Nurses employed : OECD: Trend in number of nurses employed, per 1000, in selected countries, 1990-2004 (interactive figure)

Remarks

Total number of nurses employed refers to certified/registered nurses actively practicing in public and private hospitals, clinics and other health facilities, including self-employed. Fully-qualified nurses (with post-secondary education in nursing) and associate/practical/vocational nurses (with a lower level of nursing skills but also usually registered) should normally be included.

The following categories of workers should normally be excluded:

- Nursing aids/assistants and care workers who do not have any recognized qualification/certification in nursing.
- Midwives (however registered nurses working part-time as midwives should be included).
- Nurses working abroad, working in administrative, research and industry positions.

Note: The comparability of data on nurses is limited for a number of reasons. Some of the main variations in data coverage across countries are included in the table below with additional information.

Registration of nurses differs per country. For details see sources and methods of OECD Health Data.

Table with additional information

	Includes non-practicing nurses also^a	Includes retired professionals	Includes midwives	Includes self-employed		Includes non-practicing nurses also^a	Includes retired professionals	Includes midwives	Includes self-employed
Austria	no	no	-	no	Italy	no	no	-	no
Belgium	-	-	yes	-	Luxembourg	no	no	no	yes
Czech Republic	no	no	yes	yes	Norway	no	no	-	yes
Denmark	no	no	no	no	Netherlands	yes	-	-	-
Finland	no	no	-	yes	Portugal^b	-	no	-	no
France	yes	no	yes	yes	Poland	no	yes	-	-
Germany	no	no	no	yes	Spain	no	no	yes	yes
Greece	yes	no	-	-	Sweden ^c	no	no	-	yes
Hungary	no	no	yes	yes	Switzerland	-	-	-	-
Iceland	yes	no	yes	yes	United Kingdom	no	no	yes	no
Ireland	no	no	-	yes

^a Non-practising means the person may work in administration, research, in another field or be unemployed.
^b Until 1999, the figures refer to the number of nurses working in public and private health institutions (hospitals and health centres). Data is over estimated because nurses working both for public and private institutions are double counted.
^cFrom 1990 the figures are estimations. To get ‘active nurses’, the number of certified nurses each year is multiplied by 72.7%, which in 1990 was the difference between the number of nurses counted in the population census and the number published in the register of certified nurses.The series on nurses are not consistent with the other health employment series (the information is coming from different registers).