The number of physicians returning to Canada was greater than the number moving abroad for a second consecutive year in 2005, a report says — raising hopes that a 30-year medical brain drain is finally ending.

The report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, released Thursday, says 186 Canadian physicians moved away in 2005 and 247 returned.

2004 marked the first time in three decades that more doctors returned to Canada than left. In that year, 262 physicians left the country while 317 physicians returned.

In comparison, in 2001, 555 Canadian doctors moved abroad while 334 returned. The peak of the medical brain drain occurred in 1994, when 771 doctors moved away.

"What we're seeing is the trend has totally reversed," said Francine Anne Roy, the director of health resource information at CIHI, a non-profit organization that tracks health care in Canada.

"When you look at trends, you always have to wait more than one year to see if there is a real change or just a blip in the statistic. Now, for a second year in a row … we have a good measure that it is really reversing."

The CIHI report, released annually, provides a picture of the supply, migration and distribution of physicians in Canada. This report also looks at how patterns have changed over the past five years.

International medical grads boost supply

The data also revealed that the number of doctors in Canada has grown in the past five years by 5.3 per cent, a rate that has kept pace with the four per cent population growth.

The increasing supply of doctors is partly attributed to a 2.3 per cent increase in the number of international medical graduates in this country.

The report also noted that the profession has become a little greyer. The average age of Canadian doctors has increased from 48 years in 2001 to 49 in 2005.

Over the same five-year period, the proportion of physicians under the age of 40 dropped 10 per cent, while the proportion of physicians in their 50s increased by 19.4 per cent.

The number of family physicians per 100,000 population increased from 95 in 2001 to 98 in 2005. The number of specialists per 100,000 population dropped from 93 in 2001 to 91 in 2003, and then rose to 92 in 2005.

There has also been a slight gender shift, with women making up 32.5 per cent of the 2005 physician workforce, compared with 30.2 per cent in 2001.