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Nurses NZ

The number of professionally active nurses reported to the OECD was 73,577 (OECD, 2025).

Updated

The number of nurses in New Zealand and nurses per 1,000 people, as reported to the OECD: professionally active nurses (from 1990) and nurses licensed to practise (from 2005).

Professionally active nurses per 1,000 people, from OECD Health Statistics.

Licensed to practise counts everyone holding a practising certificate (85,462 in 2025, matching the Nursing Council); professionally active is narrower. Never compare one measure with the other. These are workforce counts, not hires or Health NZ employees; year-on-year change is net of people leaving.

A percentage meeting a health target describes the group covered by that target. Its definition tells you which patients are counted and when their waiting clock starts and ends.

Read the period beside each number before comparing it with another figure. A monthly observation, a quarterly result and a financial year cover different spans of time. The latest release can also revise earlier observations. The chart and downloads keep the published periods so you can check which figures are being compared. A change in nurses describes what happened during that period; it does not by itself explain why it happened or identify the effect of a government policy. Definitions and coverage matter as much as the size of a change.

Sources: OECD. Last retrieved 10 October 2026.

Nurses, Nurses in New Zealand: number, 1990 to 2025

Professionally active nursesNurses licensed to practise
Nurses. Professionally active nurses, 1990 to 2025, latest 73,577. Nurses licensed to practise, 2005 to 2025, latest 85,462.020,00040,00060,00080,000100,0001990199620022008201420202025
Show the figures
PeriodProfessionally active nurses (number)Nurses licensed to practise (number)
202573,57785,462
202469,15378,703
202363,64569,621
202262,16265,419
202159,64862,342
202057,67759,866
201954,51257,833
201853,59556,355
201752,25555,289
201651,60753,922
201550,49552,729
201448,91651,385
201347,99350,060
201247,42849,347
201147,34548,527
201047,38448,563
200944,57851,762
200844,76248,683
200741,91344,801
200639,85444,520
Full data: nurses nz
2025Professionally active nurses 73,577Nurses licensed to practise 85,462

The number of nurses in New Zealand and nurses per 1,000 people, as reported to the OECD: professionally active nurses (from 1990) and nurses licensed to practise (from 2005).

Nurses. Professionally active nurses: 73,577 in 2025. Nurses licensed to practise: 85,462 in 2025.

Each measure retains its own definition and period. Lines break at changes in basis and missing periods. Choose a measure to see its note and readout.

Download CSVDownload JSONAnalyse with AI

Full downloads for every dataset on this page:

Nurses in New ZealandCSVJSON
Nurses per 1,000 people: NZ and other countriesCSVJSON

Nurses: definitions

Nurses in New Zealand

The number of nurses in New Zealand and nurses per 1,000 people, as reported to the OECD: professionally active nurses (from 1990) and nurses licensed to practise (from 2005).

Nurses per 1,000 people: NZ and other countries

Professionally active nurses per 1,000 people, from OECD Health Statistics.

Nurses: comparison limits

These affect how far the figures can be compared.

Nurses in New Zealand

  • Licensed to practise counts everyone holding a practising certificate (85,462 in 2025, matching the Nursing Council); professionally active is narrower. Never compare one measure with the other.
  • These are workforce counts, not hires or Health NZ employees; year-on-year change is net of people leaving.

Nurses per 1,000 people: NZ and other countries

  • The UK does not report professionally active nurses to the OECD, so it is not shown.
  • Countries define nursing roles slightly differently (e.g. how associate nurses are counted).

Nurses by NZ government

The last published observation before each term began and ended. The current term uses the latest observation.Change since a government took office is not the same as its effect.

Prime ministersIn officeStartEndChange
Bolger, ShipleyNov 1990 to Dec 1999Not available36,763 (1998)Not available
ClarkDec 1999 to Nov 200836,763 (1998)41,913 (2007)A rise of 5,150
Key, EnglishNov 2008 to Oct 201741,913 (2007)51,607 (2016)A rise of 9,694
Ardern, HipkinsOct 2017 to Nov 202351,607 (2016)62,162 (2022)A rise of 10,555
LuxonNov 2023 to now62,162 (2022)73,577 (2025, latest)A rise of 11,415 so far
Compare governments on any measure

Nurses: data by period

The latest ten published periods for up to six series in each dataset. The downloads contain every observation.

Nurses in New Zealand

The number of nurses in New Zealand and nurses per 1,000 people, as reported to the OECD: professionally active nurses (from 1990) and nurses licensed to practise (from 2005).

PeriodProfessionally active nursesNurses licensed to practiseProfessionally active nurses per 1,000 peopleLicensed nurses per 1,000 people
202573,57785,46213.83 per 1,000 people16.06 per 1,000 people
202469,15378,70313.07 per 1,000 people14.88 per 1,000 people
202363,64569,62112.24 per 1,000 people13.39 per 1,000 people
202262,16265,41912.23 per 1,000 people12.87 per 1,000 people
202159,64862,34211.73 per 1,000 people12.26 per 1,000 people
202057,67759,86611.37 per 1,000 people11.8 per 1,000 people
201954,51257,83310.97 per 1,000 people11.64 per 1,000 people
201853,59556,35510.94 per 1,000 people11.5 per 1,000 people
201752,25555,28910.86 per 1,000 people11.49 per 1,000 people
201651,60753,92210.95 per 1,000 people11.44 per 1,000 people

Nurses per 1,000 people: NZ and other countries

Professionally active nurses per 1,000 people, from OECD Health Statistics.

PeriodNew ZealandAustraliaCanadaUnited States
202513.83 per 1,000 peopleNot availableNot availableNot available
202413.07 per 1,000 people14.82 per 1,000 people11.19 per 1,000 people12.59 per 1,000 people
202312.24 per 1,000 people14.45 per 1,000 people11.05 per 1,000 people12.3 per 1,000 people
202212.23 per 1,000 people14.11 per 1,000 people11.13 per 1,000 people12.03 per 1,000 people
202111.73 per 1,000 people14.07 per 1,000 people11.18 per 1,000 people11.97 per 1,000 people
202011.37 per 1,000 people13.44 per 1,000 people10.99 per 1,000 people11.83 per 1,000 people
201910.97 per 1,000 people13.43 per 1,000 people10.93 per 1,000 people11.9 per 1,000 people
201810.94 per 1,000 people13.21 per 1,000 people10.87 per 1,000 people11.82 per 1,000 people
201710.86 per 1,000 people12.98 per 1,000 people10.91 per 1,000 people11.71 per 1,000 people
201610.95 per 1,000 people12.89 per 1,000 people10.97 per 1,000 people11.58 per 1,000 people

Nurses: questions for your AI

Download the files, attach them in the assistant you use, then paste the prompt. Its answer is its own reading of the data.

  1. 1Download nurses-nz.csv
  2. 2Attach it in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another assistant
  3. 3
    Paste this prompt

    The attached CSV is nurses in new zealand, from OECD. Describe how each measure has changed, naming its unit and period. Treat changes in basis and missing periods as breaks. Do not infer causation from government terms. Read the limits before comparing. Supporting datasets: nurses-nz, nurses-international.

Questions about nurses in NZ

Short answers with their definitions, sources and limits.

How many nurses are there in New Zealand?

Related NZ data

These topics put nurses alongside other measures.

Wages: Jobs and welfareVisas: Migration

Nurses: sources

The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.

Organisation
OECD, Health workforce: nurses
Licence
OECD Terms and Conditions (Data), reuse including commercial with citation. OECD (2026), Health workforce: nurses, OECD Data Explorer, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/ (accessed on 10 October 2026). Figures selected and transformed by NZ in Numbers. Anyone reusing these figures must keep this OECD citation.
Reuse limits
Some OECD datasets include third-party material with its own terms; check the OECD terms page before monetising.
Snapshot
data/raw/oecd-nurses/2026-10-10_bc9f7ed033da.csv
SHA256
bc9f7ed033dad8f001ceedccb68c817e0038c478cd93cb73cccfb3d5f81a17e4
Retrieved
10 October 2026

Nurses: sources

The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.

Organisation
OECD, Health workforce: nurses
Licence
OECD Terms and Conditions (Data), reuse including commercial with citation. OECD (2026), Health workforce: nurses, OECD Data Explorer, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/ (accessed on 10 October 2026). Figures selected and transformed by NZ in Numbers. Anyone reusing these figures must keep this OECD citation.
Reuse limits
Some OECD datasets include third-party material with its own terms; check the OECD terms page before monetising.
Snapshot
data/raw/oecd-nurses/2026-10-10_bc9f7ed033da.csv
SHA256
bc9f7ed033dad8f001ceedccb68c817e0038c478cd93cb73cccfb3d5f81a17e4
Retrieved
10 October 2026