Vet turnover report · October 2026
13.7% of vets leave their practice each year
Range 12.3% to 15.3%. In a year, 29.8% of practices lose at least one vet.
Measured by comparing practices' team pages today with Internet Archive copies from about a year ago: 3,081 practices, 11,320 vets.
By practice size
By kind of practice
By state
States with 20 or more practices measured.
| State | Practices | Leave each year | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 599 | 14.4% | 12.4% to 16.7% |
| Texas | 554 | 13.4% | 11.6% to 15.3% |
| Illinois | 274 | 10.1% | 8.0% to 12.4% |
| Washington | 251 | 11.9% | 9.7% to 14.2% |
| Colorado | 232 | 13.1% | 10.6% to 15.7% |
| Wisconsin | 211 | 10.3% | 8.1% to 12.8% |
| New Jersey | 183 | 11.2% | 7.4% to 16.4% |
| Oregon | 173 | 13.3% | 10.3% to 16.4% |
| Alabama | 116 | 12.4% | 8.2% to 16.8% |
| Kansas | 101 | 10.1% | 6.2% to 13.9% |
| Iowa | 97 | 11.0% | 7.6% to 14.5% |
| Arkansas | 64 | 14.0% | 8.6% to 19.5% |
| Montana | 44 | 11.1% | 4.6% to 18.9% |
| West Virginia | 44 | 8.3% | 2.0% to 16.2% |
| Rhode Island | 23 | 8.4% | 3.0% to 14.3% |
| Delaware | 20 | 10.1% | 4.1% to 17.5% |
Connecticut is left out as skewed: 224 of 594 vets left across its 95 counted practices, an annual rate of 35.6% (95% range 17.5% to 50.4%), far outside every other state and with a range too wide to show as a state figure until it is checked. Its practices are counted in the national and group figures.
How this was measured
For every practice whose website lists its veterinarians, we compared the vets named on its team page today with the vets named on an Internet Archive copy of the same page from 9 to 18 months earlier, and annualised by the gap. 3,081 of 4,234 practices had a usable archived copy.
Not counted: interns, residents, relief and visiting vets, and uncertain name matches such as a changed married name. Websites can be slow to remove someone who has left, so the true rate may be higher.
Figures are for groups of practices only. PawsRx never publishes a single practice's turnover.
Updated October 15, 2026.
Questions
What is the turnover rate for veterinarians?
13.7% of vets leave their practice each year: 1,575 of 11,320 vets named on 3,081 practices' team pages had left about a year later, an annual rate of 13.7% (95% range 12.3% to 15.3%), measured October 2026.
How does vet turnover differ by practice size?
Solo vet: 4.4% a year (647 practices); 2 to 3 vets: 11.8% a year (1,267 practices); 4 to 9 vets: 13.3% a year (1,047 practices); 10 or more: 20.3% a year (120 practices). Measured October 2026.
Do vets leave chains more than independent practices?
At chain or group practices 21.1% of vets leave each year (159 practices, range 11.9% to 31.2%), against 12.7% at independents (2,922 practices, range 11.8% to 13.5%). Measured October 2026.