Nurses and midwives, total — all countries

Nurses and midwives, total — Eastern Africa

Nurses and midwives, total in Eastern Africa in 2024 — 486,822 people. Since 2018, the indicator has risen by 68.2%.

2024 486,822 people −4.22% vs 2022
World rank
Period maximum 508,290 people2022
Period minimum 289,386 people2018

Trend over time

2018–2024 · people

Nurses and midwives, total — Eastern Africa, 2018–2024200,000300,000400,000500,000600,00020182019202020212022202320242018: 289,386 people2020: 293,374 people2022: 508,290 people2024: 486,822 people
Change over the period: +197,436 (+68.23%) Average annual rate: 9.06 %
Nurses and midwives, total — Eastern Africa, by year Eastern Africa All countries CSV XLSX
Year people Change Change, %
2024 486,822
2022 508,290
2020 293,374
2018 289,386

About the indicator

The number of nursing and midwifery personnel, from WHO. This category is almost always the largest in a health system — worldwide there are on average about three times as many nurses as physicians, and in countries with developed primary care the gap is wider still.

Important: The ratio of nurses to physicians speaks of the structure of a system: a low value usually means that physicians are doing the work of nursing care, and that is a sign of a staffing shortage rather than of an abundance of doctors.

Source: Global Health Observatory (WHO), license CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.