Chiropractic Around the World

Slowly, surely the chiropractic profession is becoming established worldwide. When I graduated, in 1973, our profession was largely practiced only in the English-speaking world, a few European countries and South Africa. In my freshman class we had students from New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Denmark, England, Cyprus, and a few from the U.S. Back then a smattering of my colleagues could be found practicing here and there in the Caribbean and Central America, but these were truly few and far between, and often were Christian missionaries whose occupation happened to be chiropractic.

With the opening of the Anglo-European College of Chiropractors in the late-70's, things began to change. Today chiropractic education is not something that is strictly the domain of North America. Rapidly new graduates are making their homes in the British Isles, Scandinavia, South America and both Eastern and Western Europe.

In less than the 30 years since I began my practice in Canada, there are now formally accredited chiropractic colleges established in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and South Africa in addition to those already long established in Canada, the UK and, of course, the 15 or so in the US. Many of these so-called 'foreign' colleges are affiliated with local universities, and have partnerships with US based chiropractic colleges. The accreditation process for colleges has been standardized for 3 decades. Students attend a minimum of 4 full academic years followed by clinical training and licensing examinations. There are currently post-graduate opportunities for study in orthopedics, radiology, chiropractic sciences, rehabilitation and the increasingly popular, sports chiropractic. It is now commonplace to find chiropractors associated with the Olympic teams of many nations, as well as professional sports teams. The last chiropractor thrown in jail in the US for "practicing medicine without a license", as the charge usually goes, was in 1974, in Louisiana, the last state to pass legislation enshrining chiropractic in law. In France this ridiculous situation went on until just last year when the profession was finally recognized and regulated. The 375 chiropractors in that country can breathe a collective sigh of relief now that the witch-hunt is finally over.

The profession of chiropractic is formally protected and recognized in legislation in over 20 countries, including Bolivia, Panama, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, China, the Philippines, Cyprus, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, to name a few. In many other countries, chiropractic is legally practiced under general law. The common features of chiropractic worldwide are: the right and obligation of diagnosis, the use of x-ray, and primary contact (i.e. the right to have direct contact with the public without the need of a medical referral).

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