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President Nicos Anastasiades expressed the government’s and his own “deep gratitude” toward nurses and midwives for their valuable contribution in protecting the public’s health.
In a written statement on the occasion of International Nurses Day, celebrated on May 12, Anastasiades said that this year the international day is celebrated against the backdrop of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, both locally and across the world.
“We honour and thank nursing staff, who thanks to their selflessness are on the frontline safeguarding health, making our country proud for successfully responding to the pandemic until this day,” Anastasiades said.
He expressed hope that “the next day will find us all together, working for even better working conditions for our nursing staff and for a comprehensive health system which will offer all citizens the high-quality services they deserve.”
Eurostat: 4.45m nurses in the EU in 2019, 1.3% of the Cyprus workforce
Data released by the European statistical service on Tuesday showed that there 4.45 million nurses and midwives employed in the EU in 2019, with the figure taking into account both professional and assistant nurses and midwives.
Compared to 2012, the EU saw an increase of half a million more nurses and midwives by 2019.
Nurses and midwives formed 2.2% of the EU population in 2019. Among EU Member States, Germany stood out with a share of 3.4%, followed by Finland (3.0%), Belgium (2.9%) and Ireland (2.8%).
But 11 out of the 27 EU Member States recorded shares of nurses and midwives of 1.5% or less of their total employment.
The lowest share was 1.1%, recorded in Bulgaria, closely followed by Latvia and Luxembourg (both 1.2%), Estonia, Cyprus and Hungary (all 1.3%), Greece and Poland (both 1.4%) as well as Spain, Portugal and Romania (all 1.5%).
In absolute numbers, Germany recorded close to 1,458,000 nurses and midwives in 2019. This corresponded to one-third (33%) of all nurses and midwives in the EU. France, with around 656,000 nurses and midwives (15% of EU’s total share) and Italy, with around 411,000 (9%), also recorded high numbers.
From 2011 to 2019, the number of nurses and midwives in Germany and France increased by 147,000 and 125,000 respectively, whilst in Italy the number only increased by 15,000 over this period.
In relative terms, Malta (+0.7 percentage points), Croatia and Portugal (both +0.5 pp) recorded the highest increase in the shares of nurses in total employment between 2011 and 2019. In contrast, Ireland (-0.6 pp) recorded the highest decrease in the share of nurses over this period, followed by Luxembourg (- 0.5 pp) and Bulgaria (-0.3 pp).
