---

Density of medical doctors (per 10,000 population), 2015-2023: 28.19
Density of nursing and midwifery personnel (per 10,000 population), 2016-2023: 112.57
Density of dentists (per 10,000 population), 2016-2023: 6.53
Density of pharmacists (per 10,000 population), 2015-2023: 11.42

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.

---

Hospital workforce per 1,000 population, 2021
– Physicians: 0.99
– Nurses and midwives: 6.44
– Healthcare assistants: 1.54
– Other health service providers: 2.49
– Other staff: 5.86
Practicing doctors per 1,000 population, 2021: 2.8
Share of different categories of doctors, 2021
– General practitioners: 47.4%
– Specialists: 52.6%
Share of foreign-trained doctors, 2021: 24.0%
Medical graduates per 100,000 population, 2021: 7.5
Practicing nurses per 1,000 population, 2021: 10.3
Share of foreign-trained nurses, 2021: 8.8%
Nursing graduates per 100,000 population, 2021: 52.7
Ratio of nurses to doctors, 2021: 3.7
Practicing pharmacists per 100,000 population, 2021: 105
Community pharmacies per 100,000 population, 2021: 30
Remuneration of doctors, ratio to average wage, 2021
– General Practitioners
– Self-employed: 2.7
– Specialists
– Self-employed: 4.2
Remuneration of hospital nurses, ratio to average wage, 2021: 1.1
Remuneration of hospital nurses, USD PPP, 2021: $60,000
Long-term care workers per 100 people aged 65 and over, 2021: 3.8
Share of long-term care workers who work part time or on fixed contracts, 2021
– Part-time: 57.2%

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

---

“During the past decade, PT government decision-makers throughout Canada have expressed concerns about HHR shortages, in particular doctors and nurses. In response, these governments implemented policies to increase educational enrolments as well as recruit professionals from outside their respective jurisdictions and from other countries. This shift contrasts with the period in the early to mid-1990s when governments were concerned about surpluses and actively worked with the professions and postsecondary institutions to curtail the supply of both physicians and nurses as well as reduce the number of new entrants into these professions (Tuohy, 2002; Chan, 2002a; Evans & McGrail, 2008). These recent efforts to increase the number of providers have led to higher health sector remuneration and inflation as well as a gradual increase in per capita supply of nurses and doctors (see Fig. 4.4).

“During the 1990s, physician supply grew at an annual average of 1.1% (CIHI, 2011), a rate that would more than double in the 2000s. From 2007 to 2018 the annual increase in physician supply averaged 2% (CIHI, 2019b). This growth was due to an expansion of seats in Canadian medical schools as well as an increase in international medical graduates (IMGs) particularly for GPs (from 22% of all GPs in 1997 to 30% in 2018) (CIHI, 2019b). As a consequence, the number of physicians per capita has risen steadily in recent years (Fig. 4.3), although it remains low relative to other OECD countries (Fig. 4.2).”

Source: Marchildon G.P., Allin S., Merkur S. Canada: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(3): i–194.

---

“When comparing Canada to selected OECD comparators in terms of the number of nurses per 1 000 population, as shown in Figure 4.4, Canada has been on a comparable growth (with the prominent exception of the UK). However, this growth has been slower than most comparator countries, and only the UK now has a lower proportion of nurses per population. In 2017, about 62% of regulated nurses (registered nurses, nurse practitioners, licensed practical nurses, and registered psychiatric nurses) worked in hospitals and 15% in community health settings (CIHI, 2019d).”

Source: Marchildon G.P., Allin S., Merkur S. Canada: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(3): i–194.

---

“Due to geography, population dispersion and differences in health systems and policies, there are significant variations in the density of the health professions among provinces and territories. As illustrated in Table 4.8, the registered nurse (RN) density in the three northern territories is considerably higher than the Canadian average while the physician density is considerably lower. This is a product of dispersed Arctic communities that rely heavily on nurse-based primary care provided in publicly administered health centres rather than on GPs. With the exception of its large presence in the territories in which the populations suffer most from dental disease, and where federal government funds dental care for eligible First Nations and Inuit peoples, the dental professions tend to concentrate in the four most urbanized provinces in Canada – Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta.”

Source: Marchildon G.P., Allin S., Merkur S. Canada: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(3): i–194.

---

---

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 August 1, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.