Number of doctors

On average worldwide each doctor attends to 662 patients. Industrialized countries tend to have more doctors per capita than non-industrialized countries.

Some countries compensate for lack of trained doctors by using other health care professionals, such as nurses and midwives. Even in developed countries, there is a rise in the number of doctor's assistants, who perform some of the work previously handled by doctors. However, countries with very low life expectancy rates usually have extremely low numbers of doctors.