For the latest stats on nursing and midwifery professionals in Australia, refer to the following articles:
There are more than 331,000 registered nurses and midwives in Australia, according to new statistics.
Subscribe for FREE to the HealthTimes magazine
Australia boasts 288,861 nurses, with New South Wales home to the most nurses with 79,004, followed by Victoria with 76,598, Queensland with 54,415, Western Australia with 28,240, while South Australia has 26,987, Tasmania stands at 7,497, the ACT has 4,379 and the Northern Territory has 2,867.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) released the figures, providing a snapshot of the country’s registered health practitioners.
AHPRA CEO Martin Fletcher said the new national registration and accreditation scheme for the first time made it possible to know how many registered health practitioners are in Australia.
"In the past, the same person could be registered in different states and territories, so a clear profile of the number of practitioners within a specific profession was not always possible," he said.
The figures also showed 40,755 people were registered as both a nurse and midwife, with 14,447 in New South Wales, 10,389 in Victoria, 7,645 in Queensland, 3,242 in Western Australia, 2,653 in South Australia, 591 in the Northern Territory, 735 in the ACT, and 727 in Tasmania.
Almost 88,000 people are registered as medical practitioners, there are almost 29,000 psychologists, nearly 26,000 pharmacists, more than 22,000 physiotherapists and more than 4000 optometrists.
More than 370,000 health practitioners have renewed their registration since July 1, 2010, and close to 315,000 registered practitioners are in the process of renewing their registration in the lead up to May and June.
