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Healthcare · Analyzing & Problem-solving

Radiologist: what the job actually is

A physician who reads X-rays, CT, MRI and ultrasound images, then writes the report that every other doctor acts on.

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Radiologist: quick facts

Radiologist salary in Ontario: Job Bank reports one figure for the whole group of specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine, not for radiologist alone. For that group the median pay is $295,785 a year (reference period 2023-2024). The group's three-year outlook in Ontario is good. The job usually needs a university degree.

Median pay in Ontario
$295,785 a year
Pay range (low to high)
$110,998 to $599,836 a year
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Good
People working in it in Ontario
14,650
Usually needs
Usually a university degree

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 31100. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • A medical doctor who specialises in reading medical images and deciding what they show. Other doctors send you the scan and wait for your report before they decide what to do.
  • It is not the technologist's job. A medical radiation technologist takes the images, and you interpret them. Our page for that job is at /careers/jobs/medical-radiation-technologist.
  • Most patients never meet you. Your patient is a screen and a request form, and the person you actually talk to most is another doctor, often by phone, often in a hurry.
  • Job Bank reports one pay figure and one outlook for all specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine, not for radiology alone. The pay on this page is the figure for that whole group.
  • Western University describes its diagnostic radiology residency as five years and accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Other programmes set their own pages, so check the one you are interested in.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 7:45 — Log in to the worklist. Forty studies are waiting, the urgent ones marked, and the list never reaches zero.
  2. 8:00 — Chest X-rays, one after another. You scan each in a set order so you do not miss the thing at the edge of the picture.
  3. 9:30 — A CT of the abdomen. Hundreds of slices, scrolled slowly, looking for one small change that does not belong.
  4. 10:45 — Dictate the report. The words have to be exact, because the doctor reading it will act on a single phrase.
  5. 11:30 — A phone call from an emergency physician about a patient still in the department. You look again, change your mind about one detail and say so.
  6. 12:30 — Lunch in a dim room, away from the glare of the monitors.
  7. 13:15 — A case conference where you show the images to a surgical team and answer questions about what you can and cannot say from a picture.
  8. 14:30 — An MRI that is hard. You compare it with last year's scan, find the difference and describe it carefully.
  9. 16:30 — Check the reports you have signed for anything you would word differently now.
  10. 17:30 — Eyes tired, back stiff. The worklist has grown again while you were away.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You like finding a small pattern in a lot of visual detail, and you can keep doing it when it is repetitive.
  • You prefer to think carefully and write precisely rather than to talk with patients all day.
  • You like physics, anatomy and technology, and you are curious how a machine turns a body into a picture.
  • You are comfortable being the expert other doctors lean on, mostly from behind the scenes.
  • You can work alone for long stretches in a quiet, dim room and be fine with that.
You may hate this if
  • You want to know your patients. Most never meet you, and the thanks, if there is any, goes to the doctor who treated them.
  • You dislike screens. The whole job is looking at one, in low light, for hours, and your eyes and neck will feel it.
  • You cannot stand being the person who missed something. A report is final in a way a conversation is not, and a miss can matter.
  • You do not want a long route. After a bachelor's degree and medical school, Job Bank says four to five years of specialty residency for this group, and Western's own page gives five for diagnostic radiology.
  • You want variety in the day. The scans differ, but the posture and the task do not.
  • You dislike a queue that never clears. The worklist is part of how the job feels.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. Do a degree and get into medical school

    Job Bank says a bachelor's degree is usually required before medical school, and that graduating from an approved medical school is required. Each Ontario medical school sets its own entry rules, so read them. Our family physician page lists the six Ontario schools and how one of them states its requirements.

  2. Match into a diagnostic radiology residency

    Western University's page describes its diagnostic radiology residency as five years, from the first postgraduate year to the fifth, and accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Job Bank gives four to five years of specialty residency for the whole group and says two more years of subspecialty training may be needed. We did not read how places are given out, so ask a medical school.

  3. Pass the Royal College examinations

    Job Bank says the certifying examinations of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada are required. The CPSO's independent practice certificate page also lists Parts 1 and 2 of the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination.

  4. Get licensed by the CPSO

    Licensing by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is compulsory. The CPSO says a certificate holder may only practise in the areas where they are educated and experienced.

Where this comes from: Job Bank — Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine, requirements in Ontario · CPSO — Independent practice certificate requirements · Western University — Diagnostic radiology residency programme

The money

Radiologist salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$110,998
Low (a year)
$295,785
Median (a year)
$599,836
High (a year)

Ontario, NOC 31100. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth. Job Bank reports this one by the year rather than by the hour, because the income is commission and the hours behind it are nothing like fixed.

Source: Job Bank — Radiologist wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Good4 out of 5 stars

  • Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions.
  • A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.
  • There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

What is changing in this work

  • Increased need for health-related services to support the growing and aging population in Ontario
  • Greater demand on the health care system because of the backlog of medical procedures and patient care needs
  • Major investments in health care facilities
  • Initiatives to improve home and community-based patient care services
  • Demand may be greater in rural and northern communities of Ontario

Who hires for it

  • Hospitals
  • Offices of physicians
  • Almost 60% of specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine are self-employed
14,650
people work in this job in Ontario
43%
are women (48% across all jobs)
59%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine job prospects in Ontario (NOC 31100). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take senior physics, biology, chemistry and maths. Imaging is physics applied to bodies, and the route asks for strong marks at every stage.
  • Learn what each scan is: look up in plain words how an X-ray, an ultrasound, a CT and an MRI differ, and explain it to someone else without notes.
  • Volunteer in a hospital or care setting if your age allows, and pay attention to the imaging department, which you rarely see from the waiting room.
  • Read the admission requirements of one Ontario medical school so you know what your university years must include.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Spot the difference for forty minutes, then write the report

About 60 minutes
  1. Find three pairs of near-identical photos online, the kind where ten things have been changed. Set a timer and find every difference without skipping around. Do the same each time, left to right, top to bottom.
  2. Write a three-line report for each pair, in plain words: what changed, where, and how sure you are. Cut anything you cannot defend.
  3. Notice your own pattern. Did the search get steadier or sloppier by the third pair? Did being right feel satisfying, or was it just tiring?
  4. Open the Job Bank requirements page for specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine and write the whole route from today to a licence.

What it tells you. If the quiet search held you and writing the report felt like the real prize, radiology fits how you work, and the next step is the science and the grades. If you kept wanting to ask someone a question or show them what you found, a specialty with patient contact, or the technologist route on our medical radiation technologist page, may suit you better.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “How much of your day is reading images, and how much is talking to other doctors?”
  2. “How do you keep your attention steady on the fortieth scan of the day?”
  3. “What is the worst kind of case to miss, and how do you guard against it?”
  4. “How do your eyes and your back cope after years of screens?”
  5. “What made you choose radiology over a specialty with more patient contact?”
  6. “What would you tell a student about the length of the training?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Partly. Job Bank says a large share of specialists in this group are self-employed, and some radiologists work in group practices. The work needs imaging equipment, which hospitals and clinics provide, so you rarely build it alone. Ask a radiologist how their arrangement works.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a radiologist make in Ontario?

Job Bank reports one figure for the whole group of specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine, not for a radiologist alone. For that group the median pay is $295,785 a year (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $110,998 to $599,836 a year. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a radiologist in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as good for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions. A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements. There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a radiologist in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a university degree. The usual route in Ontario, in order: Do a degree and get into medical school; Match into a diagnostic radiology residency; Pass the Royal College examinations.

Where does a radiologist work in Ontario?

Hospitals. Offices of physicians. Almost 60% of specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine are self-employed. (Job Bank.)

How many people work as a radiologist in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 14,650 people working in this job in Ontario. 43% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Health careers in Ontario: outlook and pay What can you do with your degree?

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

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Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.