Population coverage of nurses in Brazil: estimates based on different data sources

Abstract There is an estimated deficit of six million nurses worldwide. Despite its importance for health systems, sociodemographic studies are scarce due to the absence of systematized data specific to nurses. The objective of this study was to compare the population coverage of nurses in Brazil based on sources from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in the years 2010 and 2015, and the Federal Nursing Council (Cofen), in the years 2013 and 2019. In both sources, there was an average increase of 164 thousand nurses throughout Brazil. The growth rate for the period of the IBGE surveys (15.7% per year) was triple that recorded in the Cofen data (5.3% per year). Coverage in the states of Brazil remains below the international recommendation (40 nurses per 10 thousand inhabitants), with greater deficits in the states of the North and Northeast regions. The comparisons in this study reiterate the importance of the availability of standardized and systematized data for Nursing in Brazil. Accurate health indicators subsidize public policies to reduce health inequities, with emphasis on the coverage of nurses, especially in regions with high socioeconomic vulnerabilities.