Medical workforce in the EU: an ageing profession

In 2022, there were an estimated 1.83 million practising physicians in the EU, and among them, over 481 000 were generalist medical practitioners. Generalist medical practitioners provide comprehensive medical care for a wide range of health issues, not being limited to a certain medical field or disease.

The Netherlands was at the forefront when it comes to the ratio of practising generalist medical practitioners, with 183.4 per 100 000 people, followed by Ireland (174.1), Austria (146.1) and Cyprus (137.7). A high ratio of 304.3 per 100 000 inhabitants, was reported by Portugal, however, this figure refers to generalist medical practitioners licenced to practice, rather than those practicing, making it not directly comparable.

By contrast, the lowest ratio was recorded in Greece (licensed to practice) with 45.8 per 100 000 inhabitants, this was followed by Bulgaria (59.8), Sweden (62.2, 2021 data) and Slovenia (68.8), closely followed by Hungary (68.9).

Source dataset: hlth_rs_physcat

Where can we find the youngest and the oldest medical workforces? 

When it comes to the age of practicing physicians, the share of younger (under 35 years) and older professionals (55 years and over) varied significantly among countries. However, it is clear that the medical workforce is rapidly aging, with 12 EU countries reporting that the share of physicians aged 55 years and over was greater than 40.0% in 2022. 

Germany had the highest share of physicians aged 55–64 years at 36.1%, followed by Bulgaria (33.9%) and Latvia (27.4%), while Italy recorded the highest share of physicians 65 years or over at 26.7%. In this age class, Italy was followed by Hungary (22.4%) and Estonia (22.3%).

By contrast, Malta had the highest proportion of younger physicians at 46.1%, followed by Romania (34.6%) and the Netherlands (29.7%).

Source dataset: hlth_rs_phys