Europe’s ageing society: more labour mobility could help EU meet demand for health and long-term care workers

The EU’s health and long-term care workforce will need to grow by 11 million workers between 2018 and 2030 to meet the demands of an ageing population, according to a JRC report.

The report analyses the EU’s changing demography and the impact on demand for health and long-term care.

It finds that the rise in the number of older people has been increasing the demand for these services, generating a rising demand for a qualified workforce.

Much of that demand is being met by domestic education and training, while migration from third countries and intra-EU mobility also has an increasingly important role to play.

In 2018, there were almost two million health and long-term care workers in the EU working in a different country than the one they were born in.

While the number of these foreign-born workers has grown in recent years, as a percentage of all health workers (13.2%), it is significantly lower than in some other countries, such as the UK or USA. These workers are also not spread evenly, with more than two thirds employed in only five EU countries: Germany, Italy, Sweden, France and Spain.