Germany: Medical Personnel

Density of medical doctors (per 10,000 population) (2009-2018): 42.1
Density of nursing and midwifery personnel (per 10,000 population) (2009-2018): 132.0
Density of dentists (per 10,000 population) (2009-2018): 8.6
Density of pharmacists (per 10,000 population) (2009-2018): 6.4

Source: World health statistics 2019: monitoring health for the SDGs, sustainable development goals. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

Remuneration of Doctors, Ratio to Average Wage (2017)
General Practitioners: 4.4
Specialists: 3.5 (Salaried); 5.4 (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): 1.1
Remuneration of Hospital Nurses, USD PPP (2017): $53,600

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

“In 2017, the number of doctors (4.3) and nurses (12.0) per 1 000 population in Germany was higher than the EU averages (doctors 3.6 and nurses 8.5). In particular, the number of doctors in hospitals has grown substantially since the 2004 introduction of a hospital payment system based on diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), while the number of nurses declined. Numbers of doctors have also grown in ambulatory care, but the share of general practitioners (GPs) has decreased since 2000. In 2016, only 16.7 % of doctors worked as GPs, which was 25 % lower than the average share in the EU. Recent reform efforts have focused on recruiting GPs in remote and rural areas, where the shortage of health care personnel is an important health system challenge (Section 5.2).”

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

“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.

“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.

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 Oct. 20, 2021 by Doug McVay, Editor.