Shipman was born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, the son of Vera and Harold Shipman, who was a council lorry driver. His working class parents were devout Methodists.
Shipman was particularly close to his mother, who died during his teenage years.
Shipman graduated from Leeds School of Medicine in 1970, and started work at Pontefract General Infirmary in Pontefract, West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1974, he took his first position as a general practitioner (GP) in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. In 1975 he was caught forging prescriptions of pethidine for his own use. He was fined £600, and briefly attended a drug rehabilitation clinic in York. After a brief spell as medical officer for Hatfield College, Durham, and temporary work for the National Coal Board, he became a GP at the Donneybrook Medical Centre in Hyde, Cheshire, in 1977.