JOB FOR DOCTORS: 7 countries where doctors are relatively plenty?

With about 98 countries of the world not having adequate doctors, it is notable to point out those that have them in relative abundance. Using the World Health Organisation minimum bench mark of one doctor to a 1,000 people, these countries have done well. Absolute number of doctors is less important than ratio which correlate more with access to care.

These countries are not the ones you are probably most likely expecting i.e the popular wealthy Western Europe, Americas or the Asian Tigers or the Asian first World- Japan. Some are large countries others are small.

Qatar 7.739 doctors per population (data 2010). The Middle Eastern country has a population of 2,123,160 (July 2014 est.). Not bad for a GDP per capita of $102,100 (2013 est.). Kuwait another oil rich country have population of about 3.5 million but have 1.793 doctors per 1000 population.

Monaco 7.167 per population (data 2012). The little Western Europe has just 30,508 people.Certainly just 210 doctors would give you that kind of figure.The GDP per capita certainly is high income category-$85,500 (2011).

Cuba 6.723 per 1000 population (2010 data). The island neigbour of US and one of the few remaining communist country in the world. With low GDP per capita of $10,200(2010 estimate) it has not done badly. Guinea and Tunisia are in same population bracket as Cuba and also third World countries but they have 0.100 and 1.222 per 1000 population respectively.

San Marino 5.133 per 1000 population (2012 estimate). Described as third smallest state in Europe and world oldest republic.With a population of 32,742 (July 2014 est.), 160 doctors would likely achieve that figure. It is good they have enough physicians to go round.

Austria 4.830 per population (2011 data). A Western European EU member with 8,223,062 people (July 2014 est.).She is a landlocked country with GDP expenditure on health of 10.6% of GDP (2011).

Greece 4.380 per population. A member of EU with 10,775,557 people (July 2014 est.) with $23,600 (2013 est.) (63 position in the world). The countries with similar population bracket as Greece include Belgium and Tunisia. They both have 2.993(2011) and 1.222(2010) per 1000 population respectively.

Map of Greece. Source: CIA

Russia Federation 4.309 doctors per population(2006 estimate. The largest country in the World with land mass of 17,098,242 sq km former part USSR. The population of 142,470,272 (July 2014 est.) put it at 10th position in the world. Countries with comparable population with Russian Federation are Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria but all with doctor estimate of 0.827(2010), 0.356(2011) and 0.408(2009) per 1000 population respectively.

Certainly these country needs to pointed out especially those that have higher population! It take effective policy execution to have that kind of figure.

Data are derived from World Health Organisation Health Workforce data , CIA data and Worldometers