Wealthy European countries’ reliance on foreign-born nurses is exacerbating the shortage of 5.8 million nurses across the globe, according to a new report.
The world’s nursing workforce reached 29.8 million in 2023, up from 27.9 million five years earlier. But gaps remain, and there are major differences between wealthier and poorer countries, according to the report compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other groups.
“We cannot ignore the inequalities that mark the global nursing landscape,” WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The European region, which also includes Central Asia, is home to 7.2 million nurses and expects to add another million by 2030.
There are 76.9 nurses per 10,000 people – a rate five times higher than in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean (which encompasses areas of North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and West and Central Asia).
But Europe’s nurses – who make up about three in five medical workers – are facing challenges that could have consequences for health across the continent.
Here’s how they stack up.
An ageing workforce
In about 20 countries worldwide – mostly wealthy European nations – the number of new nurses entering the workforce is not keeping pace with demand for their services, the report found.
That’s due to a combination of nurses who retire and are not replaced quickly enough, as well as an overall ageing population with more complex health needs.
In 2023, for example, 31 per cent of Europe’s nurses were under the age of 35, while 21 per cent were 55 or older. But in Eastern Europe, older nurses make up a greater share of the workforce than younger nurses.
Reliance on international recruitment
In 23 European countries with data, 14 per cent of nurses are foreign-born, a level that is on par with the rest of the globe but makes these areas reliant on international recruitment to fill gaps in the workforce.
Another 10 per cent of nurses were trained elsewhere.
The WHO report said wealthy countries have made “inadequate investments in education” in their own countries, and that their efforts to bring more nurses in from lower-income countries are worsening nursing shortages there.
There are “striking inequalities in workforce distribution which have driven a surge in international recruitment and inequitable migration patterns,” Howard Catton, CEO of the umbrella group International Council of Nurses, said in a statement.
Training new talent
Despite its challenges, Europe has a more robust pipeline for new nurses than most parts of the world. For every 100,000 people, there were 42.7 new nurse graduates in 2023, compared with a rate of 25.3 globally.
Many of the region’s new nurses come from Central Asia, with western Europe producing far fewer graduates.
The average wage for entry-level nurses in Europe was $2,508 (€2,205) per month, the report found. Even after taking purchasing power into account, European nurses had the highest starting pay in the world.
The region is also better-equipped to help nurses advance their careers, according to the report.
About two in three countries worldwide have leadership development programmes for nurses, with the highest rate in Europe at 78 per cent.
But wealthy European countries should take steps to boost enrollment in nursing training programmes and incentivise nurses to stay in the profession, the report said.
