Workforce statistics
Tatauranga ohu mahi
The Nursing Council collects a variety of data about nurses during our work. This includes information from the workforce survey that each nurse is asked to complete when they renew their Annual Practising Certificate.
On this page you can find reports and publications issued by the Council that use this and other data, to provide information about nurses in Aotearoa New Zealand. Some other strategic publications can also be found here.
On this page:
Quarterly data reports
Workforce reports: statistical profile
Nursing cohort reports
Nursing cohort report infographics
Other reports
Quarterly data reports
In April 2023, the Nursing Council began releasing a series of Quarterly Data Reports. This report series is intended to provide quick access to some ‘headline’ information about the nursing workforce – especially information that we are regularly asked to provide. They are meant to complement, not replace, the more detailed information we provide in other publications, and focus on data where we expect to see meaningful change on a quarter-by-quarter basis. A new report is released in April, July, October, and January each year, after the end of the March, June, September, and December Registration Quarters.
Workforce reports: statistical profile
From 2010, the Nursing Council has regularly published a profile of the nursing workforce. These reports provide a detailed analysis of nurses who are actively practising in NZ, including numbers of nurses working in direct care settings. The reports combine registration data with the workforce data collected when nurses renew their APCs.
Nursing cohort reports
Beginning in 2012, the Nursing Council has tracked the progress of cohorts of nurses over time. The first of these described nurses who joined the register in the 2005-2006 registration year, and from 2014 the Council also began tracking nurses who joined the register in the 2012-2013 registration year.
2023 2020 2018 2016 2014 2005–06
Infographic: Nursing Cohort Report 2023
Click here to view
Other reports
International nurse migration: implications for the New Zealand nursing workforce August 2025
Summary: Evaluation of the Continuing Competence Framework 2010
Evaluation of the Continuing Competence Framework 2010
NCNZ Cultural Safety 2013
CHRE Review Report 2012
CHRE Governance Outcomes
CHRE Fitness to Practise Outcomes
The Future Nursing Workforce Supply Projections 2010–2035
Trends in the New Zealand Nursing Workforce 2012–2016