Table 1. Changes in physician-to-population ratios (density) and medical schools in selected African and non-African countries, ranked by change in physician density.
| Country | Circa 1970a | Circa 2010a | Change over Time | ||||||||
| Population (in 1,000) | Physicians (n) | Density (100K people) | Medical Schools (n) | Population (in 1,000) | Physicians (n) | Density (100K people) | Medical Schools (n) | Physician Density (absolute) | Physician Density (%) | Medical Schools (n) | |
| Liberia | 1,397 | 132 | 9.4 | 1 | 4,190 | 51 | 1.2 | 1 | −8.2 | −87.1% | 0 |
| Tanzania | 14,354 | 576 | 4.0 | 1 | 47,783 | 300 | 0.6 | 5 | −3.4 | −84.4% | 4 |
| Zimbabwe | 5,515 | 1,035 | 18.8 | 1 | 13,724 | 827 | 6.0 | 1 | −12.7 | −67.9% | 0 |
| Mozambique | 9,304 | 510 | 5.5 | 1 | 25,203 | 548 | 2.2 | 4 | −3.3 | −60.3% | 3 |
| Sierra Leone | 2,789 | 149 | 5.3 | 0 | 5,979 | 136 | 2.3 | 1 | −3.1 | −57.4% | 1 |
| Zambia | 4,248 | 527 | 12.4 | 1 | 14,075 | 836 | 5.9 | 1 | −6.5 | −52.1% | 0 |
| Somalia | 3,667 | 193 | 5.3 | 1 | 10,195 | 300 | 2.9 | 2 | −2.3 | −44.1% | 1 |
| Djibouti | 180 | 52 | 28.9 | 0 | 906 | 185 | 20.4 | 1 | −8.5 | −29.3% | 1 |
| Congo | 1,272 | 163 | 12.8 | 1 | 4,337 | 401 | 9.2 | 1 | −3.6 | −27.8% | 0 |
| Niger | 4,841 | 109 | 2.3 | 1 | 17,157 | 288 | 1.7 | 1 | −0.6 | −25.4% | 0 |
| Ghana | 8,789 | 856 | 9.7 | 2 | 25,366 | 2,033 | 8.0 | 4 | −1.7 | −17.7% | 2 |
| Senegal | 4,318 | 281 | 6.5 | 1 | 13,726 | 741 | 5.4 | 4 | −1.1 | −17.04% | 3 |
| Guinea-Bissau | 620 | 55 | 8.9 | 0 | 1,664 | 124 | 7.5 | 1 | −1.4 | −16.0% | 1 |
| Lesotho | 1,067 | 50 | 4.7 | 0 | 2,052 | 89 | 4.3 | 0 | −0.3 | −7.4% | 0 |
| Togo | 1,964 | 95 | 4.8 | 1 | 6,643 | 349 | 5.3 | 1 | 0.4 | 8.6% | 0 |
| Swaziland | 455 | 54 | 11.9 | 0 | 1,231 | 173 | 14.1 | 0 | 2.2 | 18.4% | 0 |
| South Africa | 22,740 | 12,060 | 53.0 | 7 | 52,386 | 38,236 | 73.0 | 8 | 20.0 | 37.6% | 1 |
| Ethiopia | 29,469 | 374 | 1.3 | 2 | 91,729 | 2,152 | 2.3 | 12 | 1.1 | 84.9% | 10 |
| Angola | 5,606 | 383 | 6.8 | 1 | 20,821 | 2,946 | 14.1 | 7 | 7.3 | 107.1% | 6 |
| Rwanda | 3,769 | 77 | 2.0 | 1 | 11,458 | 568 | 5.0 | 1 | 2.9 | 142.6% | 0 |
| Gambia | 485 | 19 | 3.9 | 1 | 1,791 | 175 | 9.8 | 1 | 5.9 | 149.4% | 0 |
| Nigeria | 59,607 | 2,343 | 3.9 | 12 | 169,000 | 55,376 | 32.8 | 25 | 28.8 | 733.6% | 13 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 287,856 | 25,504 | 8.9 | 53 | 913,302 | 150,305 | 16.5 | 109 | 7.6 | 85.7% | 56 |
| Canada | 22,479 | 37,277 | 165.8 | 16 | 34,838 | 69,699 | 200.1 | 17 | 34.2 | 20.6% | 1 |
| Brazil | 58,854 | 59,573 | 101.2 | 77 | 199,000 | 341,849 | 171.8 | 90 | 70.6 | 69.7% | 13 |
| USA | 211,909 | 338,111 | 159.6 | 126 | 318,000 | 909,749 | 286.1 | 147 | 126.5 | 79.3% | 21 |
| UK | 55,968 | 75,141 | 134.3 | 26 | 62,783 | 172,553 | 274.8 | 33 | 140.6 | 104.7% | 7 |
| Belgium | 9,757 | 16,476 | 168.9 | 7 | 11,090 | 39,690 | 357.9 | 11 | 189.0 | 111.9% | 4 |
| Australia | 12,959 | 17,972 | 138.7 | 8 | 23,050 | 81,639 | 354.2 | 21 | 215.5 | 155.4% | 13 |
| South Korea | 32,905 | 16,377 | 49.8 | 19 | 49,003 | 98,293 | 200.6 | 52 | 150.8 | 303.0% | 33 |
| Cuba | 8,074 | 7,000 | 86.7 | 7 | 11,271 | 76,506 | 678.8 | 14 | 592.1 | 682.9% | 7 |
Data sources: World Health Organization [5]; World Health Organization [6]; Mullan et al. [7]; Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research [8]; University of Copenhagen and World Health Organization [9]; Redi-Med Data [10]; United States Census Bureau [11].
a
Circa 1970, 1969–1976; circa 2010, 2003–2012.