The Uneven Distribution of Nurses and Midwives

Close to 300,000 women are estimated to die during pregnancy or childbirth each year, while over two million babies die in their first 28 days and a further two million are stillborn. April 10 is World Health Day and this year the World Health Organization is spearheading a campaign urging governments and the health community around the world to improve efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths.

Despite major advances in the prevention of both maternal and newborn mortality, figures for both remain high, particularly in low-resource settings. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the Council of International Neonatal Nurses, Inc. (COINN) highlights the importance of skilled nurses working in supportive environments and how a lack of safe staffing puts mothers and newborns at preventable risk.

The following map, based on the latest available data from the WHO (2018-2023), shows how uneven the distribution of care is around the world. In 31 countries and territories, there are under 10 nurses and midwifery personnel for every 10,000 population. As this chart shows, these inequalities are regional, with figures lowest in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-regional differences are clear too. For example, in China, there were 37 midwives or nurses per 10,000 population as of the latest available data (2022), while in Indonesia there were 32 per 10,000 (2023), in India 17 per 10,000 (2020) and in Cambodia just 10 per 10,000 (2019).