The Growth of the Allied Health Workforce
By MedXL Editorial Team · Updated 2026-08-26 · 6 min read
When people picture the health workforce, they picture doctors and nurses. But a large and growing share of care in the United States and Canada is delivered by everyone else: physiotherapists and occupational therapists, medical laboratory scientists, imaging technologists, respiratory therapists, paramedics, dietitians, speech-language pathologists, sonographers, and dozens of other professions grouped, a little unfairly, under the label "allied health." These fields are expanding, diversifying, and gaining scope, and they represent some of the most accessible and durable careers in the sect
Several forces converge on allied health, and none of them is temporary.
Aging and chronic disease. The conditions of aging, joint and mobility problems, stroke recovery, cardiac and respiratory disease, hearing and swallowing difficulties, are precisely the territory of rehabilitation and therapy professions. As populations age, the therapy-intensive share of care grows faster than care overall.
In this guide
- What is driving the growth
- A workforce becoming more professional and more visible
- The pressure points
- What it means for allied health careers
- A note on assistants and support roles
- Key takeaways