Canada Short Nearly 69,000 Health-Care Workers: Federal Report

An ICU nurse takes a moment to write some notes during her shift at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver on Dec. 4, 2020. Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press

Canada is facing a shortage of nearly 69,000 health-care workers, according to a survey report from Health Canada.

The study, which was requested by provincial and territorial ministers to identify gaps in the health-care workforce, collected information on the education and training of health-care professionals.

Researchers concluded that Canada is short a total of 68,564 health-care professionals, which includes 22,823 doctors and 42,057 nurses. It also noted the country is in need of 1,866 occupational therapists, 2,543 physiotherapists, and 1,614 pharmacists.

“Canada clearly has urgent work to do to address the current and future gaps in the number of health professionals studied,” said the report published in January 2025 and first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Titled “Caring For Canadians: Canada’s Future Health Workforce,” the report said there remain “substantial gaps across all study in-scope health professions” with the gaps being larger in rural areas compared to urban areas, particularly for family physicians.

Additionally, it warned that the shortages would get worse in the years to come, with population growth, increasing disease prevalence, and early retirement increasing the supply-demand gap across all health professions.

While the report estimates that in 2024 there was a gap of 15,207 licensed practical nurses, 35,326 registered nurses, and 24,591 family practitioners, it predicted that by 2030 the shortfall of licensed practical nurses would fall to 5,553, but the gap for registered nurses would grow to 28,662 and the gap for family practitioners would hit 25,642.

The latest 68,564 shortfall figure is fewer than the estimated shortage of 89,995 health-care workers itemized in a 2023 health department memo. The document said health occupations were “the only ones to report a year-over-year rise in job vacancies.”

That memo said there was a shortfall of 29,655 registered nurses and 13,560 licensed practical nurses, and noted 40 percent of health-care workers said they felt “burned out” and 50 percent intended to leave the profession.

“While the supply of nurses is continuously increasing the growth is not enough to meet the demand,” said the memo.

A Fraser Institute report from late 2024 found that Canada’s health-care system did not perform on par with other countries with universal health-care systems. The country ranked 28 out of 30 when it comes to the availability of doctors, and 25 out of 30 for the number of available hospital beds and psychiatric beds.