Progress
On track or target met
On track or target met

Desired direction: Increase

Sub-categories

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Headline data

Health worker density and distribution
Year Value Units
2020 170.3 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2014 154.1 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2021 173.2 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2016 159.5 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2013 150.8 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2017 161.6 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2023 187.6 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2015 156.7 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2011 147.2 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2018 164.2 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2012 149.0 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2010 143.5 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2019 167.0 Per 10,000 inhabitants
2022 176.4 Per 10,000 inhabitants

Geographical Area:

Unit of Measurement:

Footnote:

Methodological sheet of the indicator available for the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.

Available indicator

Health worker density and distribution
Target

3.c Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States
Goal

3- Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Definition

Number of registered health workers per 10,000 inhabitants by healthcare occupation
Theoretical formula \[TPSC_{health\, worker}^{t} = \frac{PSC_{health\, worker}^{t}}{P^{t+1}} \cdot 10.000\]

where:

$PSC_{health\, worker}^{t} =$ number of health workers registered in the healthcare speciality as of 31 December in year $t$

$P^{t+1} =$ total population as of 1 January of year $t+1$
Available disaggregations

Healthcare profession

Sex

Province
Frequency

Annual
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Indicator calculated using a methodology harmonised across the central statistical bodies of the autonomous communities
Data last updated 2025/06/18
Metadata last updated 2025/06/18

This section provides more information about the United Nations indicator or the European Union Sustainable Development Indicator, such as its rationale, international results, metadata, and other relevant statistics.

Rationale

A health workforce of adequate size and skill mix, as well as required teachers and trainers, are critical to the attainment of any population health goal. This includes the achievement of universal health coverage and the health-related targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Yet countries globally are affected by health workforce challenges of a multifaceted nature, such as difficulties in the education and training, deployment, performance and retention of their health workforces. A suboptimal allocation of health workers is one of the main challenges that directly influences the availability, accessibility, quality and performance of national health services. In the worst case, this may leave populations with inadequate access to the health services they need. It is clear that efforts to achieve the SDGs and UHC are thwarted by these health workforce challenges.

Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners developed the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 (GSHRH), which sets out the policy agenda to ensure a health workforce that is fit for purpose to attain the targets of UHC and the SDGs (WHO 2016c).

Source: United Nations Statistics Division
Comparability between the available indicator and the UN indicator

The available indicator complies with United Nations metadata.
International results

Health worker density, by type of occupation (per 10,000 population) SH_MED_DEN UNSTATS
Link to UN metadata

Metadata 3-c-1.pdf
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