Health care - Regions — Practising nurses by country
<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...
What the numbers show
Health care - Regions — Practising nurses is currently reported for 25 countries. The highest value is 19.02 Per 1 000 inhabitants in Switzerland; the lowest is 0.42 Per 1 000 inhabitants in Costa Rica.
The median across all reporting countries is 7.99 Per 1 000 inhabitants, and the mean is 8.77 Per 1 000 inhabitants.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 45.
Over the past decade 20 countries rose and 4 fell. The largest increase was in Romania (up 36.0%), and the largest decrease in Netherlands, The (down 14.7%).
Health care - Regions — Practising nurses: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Switzerland | 19.02 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 17.7% | rising |
| 2 | Norway | 15.24 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | down 10.5% | rising |
| 3 | Ireland | 14.17 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | — | rising |
| 4 | Denmark | 12.86 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2021 | up 10.0% | rising |
| 5 | Australia | 12.77 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2021 | up 14.7% | rising |
| 6 | Japan | 12.56 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 14.6% | rising |
| 7 | Belgium | 11.42 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2023 | up 11.7% | rising |
| 8 | Sweden | 11 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2023 | up 0.3% | rising |
| 9 | France | 10.97 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2021 | up 30.1% | rising |
| 10 | Netherlands, The | 10.84 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2020 | down 14.7% | falling |
| 11 | Canada | 9.93 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2021 | up 5.6% | flat |
| 12 | Romania | 8.38 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 36.0% | rising |
| 13 | Portugal | 7.99 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 25.4% | rising |
| 14 | Croatia, Republic of | 7.79 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 16.3% | rising |
| 15 | Lithuania, Republic of | 7.7 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 1.4% | rising |
| 16 | Italy | 6.83 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2023 | up 34.7% | rising |
| 16 | Estonia, Republic of | 6.83 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 19.0% | rising |
| 18 | Poland, Republic of | 6.01 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 14.7% | rising |
| 19 | Spain | 5.73 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 11.3% | rising |
| 20 | Hungary | 5.63 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | down 13.3% | falling |
| 21 | Israel | 5.55 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2023 | up 18.6% | flat |
| 22 | Latvia, Republic of | 4.14 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | down 9.8% | falling |
| 23 | Greece | 3.85 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2024 | up 19.2% | rising |
| 24 | Colombia | 1.6 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2025 | up 27.0% | rising |
| 25 | Costa Rica | 0.42 Per 1 000 inhabitants | 2021 | up 27.3% | rising |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- Korea 10.28 Per 1 000 inhabitants
About this data
<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. </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>. </p> <p><strong>Cite this dataset</strong></p> <p>OECD Regions, Cities and Local Areas database <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> </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>