Abstract Background Workforce diversity improves outcomes, teamwork, and patient trust, but disparities persist across surgical training and consultant levels. This study provides the first national analysis of ethnicity, gender, and LGBTQ+ representation among UK surgical trainees and consultant trainers, benchmarked against the 2021 Census. Methods A retrospective cross-sectional analysis of anonymised Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme (ISCP) and Joint Committee on Surgical Training (JCST) data (2024–2025) was performed. Demographics of trainees and consultant trainers were compared with Office for National Statistics benchmarks using χ2 and Fisher’s exact tests. Shannon diversity index (SDI) scores summarised heterogeneity. Results Data from 7906 trainees and 7621 consultant trainers were analysed. Compared to the population, white individuals were underrepresented among trainees (35.3% in General Surgery; OR = 0.12, 95% c.i. 0.10–0.14) and consultants (48.9% in General Surgery; OR = 0.21, 95% c.i. 0.18–0.26). Asian and other/Chinese groups were consistently overrepresented (for example Asian trainees in General Surgery; OR = 4.28, 95% c.i. 3.52–5.24). Women were underrepresented among consultants, particularly in Trauma and Orthopaedics (female trainees 20.5%, OR = 0.25, 95% c.i. 0.22–0.29). LGBTQ+ identification exceeded census levels among trainees (Core Surgery 7.1%, OR = 2.28, 95% c.i. 1.65–3.19) but was lower among consultants (for example Trauma and Orthopaedics 1.1%, OR = 0.33, 95% c.i. 0.16–0.63). SDI scores were higher in trainees (0.84) than consultants (0.72). Conclusions UK surgical trainees are more diverse than consultants, yet women and LGBTQ+ surgeons remain underrepresented at senior levels. Sustained demographic reporting, targeted mentorship, and inclusive recruitment are required to build a surgical workforce that reflects the population it serves.
Seehra et al. (2026) studied this question.