2026 Match Results: The Full Data Breakdown

The NRMP released the 2026 Main Residency Match results today, March 20. This was the largest Match in history, and the data tells a few different stories depending on who you are and where you trained.

Here's what the numbers actually say.

The Big Picture

The 2026 Match set records across the board:

• 53,373 applicants registered (48,050 submitted rank order lists)
• 44,344 residency positions offered, the most ever
• 38,354 applicants matched to PGY-1 positions
• 41,482 total positions filled (including PGY-2), a 93.5% fill rate
• 6,809 certified programs, up 183 from last year

Both the number of applicants and positions grew from 2025. Active applicants increased by 842 (1.8%), and PGY-1 matches increased by 687 (1.8%).

Match Rates by Applicant Type

This is where the story gets more interesting. The overall numbers look strong, but the experience varies a lot depending on your training background.

2026 PGY-1 Match Rates:

Applicant Type	Active Applicants	Match Rate	vs 2025
US MD seniors	20,934	93.5%	Unchanged
US DO seniors	8,503	93.2%	+0.6% (record high)
US citizen IMGs	4,210	70.0%	Record high
Non-US citizen IMGs	11,944	56.4%	5-year low

A few things stand out.

DO seniors hit their highest match rate on record. 93.2% is nearly identical to the MD senior rate (93.5%). The gap between MD and DO outcomes has been closing for years, and 2026 is the closest it's ever been.

US citizen IMGs hit 70% for the first time. That's a meaningful number. Seven out of ten US citizens who trained abroad and applied to the Match found a residency spot.

Non-US citizen IMGs dropped to 56.4%. That's the lowest in five years. And the picture gets more uneven when you break it down further.

The IMG Story Is Complicated

The 2026 data splits non-US citizen IMGs into two groups, and their outcomes are moving in opposite directions:

• Non-US IMGs with green cards (US permanent residents): 67.9% match rate, a 5-year high
• Non-US IMGs needing visa sponsorship: 54.4% match rate, a 5-year low

So within the same "non-US IMG" category, there's a 13.5 percentage point gap depending on immigration status. Programs that can't or won't sponsor visas are effectively narrowing the applicant pool for one group while the other benefits from fewer restrictions.

This doesn't tell us which programs each group is matching into, or whether they're landing at comparable training sites. That level of detail will come later when the NRMP publishes the full Charting Outcomes report. For now, the rates tell part of the story but not all of it.

What Happened by Specialty

The 2026 Match moved differently across specialties. Some grew, some tightened, and one keeps struggling to fill seats.

Primary Care (combined: Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Family Medicine, IM-Peds):

• 20,712 positions offered (+412 from 2025)
• 92.1% fill rate (down 1.4 points from 2025)

Internal Medicine remains the largest specialty by far, with 11,632 positions offered and a 95.2% fill rate. That's down 1.6 points from last year, but with 280 more positions offered, the raw number of matched applicants still grew.

Family Medicine continues to struggle with unfilled positions. Out of 5,491 positions offered, 899 went unfilled (83.6% fill rate). That's down from 85.0% last year. More positions were offered and more applicants matched than the prior year, but the gap between supply and demand keeps widening.

Emergency Medicine is showing signs of recovery after a rough few years. Positions offered grew by 130, and 95.6% of spots filled. More applicants matched than the prior year.

Psychiatry keeps expanding. 30 new programs were added in 2026, bringing the total to 2,516 positions. Fill rate is 97.4%, with only 65 positions going unfilled (up from 8 last year, so the new programs are absorbing most of the growth).

Internal Medicine-Pediatrics hit 100% fill rate for the first time, with all 404 positions filled.

SOAP: More Positions Available Than Last Year

For applicants who didn't match, the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) had more options than 2025:

• 2,581 positions available through SOAP (up 330 from last year)
• 941 programs offering SOAP positions

Full SOAP outcome data will be published later this spring in the NRMP's complete Results and Data report.

The Match Keeps Growing

Here's how the Match has expanded over the past decade:

Year	Positions Offered
2015	30,212
2018	33,167
2020	37,256
2022	38,954
2025	42,473
2026	44,344

More programs, more positions, more applicants. The pipeline into residency is bigger than it's ever been.

But the growth isn't evenly distributed. MD and DO applicants are matching at nearly identical rates. US citizen IMGs are reaching new highs. And non-US citizen IMGs, particularly those needing visa sponsorship, are facing a tighter market than they have in years.

What This Means for You

If you're a medical student or IMG preparing for a future Match cycle, a few takeaways from 2026:

The DO-MD gap is basically gone. A 0.3 percentage point difference in match rates. If you're a DO student worried about competitiveness, the data says you're matching at almost the same rate as your MD peers.

US citizen IMGs have momentum. 70% is the highest match rate this group has ever seen. The trend has been moving upward for several years now.

Visa sponsorship matters more than ever. The gap between sponsored and non-sponsored IMGs is 13.5 points. If you're an IMG who needs visa sponsorship, focusing your applications on programs with a track record of sponsoring is worth the research time.

Family Medicine still has room. 899 unfilled positions is a lot of opportunity for applicants willing to consider it, especially in underserved areas.

Start early. The Match keeps getting bigger, but individual specialties are getting more competitive. Building your application, including research, clinical experience, and strong evaluations, matters more each year.

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All data from the NRMP 2026 Main Residency Match results, released March 20, 2026. Full Charting Outcomes and SOAP data will be published later this spring.

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