Number of paramedics in the UK 2010-2021

Across the period shown, the number of paramedics in the United Kingdom (UK) has fluctuated. In 2010 there were approximately 20.5 thousand paramedics employed in the UK. This figure decreased to 17 thousand by 2012 before rising to 32.6 thousand paramedics in employment in 2021.

Emergency responses

Paramedics work on the frontline of patient care in the UK and are thus trained in different aspects of emergency medicine. They respond to 999 and 111 calls, which in the UK are the emergency services’ number and the NHS number for medical problems respectively. In 2016/17, there were over 2.6 million emergency calls in England that resulted in an ambulance arriving at the scene, with around 1.9 million of those patients being treated and discharged by paramedics on the scene.

State of other healthcare positions

Across the same time period, the number of physicians in the UK increased by over 22 thousand, resulting in approximately 189 thousand physicians in 2018. Additionally, the number of practicing nurses in the UK has also increased by around eight percent between 2000 and 2018, to approximately 517 thousand nurses in 2018.