Pharmacists — Health and social employment by country
This dataset provides data on the number of pharmacists by status (ie. practising pharmacists, professionally active pharmacists, and pharmacists licenced to practice). Practising pharmacists prepare, dispense or sell medicaments and drugs for patients and provide advice. Professionally active pharmacists are...
What the numbers show
Pharmacists — Health and social employment is currently reported for 22 countries. The highest value is 2.65 Per 1 000 inhabitants in Malta; the lowest is 0.58 Per 1 000 inhabitants in Argentina.
The median across all reporting countries is 1.46 Per 1 000 inhabitants, and the mean is 1.48 Per 1 000 inhabitants.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 5.
Over the past decade 21 countries rose and 1 fell. The largest increase was in Chile (up 86.4%), and the largest decrease in Argentina (down 1.7%).
Pharmacists — Health and social employment: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Malta | 2.65 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 6.4% | rising |
| 2 | Belgium | 2.19 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 22.3% | rising |
| 3 | Iceland | 2.09 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 18.8% | rising |
| 4 | Finland | 2.04 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 11.5% | rising |
| 5 | Portugal | 1.88 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 46.9% | rising |
| 6 | Italy | 1.82 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 22.1% | rising |
| 7 | Sweden | 1.72 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 22.9% | rising |
| 8 | Spain | 1.66 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 12.9% | rising |
| 9 | Norway | 1.55 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 44.9% | rising |
| 10 | Hungary | 1.5 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 20.0% | rising |
| 11 | Australia | 1.47 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 20.5% | rising |
| 12 | Ireland | 1.46 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 21.7% | rising |
| 13 | Denmark | 1.24 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2023 | up 18.1% | rising |
| 13 | Serbia | 1.24 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 61.0% | rising |
| 15 | Israel | 1.17 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 20.6% | rising |
| 15 | Canada | 1.17 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 9.3% | rising |
| 17 | Germany | 1.14 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 10.7% | rising |
| 17 | Romania | 1.14 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2020 | up 56.2% | rising |
| 19 | Montenegro | 1.12 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 60.0% | rising |
| 20 | New Zealand | 1.01 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 1.0% | flat |
| 21 | Chile | 0.82 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 86.4% | rising |
| 22 | Argentina | 0.58 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2023 | down 1.7% | flat |
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 pharmacists by status (ie. practising pharmacists, professionally active pharmacists, and pharmacists licenced to practice). Practising pharmacists prepare, dispense or sell medicaments and drugs for patients and provide advice. Professionally active pharmacists are practising pharmacists and other pharmacists for whom their education in pharmacy is a prerequisite for the execution of the job. Pharmacists licensed to practice include practising and other (non-practising) pharmacists who are registered and entitled to practice. Please refer to the Sources and Methods for detailed country-specific information.