Health care - Regions — Active physicians by country

About this data

Indicator

Health care - Regions — Active physicians

Unit

Per 1 000 inhabitants

Source

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Licence

OECD Terms and Conditions (attribution required)

Coverage

48 places, 1,174 data points, 1995–2025

Last refreshed

17 August 2026

<p style="text-align: justify;">This dataset provides indicators on healthcare resources in large regions (TL2), and small regions (TL3) when data is available. Indicators include doctor, practising nurses, hospital beds and hospital discharges.</p> <p><strong>Data definition and source</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>Doctors</strong> (physicians) are usually generalists who assume responsibility for the provision of continuing care to individuals and families, or specialists such as paediatricians, obstetricians/gynaecologists, psychiatrists, medical specialists and surgical specialists.&nbsp;</li> <li><strong>Practising nurses</strong> provide services directly to patients, it includes: professional nurses, associate professional nurses, foreign nurses licensed to practice and actively practising in the country. It excludes midwives unless they work most of the time as nurses.</li> <li><strong>Hospital beds </strong>are all hospital beds which are regularly maintained and staffed and immediately available for the care of admitted patients. They include beds in all hospitals, including general hospitals, mental health and substance abuse hospitals, and other specialty hospitals; occupied and unoccupied beds.</li> </ul> <p style="padding-left: 40px;">The three indicators above are measured per 1 000 inhabitants.</p> <ul> <li><strong>Hospital discharge</strong> is the formal release of a patient from a hospital, here for all causes of diseases (A00-Z99) and all hospitals. It includes discharges from all hospitals, including general hospitals (HP.1.1), mental health hospitals (HP.1.2), and other specialised hospitals (HP.1.3) ; Deaths in hospital ; Transfers to another hospital ; Discharges of healthy newborns. This indicator is measured per 100 000 inhabitants.</li> </ul> <p>Data is collected from Eurostat (reg_hlth) for EU countries and via delegates of the OECD Working Party on Territorial Indicators (WPTI), as well as from national statistical offices' websites.</p> <p><strong>Definition of regions</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Regions are subnational units below national boundaries. OECD countries have two regional levels: large regions (territorial level 2 or TL2) and small regions (territorial level 3 or TL3). For more information, see the OECD Territorial grid <a href="https://webfs-cfe.oecd.org/files/.Stat/region/OECD_territorial-grid_TL2024.pdf">(pdf)</a> and the OECD Territorial Correspondence Table <a href="https://webfs-cfe.oecd.org/files/.Stat/region/OECD%20Territorial%20correspondence%20-%20TL2024c.xlsx">(xlsx)</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Cite this dataset</strong></p> <p>OECD Regions, Cities and Local Areas database&nbsp;<a href="http://oe.cd/geostats">http://oe.cd/geostats</a>.</p> <p><strong>Further information</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="https://regions-cities-atlas.oecd.org/">OECD Regions and Cities Statistical Atlas</a>&nbsp;</li> <li><a href="https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-regions-and-cities-at-a-glance-2024_f42db3bf-en.html">OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance</a></li> </ul> <p>For questions and/or comments, please email <a href="mailto:RegionStat@oecd.org">RegionStat@oecd.org</a>.</p>