The number of doctors working in Canada grew faster than the national population over the most recent five-year period, a new report has found.

According to a Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) report that was released on Monday, the number of active physicians grew 7.1 per cent between 2003 and 2007, while Canada's population grew only 4.2 per cent over the same time period.

This split was true across the board, except for British Columbia and Ontario, which each saw slightly smaller growth numbers in terms of their physicians compared to their populations, and Nunavut, which lost one of its 10 doctors between 2003 and 2007.

Quebec did not have figures from 2003 available for comparison.

The CIHI report said the changes brought the number of active doctors in Canada to 63,682.

Nationally, this represented a ratio of 192 doctors per 100,000 people, the report said.

While females make up only one-third of all Canadian doctors, the CIHI report said they comprise nearly half of all doctors under 40 -- and the numbers seem to suggest their representation will only increase in future.

Between 2003 and 2007, the number of male physicians increased by just less than three per cent, while the number of female physicians jumped by more than 15 per cent.

Doctors getting older

Canada's doctors are also getting older, in keeping with a trend that has emerged for at least the last 10 years.

In 2007, the age of the average doctor was 49.6, an increase of 1.3 years since 2003.

More specifically, the average specialist age was 50.5 in 2007 and the average family physician age was 48.9.

By comparison, the age of the average doctor was only 47 in 1998.

Difficulties finding doctors

But just because Canada has more physicians than it used to, doesn't mean it is easier for Canadians to find a family doctor - in part because the country's young, up-and-coming physicians appear to have very different work habits than their veteran counterparts.

Geoff Ballinger, manager of health human resources at CIHI, said that "although the number of physicians is increasing, the way they are practising is changing."

In particular, younger doctors are working less than older doctors.

"They aren't putting in the 70-, 80-hour work weeks that their older, baby boomer counterparts might be more likely to do," Ballinger said, because they "place a great deal more importance on the work-life balance."

Additionally, almost half of Canada's doctors under 40 are female, he said.

In this age group, many female doctors leave the profession for short periods for maternity leave, and in many cases, these doctors have "different family obligations than their male counterparts may have."

Ballinger said "all of these things have an impact on whether we have the correct number of physicians in place to serve the needs of the population."

In total, CIHI released five reports Monday, detailing the demographic trends in Canada's seven major health professions -- registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists, physicians and physiotherapists.