The number of health workers in Russia is the lowest since 1960

Among the reasons for the shortage are low wages and the beauty market.

In 2024, there were 1,407,500 mid-level doctors in Russia, or 96.3 health workers per 10 thousand population, as follows from the Russian Statistical Yearbook published by Rosstat, Vorstka noted.

This is the lowest number of nursing staff in the entire history of modern Russia and the period of the late USSR. According to Rosstat, this figure was lower only in 1960, when there were 69.2 health workers per 10 thousand population.

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The number of medical personnel per capita has been falling since the 2000s

The largest number of nursing staff per 10 thousand population was in 1990 - 124.4. By 2000, the figure had dropped to 107.6 and continued to fall steadily.

The highest workload, according to Rosstat, is for nursing staff in the Leningrad (156.7 people per medical worker), Moscow regions (146.5) and annexed Sevastopol (143.8).

Rosstat classifies paramedics, midwives, nurses, laboratory assistants, and dentists as mid-level physicians. Over the past 14 years, the number of nurses per 10 thousand population has decreased from 72.7 to 68.7. The same number of nurses, according to the World Health Organization, is, for example, in Egypt, South Africa and some European countries. In the USA, Norway, Germany, Japan, the number of nurses per 10 thousand population exceeds 100.

According to an expert in the field of healthcare and public finance management from one of the large regions of Russia, who spoke to Vorstka on condition of anonymity, Rosstat statistics should be treated with caution, since they are formed on the basis of data provided to hospitals. In reality, the situation could be even worse, the expert said. “Any institution engages in manipulation, because if there is a staff shortage in a hospital, then the chief physician will be blamed,” he says. companion.

One of the reasons for the shortage of medical staff is better conditions in the beauty industry

The expert notes several factors that influence the shortage of nursing staff in Russia: low salaries, lack of official housing, poorly functioning social support programs. “Nobody wants to work for three pennies in difficult conditions,” he says.

At the same time, the deputy chief physician of one of the large hospitals in the Central Federal District claims that nursing staff are paid well. “A nurse in my building receives a minimum of 50 thousand without allowances, and a head nurse receives 100 thousand,” he says.

The interlocutor names the market for beauty procedures as one of the reasons for the shortage of personnel. Graduates of medical colleges, he said, now prefer to go to work as cosmetologists rather than nurses, because beauty salons pay more and the working conditions are better there.

We would like to remind you that Vorstka previously reported that in the first half of 2025, a record demand for botulinum toxin preparations was recorded in Russia. In general, in the service sector , the volume of the beauty market is second only to car servicing and housing construction.

Photo: Nurses weigh a baby in one of the maternity hospitals in Barnaul. REUTERS/Andrey Kasprichin

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