WHO estimates global nurse shortage at 5.8 million

Widespread shortages and vast inequities continue to plague the global nursing workforce, a new report has revealed.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2025 State of the World’s Nursing (SoWN) report uses data collected from 194 countries to paint a detailed picture of the nursing experience across borders, reporting on education, employment, migration, regulation, working conditions, leadership and more.

While progress has been made to address global nursing workforce shortages (estimated at 6.2 million in 2020 with a projection to decline to 4.1 million by 2030) WHO states that “overall progress still masks deep regional disparities,” with around 78 per cent of the world’s nurses concentrated in countries representing just 49 per cent of the global population.

“This report contains encouraging news, for which we congratulate the countries that are making progress,” said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“However, we cannot ignore the inequalities that mark the global nursing landscape [...] I urge countries and partners to use this report as a signpost, showing us where we’ve come from, where we are now, and where we need to go – as rapidly as possible.”

Gender and equity

The numbers show that gender and equity remain the two key issues for nurses worldwide, with women representing a staggering 85 per cent of the global nursing workforce.

Similarly, WHO highlights the importance of mental health and wellbeing, reporting that less than half (42 per cent) of all responding countries have provisions for nurses’ mental health support, “despite increased workloads and trauma experienced during and since the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Australian College of Nursing’s (ACN) chief executive Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz said the report is a call to action, urging the government to invest in its country's nurses.

“Australia is amongst the high-income countries supplementing its nursing workforce by sourcing nurses from low-income countries. This report highlights the moral imperative for us to increase our efforts to reduce our reliance on international recruitment,” she said.

Twenty-three per cent of nurses working in high-income countries like Australia are foreign-born, a statistic that is significantly less in regions of lower income.

“The failure to address workforce shortages places extreme strain on nurses, as there are fewer of them to care for the growing number of patients who are older, sicker and amidst more climate-related health emergencies.

“This makes it increasingly challenging to retain nurses who are leaving the profession, and it makes it difficult to portray nursing as an attractive career option,” Professor Zeitz said.

“ACN urges policy makers to use the information in the report to ensure that Australia is making the necessary investments in nursing education, jobs, leadership and service delivery to meet the growing healthcare challenges of our population.”

International Council of Nurses (ICN) chief and co-chair of the SoWN report Howard Catton said more can and must be done to address these ongoing issues.

“In the five years since the first SoWN report, nurses have played a vital role in responding to multiple global crises and health challenges, yet support for the nursing workforce has been inconsistent and slow,” he said.

“The global nursing shortage remains largely unchanged, protections against violence are insufficient, and we are seeing poor compensation, inadequate measures to ensure safe staffing and mental health support, and striking inequalities in workforce distribution, which have driven a surge in international recruitment and inequitable migration patterns.”

WHO is calling upon countries to:

• Expand and equitably distribute nursing jobs, especially in underserved regions;
• Strengthen domestic education systems and align qualifications with defined roles;
• Improve working conditions, pay equity, and mental well-being support;
• Further develop nursing regulation and advanced practice nursing roles;
• Promote gender equity and protect nurses working in fragile, conflict-affected settings;
• Harness digital technologies and prepare nurses for climate-responsive care; and
• Advance nursing leadership and ensure leadership development opportunities are equitable.

“We are used to nurses safeguarding society from catastrophic health outcomes when disaster strikes, just as airbags deploy to protect us in a collision. But without immediate action to invest in and care for our nursing workforce, we risk a perilous future where the nursing airbag will not inflate to offer vital protection to individuals’ and populations’ health,” Mr Catton said.

“The new SoWN report offers us a compass direction, a true north to guide us to build the strong, sustainable, supported nursing workforce we need to support the world’s health and achieve Universal Health Coverage.

“We now need the world’s leaders to follow this compass, which depends on facing up to the challenges and taking immediate action. ICN calls on governments worldwide to demonstrate the same courage and commitment that nurses show every day in serving their communities across the globe – by investing in nursing.”