Physicians - Ranking 1992
In 1992, Italy (5.68), Georgia (4.73), and Cuba (4.35) ranked highest in physicians among all countries. Niger ranked lowest at 0.03.
Data & analysis
- Seychelles — 7.33
- Greece — 6.85
- Portugal — 6.29
- Russian Federation — 5.93
- Austria — 5.60
The 2025 ranking of physicians per 1,000 people reveals a stark global divide in healthcare workforce density. The top positions are dominated by small island states and high-income European nations, with Seychelles leading at 7.3337 physicians per 1,000, followed by Greece at 6.8517 and Portugal at 6.2867. These countries share mature universal healthcare systems and substantial public investment in medical education, enabling high provider-to-population ratios. At the bottom, Niger records just 0.0317 physicians per 1,000, with the Central African Republic at 0.0366 and South Sudan at 0.0434. This extreme scarcity is structurally rooted in chronic underinvestment in health infrastructure and the persistent emigration of trained medical professionals to wealthier nations, a phenomenon known as brain drain. As of 2025, the gap between the top and bottom exceeds 200-fold. Future shifts in the leaderboard may depend on whether targeted international health workforce programs and domestic training expansions can reverse the outflow of physicians from the world’s most underserved regions.
| Rank | Country | Value | YoY % |
|---|---|---|---|