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. 2004 Dec 14;2:17. doi: 10.1186/1478-4491-2-17

Table 1.

Physician workforce distribution and number of medical schools by African country

Country Population (in 1000s) Physicians per 100 000 population Total number of physicians FAIMER number of medical schools
Angola 10 132 7.7 780 1
Benin 6428 5.7 366 1
Botswana 1578 23.8 376 0
Burkina Faso 12 217 3.4 415 1
Burundi* 5714 6 343 1
Cameroon 14 792 7.4 1095 1
Cape Verde 0.04 17.1 68 0
Central African Republic 3501 3.5 123 1
Chad 8419 3.3 278 1
Comoros 0.578 7.4 43 0
Congo 2809 25.1 705 1
Congo (DR) 51 810 6.9 3575 3
Côte d'Ivoire 15 866 9 1428 1
Equatorial Guinea 0.474 24.6 117 0
Eritrea 4232 3 127 0
Ethiopia* 62 651 2 1253 3
Gabon* 1223 20 245 1
Ghana 19 509 6.2 1210 3
Guinea 8642 13 1123 1
Guinea-Bissau 1278 16.6 212 1
Kenya 30 310 13.2 4001 2
Lesotho 1847 5.4 100 0
Liberia 3149 2.3 72 2
Madagascar 15 506 10.7 1659 3
Malawi* 10 874 2.3 250 1
Mali 10 665 4.7 501 1
Mauritania 2668 13.8 368 0
Mauritius 1179 85 1002 1
Mozambique# 16 934 2.57 435 1
Namibia 11 826 29.5 3489 0
Niger 10 174 3.5 356 1
Nigeria 123 750 18.5 22 894 16
Rwanda* 7405 4 296 1
Sao Tome & Principe 0.16 46.7 75 0
Senegal 9784 7.5 734 2
Seychelles 0.08 132.4 106 1
Sierra Leone 5203 7.3 380 1
So. Africa 42 351 56.3 23 844 8
Somalia 7253 4 290 1
Sudan 35 080 9 3157 14
Swaziland 1,120 15.1 169 0
Tanzania 33 768 4.1 1384 4
The Gambia 1367 3.5 48 0
Togo 5033 7.6 383 1
Uganda* 23 496 3 705 3
Zambia 9799 6.9 676 1
Zimbabwe 12 186 13.9 1694 1
TOTAL/AVG 663 529 12.5 82,949 1.8 avg
Avg. physicians per country 1765

*Indicates countries for which physicians/100 000 data came from World Bank instead of World Health Organization

# Mozambique data come from Stephen S. Gloyd, as no data are available from WHO or World Bank

Note on calculations: Average physicians per 100 000 population in Africa overall = total number of doctors (82 949)/total population (663 529)

Sources: Population data from United States Census Bureau IDB Summary international Data Base (United Nations and National Statistics Offices) http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbsum.html

Number of physicians from the World Health Organization http://www3.who.int/whosis/health_personnel/health_personnel.cfm?path=whosis,health_personnel&language=english;

Number of FAIMER (Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research) medical schools comes from http://imed.ecfmg.org/results.asp?country=&school=&currpage=1&cname=&city=&region=AF&rname=Africa&psize=25