Nurses — Health and social employment by country
This dataset provides data on the number of nurses by status (ie. practising nurses, professionally active nurses, and nurses licenced to practice) and category (ie. Professional nurses and associate professional nurses). Practising nurses provide services directly to patients. Professionally active nurses include...
What the numbers show
Nurses — Health and social employment is currently reported for 24 countries. The highest value is 31.78 Per 1 000 inhabitants in Iceland; the lowest is 4.9 Per 1 000 inhabitants in Chile.
The median across all reporting countries is 13.13 Per 1 000 inhabitants, and the mean is 15.1 Per 1 000 inhabitants.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 6.
Nurses — Health and social employment: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iceland | 31.78 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 8.9% | rising |
| 2 | Norway | 29.13 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 16.3% | rising |
| 3 | Luxembourg | 22.33 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2012 | up 11.8% | rising |
| 4 | Finland | 21.14 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 14.0% | rising |
| 5 | Sweden | 21.08 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 7.9% | rising |
| 6 | Belgium | 20.26 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 19.1% | rising |
| 7 | United States | 20.22 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 23.4% | rising |
| 8 | Denmark | 19.67 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 9.9% | rising |
| 9 | Australia | 18.01 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 21.0% | rising |
| 10 | Ireland | 17.13 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 23.5% | rising |
| 11 | New Zealand | 16.06 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 40.4% | rising |
| 12 | Serbia | 13.29 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 51.0% | rising |
| 13 | Austria | 12.98 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 15.1% | rising |
| 14 | Hungary | 12.76 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 17.1% | rising |
| 15 | Canada | 12.08 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 5.2% | rising |
| 16 | Romania | 11.87 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 86.1% | rising |
| 17 | Czechia | 11.54 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2016 | up 24.9% | rising |
| 18 | United Kingdom | 10.67 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2023 | up 7.2% | flat |
| 19 | Israel | 8.79 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 22.9% | rising |
| 20 | Italy | 7.9 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 13.7% | rising |
| 21 | Spain | 7.02 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 22.9% | rising |
| 22 | Argentina | 6.34 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2023 | up 26.0% | rising |
| 23 | Cyprus | 5.52 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 9.7% | rising |
| 24 | Chile | 4.9 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 125.8% | rising |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
About this data
This dataset provides data on the number of nurses by status (ie. practising nurses, professionally active nurses, and nurses licenced to practice) and category (ie. Professional nurses and associate professional nurses). Practising nurses provide services directly to patients. Professionally active nurses include practising nurses and other nurses for whom their education is a prerequisite for the execution of the job. A nurse licensed to practice has completed a programme of nursing education and is qualified and authorised in his/her country to practice nursing. They include practising and other (non-practising) nurses. Professional nurses assume responsibility for the planning and management of the care of patients, including the supervision of other healthcare workers, working autonomously or in teams with medical doctors and others in the practical application of preventive and curative measures. Associate professional nurses generally work under the supervision of, and in support of implementation of healthcare, treatment and referrals plans established by medical, nursing and other health professionals. Please refer to the Sources and Methods for detailed country-specific information.