Doctors in Latvia are getting older, but the number of new doctors has increased over the decade - Health Ministry

RIGA - The age structure of doctors in Latvia is characterized by ageing, but the share of young doctors is on average higher than in other EU countries and has increased by 95 percent in ten years, according to the Health Ministry's (MoH) Health Workforce Development Strategy Plan.

In Latvia, 47 percent of doctors are aged 55+, compared to an EU average of 35 percent.

The MoH highlights that there is a positive trend in the share of young doctors, which is higher than the average in other EU countries. While the EU average is 20.2 percent of doctors under 35, in Latvia the figure is 22.6 percent.

According to data compiled by the Ministry, there were 749 doctors under 35 in 2013, rising to 1,468 in 2021.

The number of graduates from medical degree programs in Latvia is the second highest among OECD countries, at 23.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to an average of 13.5 in OECD countries.

According to the Ministry, Latvia's good performance is partly due to the high proportion of foreign students, which means that the number of graduates qualifying for the Latvian healthcare labor market is significantly lower. Overall, the number of medical graduates per 10,000 inhabitants is in line with the EU average of 2.3.

There has also been a slight increase in the number of nurses in practice - since 2018, the number of nurses employed in the profession has increased by 4.7 percent from 8,707 in 2018 to 9,117 on October 1, 2023.

However, a negative trend can be observed in the ratio of medical staff per 1,000 inhabitants in hospitals in Latvia, which is not only one of the lowest among OECD countries, but also the lowest in the Baltic States. In Latvia it is 11.45, in Lithuania it is 15.32, while in Estonia it is 12.4.