The world will be short of 11.1 million health workers by 2030, and 67 countries will not have enough to meet their populations’ needs, according to a new World Health Organization report published on 19 October 2026.
The report, National health workforce accounts: health workforce levels and trends 2026, is the first in a new annual series based on official data that countries report to WHO.
Key findings
- Growth: health workforce density (doctors, nursing and midwifery personnel, dentists and pharmacists) rose by 52%, from 44.8 to 67.9 per 10,000 people between 2006 and 2025.
- Size: more than 70 million health and care workers are employed worldwide.
- Shortage: a projected gap of 11.1 million health workers by 2030; 67 countries will fall short.
- Inequality: the density of nursing and midwifery personnel is six times higher in the WHO European Region than in the African Region. For doctors, the gap is 13-fold.
- Ageing: nearly one in four doctors is over 55 and will retire within the next decade, rising to nearly one in three in high-income countries.
- Data: more than 90% of WHO member states reported workforce data in 2025, nearly 20 times more than when the system launched in 2017.
Dr Khassoum Diallo, Acting Unit Head of Health Workforce Policies and Data at the WHO Academy, said: “Despite gains in workforce production and data reporting, uneven and severe shortages of health and care workers remain.” On retirement, he warned: “Ageing is the hidden health workforce crisis that requires urgent attention.” He noted that health worker density is strongly linked to national income.
WHO calls for future-focused action on workforce planning, education, employment and retention, describing investment in health and care workers as essential to strengthening health systems.
What it means for nurses
Nurses and midwives make up the largest share of the health workforce. WHO’s State of the World’s Nursing 2025 report, published in May 2025, counted about 29.8 million nurses worldwide and found the global nursing shortage was easing slowly, but warned that most of the gap is concentrated in Africa, South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, and that about one in seven nurses works outside the country where they were born or trained.
Taken together, the reports describe a familiar pattern:
- High-income countries face ageing workforces and rising demand, so they will keep recruiting internationally.
- African countries, with the lowest nurse density, often also have unemployed nurses because posts are unfunded, and lose experienced staff to migration.
- Ethical recruitment rules, such as the WHO Global Code of Practice and the WHO health workforce support and safeguards list, aim to stop wealthy countries from draining the most fragile systems.
The policy choices ahead
- Fund posts, not just training: countries that train nurses but cannot employ them lose them.
- Retention: pay, safe staffing, career progression, housing and rural incentives.
- Expanded roles: nurse prescribing and task-sharing make better use of the existing workforce.
- Bilateral agreements that share benefits, as Ghana and others are now negotiating.
- Data: national workforce accounts help governments plan.
Related: Ghana’s nurse export deals · Gauteng short of 4,000 nurses · Indian nurses going abroad
Sources: WHO news release on National health workforce accounts: health workforce levels and trends 2026 (19 October 2026); WHO State of the World’s Nursing 2025.