In recently released data from the American Medical Association (AMA), ophthalmology reported one of the lowest rates of physician burnout in the country in 2025.

According to the AMA's 2025 National Physician Comparison Report, just 25.8% of ophthalmologists reported experiencing at least one symptom of burnout. By comparison, 41.9% of physicians overall reported symptoms of burnout. Nationally, physician burnout continued to decline, down from 43.2% in 2024 and 48.2% in 2023.

Among all specialties included in the report, only infectious disease physicians reported a lower burnout rate than ophthalmologists. Other specialties with comparatively low rates of burnout included pathology (28.3%), nephrology (29.3%), dermatology (31.5%) and psychiatry (31.6%).

At the other end of the spectrum, the highest rates of burnout were reported in emergency medicine (49.8%), urological surgery (49.5%), hematology/oncology (49.3%), obstetrics and gynecology (45.7%) and radiology (45.2%).

The AMA's findings are based on nearly 19,000 physician responses collected from 106 health systems and organizations across 38 states. The report evaluates physician well-being using several key performance indicators, including burnout, job satisfaction, job stress, intent to leave and feeling valued.

While physician well-being has improved nationally, the report notes that experiences vary considerably across specialties. Factors such as workload, administrative burden, staffing support and clinical practice environment continue to influence physician satisfaction and burnout levels.

For ophthalmology, the findings suggest comparatively strong professional well-being at a time when many areas of medicine continue to face workforce challenges. Maintaining healthy practice environments, reducing unnecessary administrative burdens and supporting physician well-being will remain important to sustaining the ophthalmology workforce and ensuring patients have access to high-quality eye care.