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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThere is no verified, apples-to-apples list of the 10 richest medical professions in the available U.S. data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports eight named physician specialties with May 2025 median wages on its Occupational Outlook Handbook page, but other BLS releases use different figures or report mean wages for different years. The examples below are therefore high-paying occupations—not a definitive top-10 ranking. These wage statistics measure pay, not personal wealth, take-home income, or practice profits.
What “richest” means in this comparison
Here, “richest” means highest reported occupational wages in the United States. It does not mean net worth or lifetime earnings. The BLS median is the point at which half of workers in the occupation earned more and half earned less; a mean is an arithmetic average. Those measures are not interchangeable, and a wage estimate does not tell you what an individual earns after taxes or business expenses.
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reports a May 2025 median annual wage of $275,930 for physicians and surgeons as a broad occupational group. Its specialty figures provide more detail, but only eight named physician specialties are included in the available figures. That is not enough to substantiate a ranked list of ten distinct medical professions across specialties and allied health.
Eight high-paying physician specialties in BLS May 2025 data
The figures below are U.S. median annual wages reported by the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook for May 2025. They are listed from highest to lowest among these eight examples, not presented as a complete ranking of all medical occupations.
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| Physician specialty | Median annual wage | Reference period and source |
|---|---|---|
| Pediatric surgeons | $559,030 | May 2025; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Cardiologists | $496,010 | May 2025; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Radiologists | $420,860 | May 2025; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Surgeons, all other | $414,010 | May 2025; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Anesthesiologists | $391,490 | May 2025; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Orthopedic surgeons, except pediatric | $358,550 | May 2025; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Emergency medicine physicians | $335,550 | May 2025; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Dermatologists | $328,730 | May 2025; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Physicians and Surgeons. The list shows only the named specialty medians available on that page; it should not be read as evidence that omitted specialties pay less.
Why other BLS figures do not fill out a top 10
A separate 2025 release reports different figures
The BLS 2025 wage-release summary identifies pediatric surgeons at $502,050 and cardiologists at $454,940, and names nurse anesthetists at $248,320 as the highest-paid occupation in the healthcare practitioner and technical group outside physician, surgeon, or dentist occupations. Those amounts differ from the May 2025 specialty medians on the Occupational Outlook Handbook page. The release summary does not establish in the cited material why the figures differ, so they should not be mixed into the table above or treated as directly comparable without resolving the underlying definitions and reference periods.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wages News Release – 2025 A01 Results.
Dental specialties appear in a different year and measure
The BLS May 2024 release lists mean annual wages of $360,240 for oral and maxillofacial surgeons and $254,620 for orthodontists. It also reports a $336,640 mean for anesthesiologists. These are May 2024 means, not May 2025 medians, so placing them alongside the table would create a misleading comparison.
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Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wages – May 2024.
What these wages do—and do not—tell you
- They describe occupational pay, not wealth. The figures do not measure accumulated assets, debt, investment income, or ownership of a medical practice.
- They are national statistics. Individual earnings can vary, and these figures should not be treated as a guaranteed salary in a particular state, city, employer, or practice setting.
- They use different statistical measures and reference periods. Keep the occupation label, year, and whether a figure is a median or mean attached to any comparison.
- They do not establish a precise top ten. The available comparable May 2025 specialty figures cover eight named physician occupations; other examples come from separate BLS releases and cannot simply be added to make ten.
Training is part of the career comparison
The BLS says physicians and surgeons typically need a bachelor’s degree and a medical degree, which takes an additional four years. The cited information does not establish comparable specialty-by-specialty training timelines for the occupations listed here. A high median wage alone therefore cannot show which path offers the best financial return: evaluating that would also require consistent evidence on training length, education costs, time in training, employment prospects, and individual circumstances.
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Physicians and Surgeons.
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