Our data

Retention

Retention measures how long doctors remain practising in New Zealand after they are initially registered. We calculate retention rates for doctors by looking at new registrations each year and then checking whether those doctors still held a practising certificate at yearly intervals (based on the date they registered).

Explanation of terms used in this dashboard

Retention

We calculate the retention rates for doctors by looking at new registrations each year and then checking whether those doctors still held a practising certificate at yearly intervals (based on the date they registered).  

We express the retention rate as a percentage. If 100 doctors are in the initial cohort and 90 doctors hold a practising certificate in the following year, the retention rate is 90 percent

Entry pathway

The entry pathway is the pathway by which a doctor first qualified for registration in New Zealand. Council has three main types of registration (what we call scopes) - vocational, general, and special purpose. Within each scope there are multiple application pathways. Each pathway has specific requirements that doctors need to meet in order to be registered.

Please see the following section of our website for more information on our scopes and pathways:

https://www.mcnz.org.nz/registration/getting-registered/registration-pathways/

Gender data

The Council supports the right of people to identify with non-binary genders and have this reflected in their official record. Doctors can update their recorded gender identity at any time through the myMCNZ portal.

There are a small number of doctors on the register with a current practising certificate who identify as gender diverse - 15 as of 30 June 2025. We have not presented these doctors as a separate group when data has been broken down by gender because of the small size of the group, and the need to preserve privacy.  

Gender is a complex area. Not all doctors who identify as a different gender from what they were assigned at birth will have chosen to identify as Gender Diverse.  Some will have chosen to record the gender with which they do identify (Male or Female).