Health workforce densities vary 5-fold between countries, with medical doctor-, nurse- and midwife-to-population density ranges being between 54.3 to over 200 per 10 000 population.
Strong country-level variations exist, particularly for nurse density, which ranges from 27.0 in Türkiye to 183.7 in Switzerland, and 202.7 in Monaco.
Although overall the health care workforce of medical doctors, nurses and midwives in the Region increased by 10% over a 10-year period between 2010 and 2020, it declined by 15% in central Asia and by 6% in eastern Europe.
24 of the 44 countries that reported data on workforce age composition have a workforce in which around 30% of medical doctors are aged 55 years or older.
Women constitute the majority of the nursing workforce in all countries, and the percentage of female medical doctors in the WHO European Region increased from approximately 43% in 2010 to 48% in 2020.
61.3% of the health and care workforce in the Region are nurses and midwives, and the majority are women.
In the WHO European Region, several professions showed strong growth, with the number of medical doctor graduates increasing by 37%, dentists by 29% and nurses by 26% over a period of 10 years.
Of note is the fall in the number of midwifery graduates in central Asia, eastern and southern Europe (–30%, –20% and –14%, respectively). The number of those employed in midwifery in the Region as a whole had the lowest growth, at just 4% over a decade.
Despite an overall increase, there is wide variability in the numbers of health care graduates entering health care professions, with some countries producing insufficient numbers to meet the needs of their health systems. In some countries, for medical doctors and nurses, the numbers of graduates as a percentage of the health care workforce is under 1% (that is, not sufficient to replace losses).
In relation to health outcomes, available data suggest that subregions reporting lower life expectancy and higher maternal mortality, under-5 mortality and noncommunicable disease mortality rates tend to have lower health care workforce density.
