National health workforce accounts: health workforce levels and trends 2026

Overview

This report presents the 2026 edition of the National Health Workforce Accounts (NHWA) series, providing an overview of the status of NHWA implementation and an analysis of global and regional health workforce levels and trends based on official data reported by countries to the World Health Organization. Developed to support evidence-informed health workforce policy-making and planning, the report examines progress in strengthening national health workforce information systems, data availability and reporting across countries, and the use of standardized indicators to monitor human resources for health in support of universal health coverage, the Sustainable Development Goals and other health objectives.

Drawing on the 2025 NHWA data release, the report analyses the distribution, density and composition of the health and care workforce across regions and income groups, highlighting persistent disparities in workforce availability. It also examines trends in workforce growth since 2006 and presents a thematic analysis of population ageing and health workforce ageing, assessing their implications for future workforce needs. The findings demonstrate substantial improvements in the availability and quality of health workforce data through NHWA implementation while underscoring continuing challenges related to workforce shortages, inequities in distribution and the need for sustained investment in health workforce planning and monitoring.