How many staff work for the NHS?

NHS England publishes NHS Workforce Statistics monthly for staff in hospital and community health services, with headcount and full-time equivalent figures by staff group (doctors, nurses, support staff, managers) and by trust. GPs and practice staff are in separate General Practice statistics.

Scotland's NHS workforce figures are published by NHS Education for Scotland, Wales's by StatsWales and Northern Ireland's by the Department of Health. Vacancy figures are published separately.

Official sources: NHS Workforce Statistics

The latest figure

The newest value is at Office for National Statistics (ONS). More on it: NHS employment (UK).

When is the next figure out?

Quarterly with the ONS labour market release, about ten weeks after the reference month; the June 2026 figure was published on 15 September 2026 and the next release is 15 December 2026. The JSON 'years' array repeats the June (Q2) value, so use 'quarters' for the latest figure

Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.

Terms used in this answer

• Full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount
  FTE converts part-time posts into full-time units, so two half-time staff count as one FTE. Headcount counts each person once regardless of hours.
• Headcount
  A count of individual people, each counted once regardless of how many hours they work or how many posts they hold.
• Seasonally adjusted
  Figures that have had regular calendar patterns removed, such as Christmas shopping or summer jobs, so that underlying movements between months or quarters can be seen.
• Great Britain and the United Kingdom
  Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom is Great Britain plus Northern Ireland. Some statistics cover only one or the other.
• Administrative data
  Information collected by organisations while running a service, such as tax records, benefit claims or hospital activity, and then used to produce statistics.

Where the figures come from

• NHS England statistics and NHS England Digital (formerly NHS Digital)
  Where to find official NHS England figures on RTT waiting lists, A&E four-hour waits, cancer and ambulance times, diagnostics, GP numbers and appointments.

Related questions

• How many GPs are there in England?
• What are NHS waiting times in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
• How long is the NHS waiting list?

This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about nhs and health: all NHS and health questions.