Title: Nurses per 1,000 People: Switzerland Tops, but Pay Lags Author: Artur Harmash Published: 2026-10-17 Source: https://lymyvoyage.com/articles/nurses-per-1000-pay-ratio Citations: - https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/health-at-a-glance-2025_8f9e3f98-en/full-report/nurses_00c2bcb9.html - https://stat.link/fr3n8d - https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2025/11/health-at-a-glance-2025_a894f72e/full-report/remuneration-of-nurses_9b98c70c.html - https://stat.link/sm9rdl - https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/health-at-a-glance-2025_8f9e3f98-en/full-report/international-migration-of-nurses_9f4ba769.html - https://stat.link/ler5vy - https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/nurses-and-midwives-per-1000-people - https://swissvotes.ch/vote/648.00/kurzbeschreibung-de.pdf - https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/how-do-nhs-staff-earnings-compare-to-15-years-ago --- Switzerland has more practising nurses per person than any other OECD country: 18.8 per 1,000 people in 2023, against an OECD average of 9.2.[^1][^2] It also pays its hospital nurses less than the average Swiss worker earns. Their pay is 0.85 times the national average wage, the lowest ratio in the OECD's comparison.[^4] Both numbers come from the same OECD report, Health at a Glance 2025. Put side by side, they show that countries with many nurses do not necessarily pay them well relative to everyone else. This article sets the two measures against each other and explains what each one does and does not show. Switzerland has 18.8 nurses per 1,000 people, twice the OECD average. Its hospital nurses earn less than the average Swiss worker. How can both be true? The OECD counts practising nurses per 1,000 people. The average across its members was 9.2 in 2023. Norway and Iceland were next after Switzerland, above 15. On pay, the OECD compares a hospital nurse's earnings with the average wage in the same country. Switzerland's ratio is 0.85, the lowest of the countries compared. Mexico's is 1.71, the highest, with about 3 nurses per 1,000 people. The counterargument: a low ratio is not low pay. Converted for living costs, a Swiss hospital nurse earns about $69,600 a year, near the top of the OECD. What the data cannot show is why. Many Swiss nurses trained abroad, and the country voted in 2021 to improve nurses' working conditions. Neither fact proves that pay drives staffing. Nurse numbers and nurse pay tell different stories. When you read about a nurse shortage, ask which measure is being used. Save this. ## Two measures, side by side The OECD calls the pay ratio "remuneration of hospital nurses" relative to "the average wage of all employees".[^3] | Country | Nurses per 1,000 people, 2023 | Nurse pay ÷ average wage | Nurse pay, USD at purchasing power parity | |---|---|---|---| | Switzerland | 18.8 | 0.85 | $69,608 | | Norway | 15.6 | 1.01 | $71,672 | | Iceland | 15.2 | 1.01 (2021) | $72,820 (2021) | | United Kingdom | 9.1 | 0.88 | $53,142 | | OECD average | 9.2 | 1.17 | $60,798 | | Poland | 5.9 | 1.65 (2022) | $61,454 (2022) | | Mexico | 3.0 | 1.71 | $35,280 | Sources: OECD Health at a Glance 2025, figures 8.13 and 8.15.[^2][^4] ## How many nurses each country has The OECD counted 9.2 practising nurses per 1,000 people on average in 2023, up from 8.1 in 2013.[^1] Switzerland, Norway and Iceland had more than 15. Colombia, Türkiye and Mexico had 3 or fewer.[^1] A second dataset agrees on Switzerland. The World Bank's series, which counts nurses and midwives together, puts Switzerland at 18.8 per 1,000 in 2022.[^7] That series draws partly on OECD data, so it is not fully independent. The count is not of identical workers. In Switzerland, between a third and a half of nurses are "associate professional" nurses, with lower qualifications than fully trained ones.[^1] The OECD says much of Switzerland's growth over the past decade came from this group. Their numbers rose by over 50%, against 20% for professional nurses.[^1] ## How nurses are paid against everyone else On average, hospital nurses in the OECD earned more than the average worker in 2023. The report's text says 20% more.[^3] Its data file gives an average ratio of 1.17, or 17% more, across the 33 countries with data.[^4] The difference is between the report's own text and its data, and we report both. Four countries were below 1.0: Switzerland, the UK, Finland and Italy.[^3] In Mexico, Poland, Chile and Czechia, nurses earned at least 50% more than the average worker.[^3] The UK figure carries a warning. The OECD notes that alternative data sources for the UK suggest nurses earn above the national average, not below.[^3] The OECD's UK figure covers only nurses in the National Health Service.[^4] ## Do more nurses mean lower relative pay? Across the 35 countries with both measures, the two run weakly in opposite directions. Countries with more nurses per person tend to have lower pay ratios. By our calculation, the rank correlation is −0.37.[^2][^4] That is a pattern, not a rule. There are clear exceptions. Luxembourg has 14.2 nurses per 1,000 and a pay ratio of 1.40.[^2][^4] Türkiye has 2.9 nurses per 1,000 and a ratio of 0.96.[^2][^4] ## Where the nurses come from Switzerland fills part of its workforce from abroad. In 2023, 26.6% of its nurses had trained in another country, up from 14.7% in 2010.[^6] The OECD reports that foreign-trained nurses made up 58% of Switzerland's growth in nurse numbers between 2010 and 2023.[^5] In the UK, that share was 83%.[^5] Swiss voters have acted on nursing before. In November 2021, 61% voted for the "Pflegeinitiative", a popular initiative to make nursing more attractive.[^8] Its backers, the national nurses' association, said Switzerland trained only about half of the 4,700 nurses it needed each year.[^8] In England's NHS, the Nuffield Trust found that nurses' average earnings fell 10.7% in real terms over the 14 years to March 2025.[^9] Average private sector earnings rose 3.3% over the same period.[^9] ## What the headline numbers leave out **A ratio is relative.** Switzerland's 0.85 compares nurses with high Swiss wages. In US dollars adjusted for living costs, Swiss nurses earned about $69,600, above the OECD average of about $60,800.[^4] Mexico's high ratio sits on the lowest dollar figure in the table. **Not every country counts the same nurses.** Pay data cover only registered nurses in Canada, Chile, Ireland and the US, which pushes those figures up.[^3] Greece counts only hospital nurses.[^1] Overtime and informal payments are often left out.[^3] **The years differ.** Some countries' pay data are from 2021, 2022 or 2024.[^4] **A correlation is not a cause.** The data do not show that low relative pay produces more nurses, or the reverse. ## How to read a "nurse shortage" figure When a report says a country is short of nurses, check which measure it uses. Nurses per 1,000 people says how many there are. Pay against the average wage says how the job compares with other work at home. Pay at purchasing power says how it compares with the same job abroad. Then check who is counted. A high count that includes many lower-qualified nurses is not the same as a high count of fully trained ones. For other workforce gaps, see our comparison of [the geriatrician shortage in the US, UK and Canada](/articles/geriatrician-shortage-us-uk-canada). For why country rankings disagree, see [why Ireland ranks 6th or 66th](/articles/best-healthcare-rankings-disagree-ireland-6th-or-66th). [^1]: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/health-at-a-glance-2025_8f9e3f98-en/full-report/nurses_00c2bcb9.html — OECD, "Health at a Glance 2025: OECD Indicators", Nurses (published Nov 13, 2025). Accessed Oct 16, 2026. [^2]: https://stat.link/fr3n8d — OECD, Health at a Glance 2025, Figure 8.13 data, "Practising nurses per 1 000 population, 2013 and 2023", citing OECD Health Statistics 2025 (published Nov 13, 2025). Accessed Oct 16, 2026. [^3]: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2025/11/health-at-a-glance-2025_a894f72e/full-report/remuneration-of-nurses_9b98c70c.html — OECD, "Health at a Glance 2025: OECD Indicators", Remuneration of nurses (published Nov 13, 2025). Accessed Oct 16, 2026. [^4]: https://stat.link/sm9rdl — OECD, Health at a Glance 2025, Figure 8.15 data, "Remuneration of hospital nurses, 2023 (or nearest year)", citing OECD Health Statistics 2025 (published Nov 13, 2025). Accessed Oct 16, 2026. [^5]: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/health-at-a-glance-2025_8f9e3f98-en/full-report/international-migration-of-nurses_9f4ba769.html — OECD, "Health at a Glance 2025: OECD Indicators", International migration of nurses (published Nov 13, 2025). Accessed Oct 16, 2026. [^6]: https://stat.link/ler5vy — OECD, Health at a Glance 2025, Figure 8.26 data, "Share of foreign-trained nurses, 2023 and 2010" (published Nov 13, 2025). Accessed Oct 16, 2026. [^7]: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/nurses-and-midwives-per-1000-people — Our World in Data, "Nurses and midwives (per 1,000 people)", citing World Health Organization Global Health Workforce Statistics, OECD and country data via the World Bank (updated Jul 27, 2026). Accessed Oct 16, 2026. [^8]: https://swissvotes.ch/vote/648.00/kurzbeschreibung-de.pdf — Swissvotes (Année Politique Suisse, University of Bern), Matthias Strasser, "Pflegeinitiative findet in der Pandemie klare Mehrheit" (published 2022). Accessed Oct 16, 2026. [^9]: https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/how-do-nhs-staff-earnings-compare-to-15-years-ago — Nuffield Trust, Lucina Rolewicz and Stelios Vassiliou, "How do NHS staff earnings compare to 15 years ago?" (published Mar 5, 2026). Accessed Oct 16, 2026.