Already today, more than a third of doctors and a quarter of nurses in the EU are over 55 years old.

Omissions

• The exact figure comes from the OECD/European Commission 'Health at a Glance: Europe 2024' report (published November 2024); its underlying data reference period is roughly 2022-2023, so it is the most recent harmonised EU-wide figure available before the session date.
• Eurostat publishes country-level breakdowns (in 2024, the share of physicians aged 55+ exceeded 38.0% in 10 EU countries; in 2023, 48.9% of practising nurses in Lithuania and 40.2% in Latvia were aged 55+), but does not publish a single headline EU aggregate; the 'over one-third of doctors / a quarter of nurses' EU aggregate is the figure published by OECD/EC.

Sources

• PrimaryOECD — Health at a Glance: Europe 2024Over one-third of doctors and a quarter of nurses in the EU are aged over 55 and expected to retire in the coming years.
• PrimaryOECD — Health at a Glance: Europe 2024 (full PDF report)Over one-third of doctors and a quarter of nurses in the EU are aged ...
• PrimaryEurostat — Healthcare personnel statistics: physiciansIn 2024, the share of physicians aged 55 years and over was above 38.0% in 10 EU countries (see Figure 2). However, this is slightly lower than in 2023.
• PrimaryEurostat — Healthcare personnel statistics: nursing and caring professionalsIn 2023, almost half (48.9%) of all practising nurses in Lithuania were aged 55 years or over; the next highest share was recorded in Latvia (40.2%). ... 15 out of 24 EU countries recorded a share over 30.0% for practising doctors aged 55 years or older.