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Density of medical doctors (per 10,000 population), 2015-2023: 45.34
Density of nursing and midwifery personnel (per 10,000 population), 2016-2023: 122.49
Density of dentists (per 10,000 population), 2016-2023: 8.48
Density of pharmacists (per 10,000 population), 2015-2023: 6.71

Source: World health statistics 2025: monitoring health for the SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals. Tables of health statistics by country and area, WHO region and globally. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

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Hospital workforce per 1,000 population, 2021
– Physicians: 2.55
– Nurses and midwives: 6.5
– Healthcare assistants: 0.82
– Other health service providers: 4.13
– Other staff: 3.77
– Total: 17.8
Practicing doctors per 1,000 population, 2021: 4.5
Share of different categories of doctors, 2021
– General practitioners: 16.1%
– Specialists: 77.2%
– Other doctors: 6.8%
Share of foreign-trained doctors, 2021: 13.8% (Note: Data based on nationality (not on place of training).)
Medical graduates per 100,000 population, 2021: 12.4
Practicing nurses per 1,000 population, 2021: 12.0
Share of foreign-trained nurses, 2021: 9.6% (Note: Data based on nationality (not on place of training).)
Nursing graduates per 100,000 population, 2021: 44.2
Ratio of nurses to doctors, 2021: 2.7
Practicing pharmacists per 100,000 population, 2021: 67
Community pharmacies per 100,000 population, 2021: 23
Remuneration of doctors, ratio to average wage, 2021:
– General Practitioners
– Self-employed: 5.04
– Specialists
– Salaried: 3.4
– Self-employed: 5.64
Remuneration of hospital nurses, ratio to average wage, 2018: 1.1
Remuneration of hospital nurses, USD PPP, 2018: $60,000
Long-term care workers per 100 people aged 65 and over, 2021: 5.5
Share of informal carers among the population aged 50 and over, 2019
– Daily carers: 9%
– Weekly carers: 9%
Share of long-term care workers who work part time or on fixed contracts, 2021
– Part-time: 71%
– Fixed-term contract: 12.3%
Average hourly wages of personal care workers, as a share of economy-wide average wage, 2018
– Residential (facility-based) care: 67%
– Home-based care: 64%

Source: OECD (2023), Health at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi.org/10.1787/7a7afb35-en.

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“Germany also has high numbers of physicians and nurses, with per population ratios and growth rates well above the EU average (Figure 9). Growth in physician numbers has been particularly strong for hospital physicians. Since 2004, when the diagnosis-related group (DRG)-based hospital payment system was introduced, the number of doctors (by head count) in hospitals increased by 42% (from 138,000 to 196,000 in 2017), while the number of doctors in ambulatory care increased by 25%. Nevertheless, given the high number of hospital beds, the physician to bed ratio is comparatively low, and the nurse to bed ratio is one of the lowest in the EU.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2021), Germany: Country Health Profile 2021, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

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“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.”

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.

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“Mechanisms for planning human resources hardly exist in Germany and are only available for SHI [Statutory Health Insurance] physicians and psychotherapists in ambulatory care, and for some study programmes. Places for academic training at universities in medicine, pharmacy and dentistry are limited by individual universities. The ratio between the number of applicants and the available places is between 2:1 and 5:1 (see Section 4.2.4 Training of health workers). The number of training schools and the number of training places for allied health professions are not restricted.

“Under Germany’s federal structure, the states are responsible for regulating and financing education, as well as for registering and supervising health professions. The state ministries of health are responsible for the registration of health care professionals and grant licences to practise (approbation) for physicians, psychotherapists, pharmacists and dentists, and authorize the use of professional titles for the other allied health care professions. In general, the respective chambers of physicians, psychotherapists, dentists, pharmacists and nurses (the latter only available in three states) are responsible for the organization, implementation and supervision of further training activities. Re-accreditation (relicensing) is not required in any of the health professions.”

Source: Blümel M, Spranger A, Achstetter K, Maresso A, Busse R. Germany: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(6): pp.i–273.

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

Page last updated July 18, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.