{"version":1,"asset_type":"statistical_series","data_type":"time_series","slug":"europe-nurses-by-country","url":"https://apiardata.com/statistics/europe-nurses-by-country","html_url":"https://apiardata.com/statistics/europe-nurses-by-country/","title":"Nurses per 100,000 Inhabitants in Europe by Country (2024)","description":"Practising nurses per 100,000 inhabitants across 30 European countries in 2024: 1,524 in Norway against 106 in Romania, the widest spread in Europe's health workforce data. Eurostat figures.","domain":"health","category":"Health","keywords":["Health","Health Workforce","Nurses","Europe","Eurostat"],"publisher":"Eurostat","frequency":"Annual","temporal_coverage":"2009/2024","unit":"per 100,000 inhabitants","last_updated":"2026-07-25","last_updated_text":"25 July 2026","data_as_of":"2024","variable_measured":"Practising nurses per 100,000 inhabitants","license":"https://apiardata.com/data-license","is_accessible_for_free":true,"sources":[{"name":"Eurostat","url":"https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/HLTH_RS_PRS2/default/table"}],"meta":[{"label":"Frequency","value":"Annual"},{"label":"Reference year","value":"2024"},{"label":"Coverage","value":"2009–2024"},{"label":"Countries","value":"30"},{"label":"Last updated","value":"25 July 2026"}],"kpis":[{"label":"Average of the panel (2024)","value":"799","unit":"nurses per 100,000 inhabitants","trend":{"direction":"up","value":"+10 vs 2023"}},{"label":"Highest","value":"1,524","unit":"Norway"},{"label":"Lowest","value":"106","unit":"Romania"},{"label":"Countries ranked","value":"30","unit":"with a published figure"}],"series":[{"key":"value","label":"Average practising nurses per 100,000 inhabitants"}],"observation_count":15,"observations":[{"period":"2009","value":650},{"period":"2010","value":659},{"period":"2011","value":671},{"period":"2013","value":703},{"period":"2014","value":714},{"period":"2015","value":713},{"period":"2016","value":715},{"period":"2017","value":724},{"period":"2018","value":732},{"period":"2019","value":761},{"period":"2020","value":771},{"period":"2021","value":784},{"period":"2022","value":784},{"period":"2023","value":789},{"period":"2024","value":799}],"table":{"columns":[{"key":"rank","label":"#"},{"key":"country","label":"Country"},{"key":"value","label":"per 100,000 inhabitants"},{"key":"yoyChange","label":"Change vs 2023"}],"rows":[{"rank":"1","country":"Norway","value":"1,524","yoyChange":"-33"},{"rank":"2","country":"Luxembourg","value":"1,472","yoyChange":"+6"},{"rank":"3","country":"Ireland","value":"1,419","yoyChange":"+53"},{"rank":"4","country":"Finland","value":"1,290","yoyChange":"+15"},{"rank":"5","country":"Germany","value":"1,251","yoyChange":"+27"},{"rank":"6","country":"Switzerland","value":"1,215","yoyChange":"+12"},{"rank":"7","country":"Netherlands","value":"1,123","yoyChange":"+10"},{"rank":"8","country":"Sweden","value":"1,114","yoyChange":"+14"},{"rank":"9","country":"Denmark","value":"1,053","yoyChange":"+6"},{"rank":"10","country":"Iceland","value":"1,032","yoyChange":"+36"},{"rank":"11","country":"Austria","value":"1,015","yoyChange":"-15"},{"rank":"12","country":"Czechia","value":"799","yoyChange":"+7"},{"rank":"13","country":"Malta","value":"797","yoyChange":"+51"},{"rank":"14","country":"Lithuania","value":"770","yoyChange":"+22"},{"rank":"15","country":"Liechtenstein","value":"737","yoyChange":"+37"},{"rank":"16","country":"Portugal","value":"721","yoyChange":"+29"},{"rank":"17","country":"Serbia","value":"711","yoyChange":"+10"},{"rank":"18","country":"Italy","value":"692","yoyChange":"+9"},{"rank":"19","country":"Estonia","value":"683","yoyChange":"+19"},{"rank":"20","country":"Poland","value":"601","yoyChange":"+12"},{"rank":"21","country":"Spain","value":"573","yoyChange":"-15"},{"rank":"22","country":"Slovenia","value":"521","yoyChange":"+11"},{"rank":"23","country":"Cyprus","value":"519","yoyChange":"-2"},{"rank":"24","country":"Hungary","value":"460","yoyChange":"+9"},{"rank":"25","country":"Bulgaria","value":"441","yoyChange":"-2"},{"rank":"26","country":"Latvia","value":"414","yoyChange":"-1"},{"rank":"27","country":"Croatia","value":"265","yoyChange":"+13"},{"rank":"28","country":"Greece","value":"248","yoyChange":"+7"},{"rank":"29","country":"Montenegro","value":"122","yoyChange":"+2"},{"rank":"30","country":"Romania","value":"106","yoyChange":"+6"}]},"qa":[{"question":"Which European country has the most nurses per capita?","answer":"Norway, with 1,524 practising nurses per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024, followed by Luxembourg, Ireland and Finland. Each of the leaders is a high-income country with tax-funded or heavily regulated care and a large publicly employed long-term care workforce, which is where a substantial part of the nursing headcount sits."},{"question":"Why is the nurse gap between European countries so much wider than the doctor gap?","answer":"Because the two numbers are set by different mechanisms. Physician supply is governed by training pipelines fixed years in advance and by mutual recognition of qualifications across the EU, so it converges. Nurse numbers are a recurring budget decision about how much labour a health system buys, revisited every year and constrained by pay levels that are far below western European rates in the countries at the bottom of this table. The spread here is roughly 14 to one; for physicians it is closer to two to one across the same countries."},{"question":"Are nurse numbers in Europe rising?","answer":"Slowly. The panel average was 799 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024, +10 on 2023. Ireland added the most over the year at +53 and Norway, from the top of the table, lost the most at -33. Set against demand, the growth is thin: the share of Europeans over 80 is rising considerably faster than the nursing workforce is."}]}