Like the country it serves, the strength of the NHS is closely linked to its diversity. As the most recent figures for NHS England show, large numbers of its staff are not UK/British nationals, and have their roots all around the world. The most common non-UK nationality is Indian, with almost 26 thousand as of 2020. Filipinos make the second largest group, with over 22 thousand, while staff from Ireland are the third most represented at more than 13 thousand.
Looking at the whole picture, 13.8 percent of all staff for which the nationality is known are non-UK nationals, representing around 170,000 of the 1.28 million strong workforce. People from the EU play an important role, with 9.1 percent of doctors and 6.0 percent of nurses coming from a country in the Union.
