrollment is now 50-50 gender split, so that is the main reason why we are seeing more dentists who are women in the workforce," Marko Vujicic, PhD, chief economist and vice president of the ADA's Health Policy Institute, said in a March 30 news release. "We are going to see a steady increase in women in dentistry. HPI predicts the dentist workforce will reach gender parity by 2040."