Fig. 1

China’s doctors and assistant doctors by education level, 2002–2014. Sources: Health Statistical Yearbook of China (various years). Notes: (1) Data for 2003–2004 and 2006–2008 are not available. (2) Bachelor or above refers to the category that doctors have educational achievement high than a bachelor degree, including bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees. Vocational diploma refers to a junior college degree (Zhuan Ke) or a junior tertiary education, generally including 3-year post high school education; secondary vocational diploma or below refers to both secondary vocational diploma (Zhong Zhuan) and high school education