Official launch of State of the World’s Nursing report 2025
On International Nurses Day 2025, WHO and partners host the global launch of the State of the world’s nursing 2025 report. The launch event features WHO lead author Dr Carey McCarthy presenting the main findings and global policy priorities. The report co-chairs Sheila Bonito (University of the Philippines) and Howard Catton (International Council of Nurses) will join WHO Health Workforce Director Jim Campbell and WHO Chief Nursing Officer Dr Amelia Latu Afuhaamango Tuipulotu to go ‘around the world’ hearing why the State of the World’s Nursing 2025 is important to nurses and leaders across the globe.
The official launch is complemented by national and regional discussions focusing on country and regional data and insights.
The report, which builds upon and updates the 2020 edition, provides a comprehensive description of the world’s nursing workforce in the context of a changed global environment, more complex health and disease profiles, greater demands on health systems and the urgency to orient to the focused global priorities in the remaining period of the Sustainable Development Agenda.
The 2025 report presents the most contemporary evidence on the global nursing workforce, including education, employment, migration, regulation, working conditions, leadership and more. In the SoWN report, readers will find updated indicators and robust estimates on global and regional-level nursing stock, shortage, and projections to 2030. Online county profiles are available on the National Health Workforce Accounts data portal at https://apps.who.int/nhwaportal/.
This report is intended to provide validated data and evidence to support national level policy dialogue and decision-making on where and how to invest in nursing to strengthen primary healthcare systems toward universal health coverage. The findings will equip policy makers and planners with data, analyses and policy options to take forward in their countries and contexts.
With its release on International Nurses Day, the evidence in the SoWN 2025 report can also inform the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly, where Member States will decide whether to extend the Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery 2021–2025 until 2030, as recommended by the 156th Executive Board in February 2025.