Recent trends in diagnostic radiology application and match rates.

Objective: We aimed to assess recent trends in diagnostic radiology residency positions, rates of applications per applicant, application burden for programs, match probability rates and impact of preference signaling on the match process.

Methods: The ERAS National applicant statistics from 2020 to 2025 were used to collect the total number of applicants to Diagnostic Radiology programs, along with the average applications submitted per applicant, and average application count received per program. The biennial NRMP "Charting Outcomes in the Match" report was used to collect total positions offered in the Match, number of applicants who participated in the Match with Diagnostic Radiology as the preferred specialty, (Active match applicants), number of matched and unmatched applicants and the mean number of contiguous ranks by matched and unmatched applicants.

Results: Between 2020 to 2025, the total number of ERAS applicants who applied to DR programs increased by 9.4% while the number of positions offered in the match increased by 11.3%. The proportion of US MDs out of all ERAS applicants increased from 56.3% (1068/1897) in 2020 to 59.2% (1230/2076) in 2025. The average applications submitted per applicant increased by 30.4% while the average number of applications received per program increased by 65.8% between 2020 and 2023. Match year 2022 had the greatest value of mean contiguous ranks (14.9), observed magic number (13.2) and normalized magic number (12.2). The number of applications per applicant, applications received by programs, number of interviews and contiguous ranks have all decreased with the introduction of preference signaling since 2023.

Discussion: Our study results show that there was a significant increase in average applications submitted in the past 5 years, especially between 2018 and 2023. Introduction of preference signaling and geographic preferences in the ERAS application process has achieved the desired effect of reducing congestion given the high volume of applications and interviews. Match competitiveness increased sharply between 2016-2018 with no subsequent consistent trend.