In 2024, there were approximately *** thousand nurses in employment in the United Kingdom (UK). This is a ** percent overall increase from 2010 when there were around *** thousand nurses. Trends among other healthcare personnel in the UK  The number of medical practitioners employed in the UK amounted to approximately *** thousand in 2021. This is an increase from the *** thousand practitioners in 2010. The number of midwives in the UK amounted to **** thousand in 2021, but has been slightly declining in numbers since 2013. Impact of Brexit Since the UK made the decision to leave the European Union, the number of new nurses and midwives from the EEA has significantly decreased. In the year 2018/19, the number of new registrants from the EEA was less than *** thousand, while almost *** thousand joined from the EEA in 2015/16, which was before the referendum concerning the EU membership. 

As of September 2024, there were a total of 405,631 full-time equivalent (FTE) nurses, midwives, and ambulance staff in NHS Hospitals and Community Health Service (HCHS) in England.

In 2024, there were approximately *** thousand nursing professionals in employment in the United Kingdom. This included midwives, community nurses, specialist nurses, nurse practitioners, mental health nurses, children's nurses, and others. The statistic presents the total number of employed and self-employed nursing and midwifery professionals in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2010 to 2024.

United Kingdom UK: Nurses and Midwives: per 1000 People data was reported at 8.421 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 8.437 Ratio for 2015. United Kingdom UK: Nurses and Midwives: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 8.719 Ratio from Dec 1997 (Median) to 2016, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 12.172 Ratio in 1997 and a record low of 0.628 Ratio in 2003. United Kingdom UK: Nurses and Midwives: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.World Bank: Health Statistics. Nurses and midwives include professional nurses, professional midwives, auxiliary nurses, auxiliary midwives, enrolled nurses, enrolled midwives and other associated personnel, such as dental nurses and primary care nurses.; ; World Health Organization's Global Health Workforce Statistics, OECD, supplemented by country data.; Weighted average;

Forecast: Number of Nurses Graduates in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Since the UK made the decision to leave the European Union, the number of new nurses and midwives from the European Economic Area (EEA) has significantly decreased. In the year 2022/23, the number of new registrants from the EEA was 651, while almost 9.4 thousand joined from the EEA in 2015/16, before the UK’s referendum on EU membership.  

Brexit impact?

It is true for most of those who are leaving the nursing register from the EU and EEA that Brexit has had an impact on their decision to do so. In a survey of leavers in 2018, 66 percent cited that they are leaving or have left the UK, with 51 percent saying that Brexit has encouraged them to consider working outside of the UK.

General trend in nurses in the UK

In 2018 there were approximately 670 thousand nurses in the UK, down from 675 thousand in 2016. The number of nurses in te UK has generally increased since 2010. Conversely, from the trend of nurses from the EEA, the number of nurses joining from outside the EEA has increased significantly since 2016, while the number leaving has slightly decreased.

The General Practice Workforce series of Official Statistics presents a snapshot of the primary care general practice workforce. A snapshot statistic relates to the situation at a specific date, which for these workforce statistics is now the last calendar day each month. This monthly snapshot reflects the general practice workforce at 30 November 2024. These statistics present full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount figures by four staff groups, (GPs, Nurses, Direct Patient Care (DPC) and administrative staff), with breakdowns of individual job roles within these high-level groups. For the purposes of NHS workforce statistics, we define full-time working to be 37.5 hours per week. Full-time equivalent is a standardised measure of the workload of an employed person. Using FTE, we can convert part-time and additional working hours into an equivalent number of full-time staff. For example, an individual working 37.5 hours would be classed as 1.0 FTE while a colleague working 30 hours would be 0.8 FTE. The term “headcount” relates to distinct individuals, and as the same person may hold more than one role, care should be taken when interpreting headcount figures. Please refer to the Using this Publication section for information and guidance about the contents of this publication and how it can and cannot be used. England-level time series figures for all job roles are available in the Excel bulletin tables back to September 2015 when this series of Official Statistics began. The Excel file also includes Sub-ICB Location-level FTE and headcount breakdowns for the current reporting period. CSVs containing practice-level summaries and Sub-ICB Location-level counts of individuals are also available. Please refer to the Publication content, analysis, and release schedule in the Using this publication section for more details of what’s available. We are continually working to improve our publications to ensure their contents are as useful and relevant as possible for our users. We welcome feedback from all users to PrimaryCareWorkforce@nhs.net.

Forecast: Number of Associate Professional Nurses, Practising in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Forecast: Number of Professional Nurses and Midwives Employed in Hospitals in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Number of Businesses statistics on the Residential Nursing Care industry in the UK

This report shows monthly numbers of NHS Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) staff working in NHS Trusts and CCGs in England (excluding primary care staff). Data are available as headcount and full-time equivalents and for all months from 30 September 2009 onwards. These data are an accurate summary of the validated data extracted from the NHS HR and Payroll system. Additional statistics on staff in NHS Trusts and CCGs and information for NHS Support Organisations and Central Bodies are published each: September (showing June statistics) December/January (showing September statistics) March (showing December statistics) June (showing March statistics) Quarterly NHS Staff Earnings and monthly NHS Staff Sickness Absence reports and data relating to the General Practice workforce and the Independent Healthcare Provider workforce are also available via the Related Links below. Following feedback from data users, there will be a change to the HCHS doctor grades of 'Associate Specialist' and 'Specialty Doctor' in relevant tables in this publication series. Two new specialty doctor and specialist grades were introduced in April 2021 and both were reported in NHS Digital tables within the 'Specialty Doctor' grade. One of these new grades for specialist is more appropriately classified within the 'Associate Specialist' category in NHS Digital data tables. Therefore, from March 2022 these will be included within the 'Associate Specialist' category and removed from 'Specialty Doctor'. The March 2022 data in the Provisional statistics file in this publication reflects this new approach, and the time series for data back to April 2021 will be revised for these two categories in the full March 2022 publication, released in June 2022. We welcome feedback on the methodology and tables within this publication. Please email us with your comments and suggestions, clearly stating Monthly HCHS Workforce as the subject heading, via enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk or 0300 303 5678.

In 2023, the age group with the highest number of registered nursing staff in the UK was 31 to 40 years, with over *** thousand nurses. Overall, there were ******* registered nursing staff during this period. This statistic displays the number of nurses, midwives and nursing associates registered in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2023, by age group.

Forecast: Number of Nurses Licensed to Practice in the UK 2023 - 2027 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

NHS Hospital & Community Health Service (HCHS) monthly workforce statistics: Support to doctors and nursing staff in England by area and level. This provides details of the numbers of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff employed by the NHS in England in the following support roles: - Nursing Assistant Practitioner - Nursery nurse - Nursing assistant/auxiliary - Nurse learners - Healthcare assistant - Support worker - Clerical & administrative - Estates (maintenance & works)

These statistics relate to the contracted positions within English NHS organisations and may include those where the person assigned to the position is temporarily absent, for example on maternity leave.

Over 1.3 million people were employed by the NHS in June 2022 and 74.3% of them were white (out of people whose ethnicity was known).

This metric is derived by the LGA (Local Government Association) from the CQC (Care Quality Commission's) Care Directory file. The file contains a complete list of the places in England where care is regulated by CQC. Using the National Statistics Postcode Lookup, we have counted the number of nursing homes located in an area and then created a crude rate per 1,000 resident population.

A care home is a place where personal care and accommodation are provided together. People may live in the service for short or long periods. For many people, it is their sole place of residence and so it becomes their home, although they do not legally own or rent it. Both the care that people receive and the premises are regulated.

In addition, qualified nursing care is provided to ensure that the full needs of the person using the service are met.

Examples of services that fit under this category:

Nursing home Convalescent home with nursing Respite care with nursing Mental health crisis house with nursing

Data is extracted once a quarter and provides a snapshot in time. It should be noted that due to changes to postcodes, a small proportion cannot be matched to the latest National Statistics Postcode Lookup file and are therefore excluded from these figures.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

The UK has an ageing population. For the Residential Nursing Care industry, this is an opportunity for growth, with demand for more beds expanding. Homes have upped their average weekly fees, contributing to revenue growth. Soaring inflation over the two years through 2023-24 has further raised nursing home fees. However, state involvement has limited growth, which has kept care fees artificially low for many nursing home residents. Residential nursing care revenue is anticipated to climb at a compound annual rate of 2.9% over the five years through 2025-26 to £10.3 billion, including a forecast hike of 1.2% in 2025-26. Weak government funding and wage cost pressures caused by the rising National Living Wage (which climbed to £12.21 in April 2025) have constrained profitability. Labour supply shortages caused by high turnover rates have been of particular concern. According to Skills For Care, the job vacancy rate in 2023-24 in the adult care sector was 8.3%, far above the average rate in the UK economy. That being said, the vacancy rate is declining, mainly thanks to a government-driven recruitment drive to attract overseas workers, which has been helped by reducing visa requirements. Climbing real household disposable income has supported more self-funded residents, aiding residential nursing care. However, data from the Office for National Statistics reveals the percentage of self-funded residents fell from 36.7% in 2019-20 to 34.9% over the year through February 2022. Families were struggling with the rising cost of living, reducing the number of people able to afford private care home costs, which constrained revenue growth. In the year through February 2023, the number of self-funded residents at nursing care homes climbed to 37% of the 372,035 residents. In the two years through 2025-26, interest rates have fallen, stimulating spending on discretionary services like residential nursing homes. Real disposable income is inching up in line with wage costs, which is raising demand for self-funded residents and lifting care homes’ revenue. Over the five years through 2030-31, residential nursing care revenue is estimated to expand at a compound annual rate of 2.3% to £11.5 billion. Robust demand from an ageing population will support industry growth. However, plans for adult social care reforms are to be released in two stages (the first in 2026 and the second in 2028), which has caused greater uncertainty for the sector's future. Staff shortage concerns will continue to plague nursing care.

As of November 2023, over 41.8 thousand mental health nurses worked for the National Health Service (NHS) in England. From 2016 to 2023, the number of mental health nurses staff had a slight steady increase. This statistic depicts the total number of mental health nurses in the NHS Hospitals and Community Health Service (HCHS) workforce in England from 2009 to 2023.

The total number of weeks all adult client groups and older people were supported in residential and nursing care during the year (including both permanent and temporary residents and including former Preserved Rights and Boyd loophole clients) divided by 52 plus the number of households in the numerator. Source: CSCI Performance Assessment Framework (PAF) Publisher: Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) Geographies: County/Unitary Authority, Government Office Region (GOR), National Geographic coverage: England Time coverage: 2006-2007 Type of data: Administrative data