Nurses are defined as all "practising" nurses providing direct health services to patients, including self-employed nurses.
For some countries (France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Türkiye and the United States), due to limited data comparability, figures refer to "professionally active" nurses, including those working in the health sector as managers, educators or researchers. In Austria and Greece, data include only nurses employed in hospitals. Midwives and nursing aides (who are not classified as nurses) are usually excluded, although some countries include midwives as they are considered specialist nurses.
This indicator is measured per 1 000 inhabitants.