The global health workforce gap is entering a more dangerous phase as nearly one in four doctors approaches retirement age, the World Health Organization has warned. The finding raises concern that health systems already struggling with unequal staffing could lose experienced professionals just as ageing populations require more care.
WHO said its new assessment draws on official workforce information reported by countries through the National Health Workforce Accounts. The report examines the supply, distribution and age profile of doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists and pharmacists, offering a broad picture of the people on whom hospitals and community health services depend.
The figures show genuine progress. Global health workforce density rose by 52 per cent between 2006 and 2025, increasing from 44.8 to 67.9 workers per 10,000 people. The estimated number of health and care workers worldwide now exceeds 70 million. Yet those gains are uneven, and the overall improvement conceals severe shortages between richer and poorer regions.
WHO found that the density of doctors in its European Region is 13 times higher than in the African Region. The density of nurses and midwives is six times higher. These disparities affect whether families can obtain timely diagnoses, safe maternity services, emergency treatment and routine care close to where they live.
Ageing is adding a second strain. Based on the latest available data from 122 countries, nearly one in four doctors is older than 55 and likely to retire during the next decade. In high-income countries, the proportion rises to almost one in three. At the same time, older populations are expected to need more frequent and more complex medical support.
Dr Khassoum Diallo, Acting Unit Head of Health Workforce Policies and Data at the WHO Academy, described ageing as a hidden workforce crisis requiring urgent attention. He said the findings strengthen the case for better planning, education, employment and retention policies.
The consequences will not be confined to staff rotas. When experienced doctors retire without enough trained replacements, patients may face longer waiting times, reduced access to specialists and greater pressure on already stretched nurses, midwives and community health workers. Rural and underserved communities are especially vulnerable because they often begin with fewer professionals and have greater difficulty attracting replacements.
The report projects a global shortage of 11.1 million health workers by 2030. It also identifies 67 countries that may lack enough workers to maintain their population’s health needs by that year. WHO’s wider health workforce data show that the pace of improvement has slowed, prompting the projected global shortage to be revised upwards from an earlier estimate of 10 million.
The warning also has implications for international recruitment. Wealthier countries facing large retirement waves may look overseas for doctors and nurses, but aggressive recruitment can deepen shortages in countries that financed those workers’ education and already have too few professionals. Ethical recruitment, domestic training and long-term retention will therefore need to advance together.
For African countries, the challenge is not only to train more workers but to create jobs, improve working conditions and retain skilled staff. Investment in medical education will have limited effect if graduates cannot obtain suitable posts or leave because of poor pay, insecurity, inadequate equipment or restricted opportunities for professional development.
The human impact is already visible in communities where a single doctor serves a large population or where families travel long distances for specialist care. Workforce planning can sound technical, but the real question is whether a pregnant woman receives safe care, whether a child is diagnosed promptly and whether an older patient can see a clinician before a manageable condition becomes an emergency.
The new warning follows other evidence of inequality within health employment. Podium News recently reported that women keep European health systems running while earning substantially less than men each month. It also connects with concerns previously raised about the operating capacity of Nigeria’s health system. Together, these findings show that workforce numbers, fair treatment and system performance cannot be separated.
WHO said more than 90 per cent of its Member States actively reported workforce data in 2025, with data availability increasing almost twentyfold since the National Health Workforce Accounts system began in 2017. Better information should allow governments to anticipate retirement waves and identify gaps before services reach crisis point.
The agency’s 18 September update and the National Health Workforce Accounts report call for sustained investment in planning and monitoring. The evidence suggests that governments must treat workforce renewal as essential health infrastructure rather than a problem to address after hospitals become overwhelmed.
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