The proportion of female optometrists (OO) in the profession is continuing to rise according to the NHS Information Centre.
In its General Ophthalmic Services Workforce Statistics for England and Wales for the year ending December 31, 2010, the centre revealed that the number of female OOs in England increased by 209 or 4.2 per cent on the previous year to 5,101. This figure represented 50.6 per cent of the 10,079 OOs in the country as at December 31, 2010. The proportion of female practitioners has been increasing steadily over time. In 2000 the numbers were 59.3 per cent male and 40.7 per cent female. In 2008, the number of female OOs in England exceeded the number of male OOs for the first time by nine.
However, when taking into account the UK's 330 ophthalmic medical practitioners (OMPs), of whom 287 are men, there are marginally more male practitioners at 50.6 per cent.
The statistics also revealed that there were 20.1 practitioners per 100,000 population, an increase from last year (19.3).
In Wales the proportion of female OOs has also been increasing steadily, now comprising 360, or 48.6 per cent, of Wales' 740 OOs. The total number of practitioners in the principality as of December 31, was 756, up 6.3 per cent, which includes 16 OMPs.
There were 25.2 practitioners per 100,000 of the population in Wales, an increase from the previous year (23.7). There were 509 practitioners, 67.3 per cent, on a local health board supplementary list, with the remainder of the 247 practitioners on an ophthalmic list.