There is a growing demand for high quality and timely information on human resources for health to inform decision making for policies and programs at the national and international levels. The Health Workforce Department (HWF) in WHO collects and compiles cross-nationally comparable data on health workers for all 194 WHO Member States in an effort to serve this purpose.
The data presented in the Global Health Workforce Statistics database are compiled from two types of sources: population-based and institution-based records. The former includes total population counts (such as the census) and data on representative populations or sub-populations (such as labour force and employment surveys). Institution-based sources include health facility assessments (HFA) and routine administrative records (RAR), which comprise records on public expenditure, staffing and payroll, professional training, registration and licensure. In consequence, considerable variability remains across countries in the coverage, periodicity, quality and completeness of the original data.
When health workforce densities are presented, the denominator (i.e. national population estimates), were obtained from the United Nations Population Division's World population prospects database (2015). Conversely, in some countries, the official health workforce report provided density indicators instead of counts, in which case estimates of the stock were then calculated.
The Global Health Workforce Statistics database provides two types of data: aggregated and disaggregated. Both types provide information on the stock (absolute numbers) of health workers. Additionally. the aggregated set provides data on workforce density (per 1000 population). Data included in the aggregated set tends to be more complete in terms of the disaggregate counts involved.
Technical Notes on the health workforce data
When citing data from the Global Health Workforce Statistics, please acknowledge appropriately the source of the original data. Suggested reference: The 2017 update, Global Health Workforce Statistics, World Health Organization, Geneva (http://www.who.int/hrh/statistics/hwfstats/).
In case of any queries or comments please write to the Health Workforce Statistics team.