Density of medical doctors (per 10,000 population) (2010-2018): 32.7
Density of nursing and midwifery personnel (per 10,000 population) (2010-2018): 114.7
Density of dentists (per 10,000 population) (2010-2019): 6.7
Density of pharmacists (per 10,000 population) (2010-2018): 10.6

Source: World health statistics 2020: monitoring health for the SDGs, sustainable development goals. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

Remuneration of Doctors, Ratio to Average Wage (2017)
General Practitioners: 2.9
Specialists: 2.2 (Salaried); 4.9 (Self-Employed)

Source: OECD (2019), Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4dd50c09-en.

Remuneration of Hospital Nurses, Ratio to Average Wage (2017): 0.9
Remuneration of Hospital Nurses, USD PPP (2017): $42,400

Source: OECD (2019), Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4dd50c09-en.

“The number of doctors per population has remained fairly stable over the past decade, whereas it has increased in most other EU countries, so the number of doctors in France is now below the EU average. In 2017, there were 3.2 doctors per 1 000 population, compared with 3.6 for the EU average. The number of nurses per population has increased from 7.6 per 1,000 population in 2007 to 10.5 per 1 000 population in 2017, and is above the EU average (Figure 9).

“However, there are wide disparities in the density of health professionals across regions, with some areas facing shortages. Concerns are also rising that the shortages of doctors may be exacerbated in the future, as a large share of doctors will retire in the next decade (see Section 5.2).”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2019), France: Country Health Profile 2019, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“An estimated 5.4 million people (8 % of the population) live in areas where access to GPs is potentially limited⁸ (DREES, 2017). These so-called ‘medical deserts’ are located mainly in rural areas and in distant suburbs of small towns and big cities. They are mostly concentrated in the central and the northwest parts of France (Figure 16).

“A series of initiatives has been taken over the past decade to address concerns about medical deserts, including financial support for doctors to set up their practices and various tax breaks. Since 2007, the main policy action to tackle this issue has been to create multidisciplinary medical homes to allow GPs and other health professionals to work in the same location to avoid working in solo practices. In 2017, 910 multidisciplinary medical homes were created and their number is expected to double by 2022. More recently, telemedicine options have also been of training places in all other encouraged (Section 5.3).”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2019), France: Country Health Profile 2019, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“About 5.3% of the French population works in the health care sector. Nurses and nursing aides form the largest group of professionals, accounting for approximately half of the health care workforce. Registered health professionals also include physicians, dentists, midwives, pharmacists, professionals involved in rehabilitation (physiotherapists, speech therapists, vision therapists, psychomotor therapists, occupational therapists and chiropodists) and technical paramedical professions (hearing aid specialists, orthoptists and radiographers). Other professions usually identified as contributing to health care include clerical and technical staff working in hospitals, laboratory technicians, paediatric auxiliaries, dieticians, psychologists and ambulance drivers.

“Workforce forecasting and planning of educational capacity is mostly made at the national level using a numerus clausus for medical professionals seeking to prevent shortages or oversupply. However, it does not control for the geographical distribution of medical professionals, as self-employed professionals are free to choose where they practise. In order to solve the resulting great disparities in the distribution of medical professionals, there has been increasing transfer of tasks from medical to other professionals such as nurses and the development of incentives for attracting health professionals to underserved areas.”

Source: Chevreul K, Berg Brigham K, Durand-Zaleski I, Hernández-Quevedo C. France: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2015; 17(3): 1–218.

“In France fee-for-service physician payment occurs within budget constraints set by parliament and the Ministry of the Economy and Finance. UNCAM [Union Nationale des Caisses d’Assurance Maladie] negotiates fees with representatives of the physicians unions. All physicians in the community and in private for-profit hospitals are reimbursed according to this fee schedule. Most public hospital physicians are paid on a part-time or full-time salaried basis. Although the state is not officially involved, it closely monitors the negotiations between UNCAM and the physicians unions.”

Source: Michael K. Gusmano, Miriam Laugesen, Victor G. Rodwin, and Lawrence D. Brown. Getting The Price Right: How Some Countries Control Spending In A Fee-For-Service System. Health Affairs 2020 39:11, 1867-1874.

“As a result of fee negotiations within expenditure targets, physicians in all three countries earn lower incomes than their US counterparts. For example, in 2016 generalist physicians in the US earned an average of $218,173. In comparison, generalists in France and Germany earned $111,769 and $154,126, respectively. Similarly, specialist physicians in the US earned an average of $316,000 in 2016, compared with $153,180 in France and $181,253 in Germany.³ Japanese physicians earned, on average, $124,558 in 2016; however, this is an average of generalist and specialist incomes.

“Policy makers in the US have been concerned that fee-for-service payment results in an excessive volume of services. The French response to excess volume was to impose expenditure targets in 1996 and 2010, but France exceeded its budget targets frequently.^12,25 Within the past decade physician fee increases and total annual spending have been held in line. This success reflects tighter political control by parliament, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, which has made budget constraints explicit for UNCAM [Union Nationale des Caisses d’Assurance Maladie] in negotiations with physicians unions.”

Source: Michael K. Gusmano, Miriam Laugesen, Victor G. Rodwin, and Lawrence D. Brown. Getting The Price Right: How Some Countries Control Spending In A Fee-For-Service System. Health Affairs 2020 39:11, 1867-1874.

Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and several other nations.

Page last updated Feb. 28, 2021 by Doug McVay, Editor.