Nursing, among the eight fastest-growing professions through 2030

A World Economic Forum projection, key to the future of healthcare.

Every year, International Nurses Day reminds us of the value of an essential profession. But this May 12, we also want to invite you to look at the sector from another perspective: not only as a healthcare vocation, but as one of the educational choices with the greatest projection for the next decade.

It is not mere intuition. The data says so.

The Future of Jobs Report 2025, published by the World Economic Forum, places nursing professionals among the eight roles with the highest expected net growth worldwide between 2025 and 2030. In a labor market shaped by automation, artificial intelligence and demographic change, occupations linked to care and health appear as one of the major areas of growth for the period, with nursing at the forefront.

Over the last decade, when talking about the jobs of tomorrow, the conversation has almost always revolved around technological profiles. Programmers, data specialists, artificial intelligence experts or cybersecurity professionals have occupied much of the forecasts. The WEF report introduces an important nuance: the next decade will not grow only from the digital sphere. It will also grow from essential sectors. And health is one of them.

Nursing stands there for a very specific reason: the world is ageing, chronic diseases require more follow-up, healthcare is becoming more decentralized and health systems need professionals capable of moving between hospitals, primary care and the community settings where more and more care is being delivered. The report itself points out that population ageing is driving demand for healthcare occupations such as nursing.

That demand also comes with another important advantage: those who study nursing are not tied to a single career path or a single setting. Their trajectory can move from clinical care to management, research or teaching, and later open up to areas as different as pediatrics, geriatrics or mental health. A good educational choice is not only one that has demand today: it is one that allows professionals to grow, specialize and move between different environments over time.

Data from the World Health Organization reinforces this reading. The global nursing workforce grew from 27.9 million professionals in 2018 to 29.8 million in 2023. Despite this increase, the shortage remains high: the deficit is estimated at 5.8 million in 2023 and is projected to reach 4.1 million in 2030. We are not talking about temporary demand, but about a structural need: increasingly specialized, continuous and better-coordinated care.

In Europe, the context points in the same direction. The Health at a Glance: Europe 2024 report, prepared by the OECD and the European Commission, estimates that the European Union had an approximate shortage of 1.2 million doctors, nurses and midwives in 2022. In addition, more than a quarter of nurses in the EU are over 55, which anticipates an important need for generational replacement in the coming years.

For those considering studying nursing today, all this translates into a sector with real, sustained and international demand.

However, this does not mean that the path is simple. Precisely because it has long-term potential, it also requires preparation. The World Economic Forum warns that 39% of workers’ current skills will change or be transformed between 2025 and 2030. Among the most valued skills are analytical thinking, resilience, leadership and technological literacy.

In nursing, this profile is not theoretical. The nurse of the future will have to master technical procedures, yes, but also interpret data, communicate with patients and families, coordinate with multidisciplinary teams and make decisions under pressure in increasingly complex scenarios. Technology will help monitor vital signs, record information or anticipate risks, but clinical judgment —knowing what to prioritize, when to intervene, how to accompany— will remain decisive. And that part is difficult to automate.

For this reason, healthcare jobs appear as one of the major areas of growth in the coming years: they integrate knowledge, observation, responsibility and care in the same activity. That combination, together with the breadth of career opportunities, is what gives nursing a different weight in the labor map drawn by the WEF.

That is the essence of nursing education at Mundae University. Because learning to make clinical decisions is not completed only in a classroom: it requires early exposure to the real environment, regular contact with active professionals and the possibility of making mistakes and correcting them in increasingly complex contexts. The difference between knowing how to perform a procedure and knowing why, when and how to apply it is trained precisely there.

Seen this way, International Nurses Day is not only a date of recognition. It is also a good moment to understand what lies behind the figures: an essential sector, rapidly growing demand and a professional field with room to build a long career in a world that will continue to need, more and more, well-prepared people to provide care.