• Ana Carolina Vieira da Silva, Dannielle Fernandes Godoi, and Fabricio Souza Neves.
• . Curso de Graduação em Medicina, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brasil.
• Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2020 May 15; 66 (2): 194-200.

ObjectiveTo describe the current distribution and historical evolution of undergraduate courses in medicine in Brasil.MethodsAnalytical cross-sectional study of secondary data. Through the Ministry of Education, the data of the medical courses were obtained, and through the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the population and economic data of the Brazilian states were obtained.ResultsIn Brasil, there were 298 medical courses (1,42 courses / million inhabitants) in January 2018, totaling 31,126 vacancies per year, with 9,217 gratuitous vacancies (29.6%) and 17,963 vacancies in the hinterland (57, 7%). In Brazilian states, there are positive and statistically significant (p <0.001) correlations of the variables: "vacancies" and "population" (R 0.92); "vacancies" and "gross domestic product" ("GDP") (R 0.83); "percentage of vacancies in the hinterland" and "population in the hinterland" (R 0.71) and "percentage of vacancies in the hinterland" and "GDP" (R 0.64). There was a negative and statistically significant correlation between "gratuitous vacancy percentage" and "GDP" (R -0.54, p = 0.003). More paid courses than gratuitous courses and more courses in the hinterland than in the capitals have been created since 1964, in proportions that have remained similar since then, but in higher numbers since 2002.ConclusionsThe distribution of medical courses in Brasil correlates with the population and economical production of each state. The expansion of Brazilian medical education, which has been accelerated since 2002, is based mainly on paid courses in the hinterland, in the same pattern since 1964.

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