The Proportion of Rural Applicants to the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine is Close to Parity with the Proportion of College-Educated Young Adults in Rural NC

Abstract Background Over the past 40 years, North Carolina’s physician supply grew faster than the total population, but the maldistribution of physicians between urban and rural areas increased. In rural counties, access-to-care and health disparities remain concerning. Method Descriptive analyses were conducted to compare the number and percentage of rural and urban students from North Carolina (NC) who applied, interviewed, and were accepted to the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine. The likely pool of rural applicants was based on the number of college-educated 18-34-year-olds by county. Results Roughly 10.9% of NC’s population of college-educated 18-34-year-olds live in rural counties. Between 2017–2019, 9.3% (n = 225) of UNC SOM applicants were from a rural county. Conclusion An increase of just 14 additional rural applicants annually would bring the proportion of rural UNC SOM applicants in alignment with the potential applicant pool in rural NC counties. Addressing NC’s rural physician workforce needs will require multiple strategies that affect different parts of the medical education and health care systems, including boosting college completion rates in rural areas.