As part of a series of articles to mark International Women’s Day, Eurostat has published statistics on the distribution of people working in the healthcare sector in the third quarter of 2020, by age and gender. The Czech Republic is above the European average in employing a female workforce in healthcare. Photo Credit: Freepik / Illustrative Photo.
Czech Rep., Mar 8 (BD) – In the past year, healthcare workers have been at the frontline of the fight against Covid-19. According to Eurostat, a total of 14.3 million people (aged 15+) worked in healthcare in the third quarter of 2020. In most European countries, the largest share of workers in the sector were aged 35-49 years, and were predominantly women.
The healthcare sector includes nurses, midwives and associate staff (4.4 million), personal care workers (3.9 million), other health professionals (4.1 million) and medical doctors (1.8 million). In 16 EU member states, the largest share of workers were 35-49 years of age, with the highest in Romania (47%), Hungary and Czechia (both 43%). Luxembourg was the only EU member state where the largest share of healthcare workers were 34 years and younger.
Image: Percentage of healthcare workers by age group across EU member states (Q3, 2020). Source: Ec.europa.eu/eurostat.
The data reveals that the majority of positions in healthcare in Europe are held by women. In the third quarter of 2020, 78% of healthcare staff in Europe were women. The figures varied between EU member states, from 61% in Greece to over 90% in Latvia and Estonia. The number of women working in healthcare in the Czech Republic was above the European average; fewer than 20% of health care workers in the country were men.
Image: Representation of the percentage of female and male health care workers in EU member states (Q3, 2020). Source: Ec.europa.eu/eurostat.
