The osteopathic profession continues more than a decade of exponential growth.

The American Osteopathic Association reports an 85 percent increase in osteopathic medical students since 2007, bringing the total number of DOs and students to 137,099 in 2017. The exponential growth in the profession aligns with the development of new osteopathic medical schools, which now total 34 schools operating in 49 sites.

At the 125th anniversary of the profession, about one in four medical students attends a college of osteopathic medicine while enrollment has increased an average of 25 percent every five years. The American Osteopathic Association’s annual report on the osteopathic medical profession recorded more than 6,000 newly graduated DOs in 2017, with more than 99 percent of them placed into residencies.

Here are the AOA report’s other key findings:

• 52% of DOs are younger than 45. Women physicians represent 47% of DOs under the age of 45.
• More than half of active DOs practice in primary care, including family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics.
• The most common specialties for DOs are emergency medicine, anesthesiology, obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery and psychiatry.

This article was originally published on The DO.