Global Health Workforce: Nurses, Shortages and 2030 Projections

Nurses are the largest occupational group in the health workforce [1]. WHO estimates the number of nurses worldwide rose from 27.9 million in 2018 to 29.8 million in 2023 [1]. The 2025 State of the World's Nursing report, released on 12 May 2025, draws on data from 194 member states; the previous edition was published in 2020 [3].

The global nursing shortage fell from 6.2 million in 2020 to 5.8 million in 2023 [1]. If current trends continue, the shortage is projected to fall to 4.1 million by 2030 [1]. About 70% of that projected shortage would be concentrated in the WHO African and Eastern Mediterranean regions [1]. These two regions are expected to see little to no growth in nurse density by 2030 [3].

WHO projects the nursing workforce will reach about 36 million by 2030 if current trends continue [1]. Across all health occupations, WHO projects a shortfall of 11 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle-income countries [2]. This is smaller than the 18 million shortfall projected in the 2016 Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 [4].

The Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 is WHO's main guiding document for health workforce planning [2]. Projected gaps are uneven, so the regional distribution of training, hiring and retention matters as much as the global total [1][3].

Nurse counts and shortages come from the WHO nursing and midwifery fact sheet, which reflects the State of the World's Nursing 2025 report [1]. Release date and coverage details come from Becker's Hospital Review, which reports on the WHO report [3]; Becker's cites 27.8 million nurses in 2018 while the WHO fact sheet gives 27.9 million, and this report uses the WHO figure. The 11 million all-occupation shortfall comes from the WHO health workforce topic page [2], and the 18 million earlier projection comes from a peer-reviewed WHO-authored paper [4]. Values for 2030 are projections (F). No FREEE.REPORT calculations were used.