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Statistiscs on Registered Health Professionals

• 1Contact
  • 1.1Contact organisation
    National Statistics Institute of Spain
    
  • 1.5Contact mail address

    Avenida de Manoteras 50-52 - 28050 Madrid

    
    
• 2Metadata update
  • 2.1Metadata last certified
    10/05/2024
  • 2.2Metadata last posted
    27/05/2019
  • 2.3Metadata last update
    10/05/2024
• 3Statistical presentation
  • 3.1Data description

    The Registered Health Professionals Statistic provides annual information on the number of registered health professionals in Spain according to the different Councils and Associations of health professions.

    For inclusion in the statistic, the criterion for the consideration of health professionals is stipulated in Law 44/2003 of 21 November on the Regulation of Health Professions. Currently, data is collected from doctors, pharmacists, dentists, veterinarians, psychologists (with healthcare speciality), physicists (with healthcare speciality), chemists (with healthcare speciality), nurses, physiotherapists, podiatrists, optician-optometrists, dieticians, nutritionists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, orthodontists and biologists (with healthcare speciality). Within the group of nurses those specialising in Obstetric Gynaecology (Midwife) are also included.

     

    The Statistics provide the number of members both in absolute value and in rates per 100,000 inhabitants.

  • 3.2Classification system
    • Clasificaciones utilizadas

      As mentioned in the previous section, the classification of health professions is regulated by Law 44/2003 of 21 November.

      The statistics provide data disaggregated by sex, age, employment situation (non-retired and retired) and the geographical distribution of the group, understanding this as the Autonomous Community and/or province in which the professional declares to be registered.

  • 3.3Sector coverage

    The research is aimed at the group of health professionals registered in Spain according to the different Councils and Associations of health professions (according to Law 44/2003 of 21 November).

  • 3.4Statistical concepts and definitions
    • Age
      Age in years refers to the number of birthdays reached by the reference date, in other words, the age last birthday.
    • Health Profession
      That covered in Law 44/2003 of 21 November on the Organisation of Health Professions, or in compliance with the requirements set out therein.
    • Professional association
      Those recognised by the Administration pursuant to Law 2/1974 of 13 February regarding Professional Associations.
    • Retired Person
      Person who no longer works and receives a pension.
    • Sex
      Sex refers to the biological sex of the person. According to the WHO, "sex" refers to biological and physiological features defining to men and women, whereas "gender" refers to the roles, behaviour, activities and attributes constructed socially that a specific culture regards as appropriate for men and women. In accordance with this description, the WHO regards "man" and "woman" as sex categories, whereas "male" and "female" are gender categories.
  • 3.5Statistical unit

    The unit is the registered health professional.

  • 3.6Statistical population

    The total population or universe referred to in the Registered Health Professionals Statistic are professionals in the health field who are registered in a Spanish Association.

  • 3.7Reference area

    The statistics include health professional associations throughout the national territory.

    The objective variables are provided with a level of regional disaggregation by Autonomous Community and/or province of registration.

  • 3.8Time coverage

    The Registered Health Professionals Statistic has been produced without interruption by the National Statistics Institute since 1952.

    The statistics are structural and annual. When analysing the number of members at a given time (stock), the data refers to 31 December of the reference year.

  • 3.9Base period

    The Registered Health Professionals Statistic has been compiled without interruption by the National Statistics Institute since 1952. Since that year, considered as the base period,the statistic has evolved as new professional associations have been created in the health field, incorporating these new associations into the statistic.

• 4Unit of measure
  • 4.1Unit of measure

    Number of Registered Health Professionals

    Rates of Registered Health Professionals per 100,000 inhabitants

• 5Reference period
  • 5.1Reference period

    Data refers to 31 December of the reference year.

    Data referring to the period: Annual Y: 2020

• 6Institutional mandate
  • 6.1Legal acts and other agreements

    The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15  December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).

    
    

    The statistic has evolved as the concept of the health professional has changed, adapting to the regulation implemented by the Administration of the professional associations and the health profession. The last regulation corresponds to Law 44/2003 of 21 November on the Regulation of Health Professions and it is from this that the request for data and publication of the number of professionals was extended to other Associations and Councils.

  • 6.2Data sharing
    The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.
    

    The production of the statistic is the exclusive responsibility of the INE.

    The tabulation of all the data collected is available for download on the INE's website.

• 7Confidentiality
  • 7.1Confidentiality - policy

    The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society

    
    
  • 7.2Confidentiality - data treatment
    INE provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.
    

    The data requested from associations is aggregated data which prevents the direct identification of individuals.

• 8Release policy
  • 8.1Release calendar

    The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.

    
    
  • 8.2Release calendar access

    The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)

    
    
  • 8.3User access

    The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice

    
    
• 9Frequency of dissemination
  • 9.1Frequency of dissemination

    The Registered Health Professionals Statistic has been compiled by INE since 1952.

    The statistic is structural and annual.

    When analysing the number of members at a given time (stock), the data refers to 31 December of the reference year.

• 10Accessibility and clarity
  • 10.1News release

    The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web

    
    
  • 10.2Publications

    The results of the Registered Health Professionals Statistic are published on the INE's website and some results are included in publications such as the Anuario Estadistico (Statistical Yearbook), Cifras INE (INE Figures)...

    The statistical data are a basic reference to provide the information required by international organisations (World Health Organisation, European Commission, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The data is therefore included in the periodical publications of these bodies.

  • 10.3On-line database

    INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.

    
    

    Information on this statistic can be found at the following link:
    https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736176781&menu=ultiDatos&idp=1254735573175

  • 10.4Micro-data access
    A lot of statistical operations disseminate public domain anonymized files, available free of charge for downloading in the INE website Microdata Section
    

    There is no microdata file in the Registered Health Professionals Statistic.

  • 10.5Other

    Requests and queries from users are dealt with through InfoINE: https://www.ine.es/infoine/?L=1

  • 10.6Documentation on methodology

    A detailed description of the methodology is available at:

    https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736176781&menu=metodologia&idp=1254735573175

  • 10.7Quality documentation

    The fields mentioned below (items 11.1 to 17.2) form the user-oriented quality report for this operation.

• 11Quality management
  • 11.1Quality assurance

    Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.

    
    

    The statistics are based on the collection of information directly from Associations or General Councils (depending on the type of health professional) on the number of people registered in them.

    In relation to the information obtained, the information collection web application detects inconsistencies and features some warnings that allow an initial quality control of the information when the respondent unit is completing it.

    After receiving the data from the respondent units, and within information processing, the internal coherence of the data is checked and compared with the historical series of each group. In case of anomalous data, the respondent unit is contacted directly to confirm the data.

  • 11.2Quality assessment

    The overall quality of the statistics is outstanding, since the source of information is directly the Associations or General Councils themselves and there is no non-response from the professional Associations published.

    On the other hand, as registration is necessary to be able to practise the profession, there is a quality guarantee in the updating of the registers of each Association from which the information is obtained.

• 12Relevance
  • 12.1User needs

    The main users of the statistic are:

    - Ministry of Health

    - Territorial administrations (Autonomous Communities)

    - International institutions ( Eurostat, OECD, WHO...)

    - Researchers and universities

    - Specialised press and media

    - Individuals

    The needs of users pursue different purposes. For example, for the Ministry of Health this type of information is a fundamental element for the planning and adoption of public health measures and constitutes a fundamental instrument in the evaluation of health policies; international institutions need information to establish comparability with other countries.

  • 12.2User satisfaction

    The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013,  2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...

    On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click  next link)

     

    
    

    The statistic is a reference for the number of health professionals with the possibility of practising and is used both by the State administration and by international organisations (OECD, WHO, EU) as data on the resources of the national health system.

  • 12.3Completeness

    The survey is not regulated by European directive. The requirements are marked by the needs of governmental areas, international organisations and expert researchers in the field of health who need to know the number of Health Professionals registered.

    In this sense, the information required by the National Statistics Plan is collected.

    R1=100% of the information requested is collected.

• 13Accuracy and reliability
  • 13.1Overall accuracy

    As mentioned in point 11, the procedures for collection, coverage control and error filtering make it possible to obtain a high degree of accuracy for the statistic.

    Among the error sources, there could be errors in the administrative registers from which the data comes and which belong to the professional Councils/Associations .

  • 13.2Sampling error

    As it is an exhaustive statistic, it has no sampling errors.

  • 13.3Non-sampling error

    The coverage is exhaustive for the data of all professions published, as information is obtained from all associations, thus providing information on the entire national territory.

    Over-coverage rate (A2)= 0%

    Unit non-response rate (A4)= 6,25%    (not avaliable data on Nutricionist Dietitians at the time of publication)

    Non-response rate per item (A5)=

    Age: 0.12% Nursing; 0.08% occupational therapists. In the rest of the healthcare professions the non-response rate is 0

    Work Situation:  1.54% Nursing. In the rest of the health professions the non-response rate is 0%

    Imputation rate (A7) = 0%

     

     

    .

• 14Timeliness and punctuality
  • 14.1Timeliness

    The statistic is structural and annual. When analysing the number of members at a given time (stock), the data refers to 31 December of the reference year. Statistics data for year t is published 5 months later.

    Gap to final results (TP2)= 5 months

  • 14.2Punctuality

    Data dissemination is carried out according to the structural statistics availability calendar of that the INE prepares and publishes for each year.

    Punctuality ( TP3)= The calendar is complied with

• 15Coherence and Comparability
  • 15.1Comparability - geographical

    The statistics design allows the comparison of results at the level of the Provinces and Autonomous Communities .

  • 15.2Comparability - over time

    The Registered Health Professionals Statistic has been compiled without interruption by the National Statistics Institute since 1952. Within the data published by each group, the data is comparable year to year (therefore a maximum of 72 years).

    Length of comparable time series ( CC2) = 72

  • 15.3Coherence - cross domain

    This statistic is the main reference to understand the number of registered Health Professionals in Spain according to the different Councils and Associations of health professions both in absolute and relative terms. In this sense, the ratios of registered professionals are calculated with respect to the population estimated at 31 December for the whole of Spain and by Autonomous Community.

    As regards the coherence with the figures of professionals who are active and employed in their health professional field and who are obtained from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), it should be mentioned that the methodologies of both statistical operations differ, especially with regard to the labour situation concept. Nevertheless, the evolution of LFS employed persons in some of the professions show a similar profile with the statistical data.

  • 15.4Coherence - internal

    The information is collected from Associations and General Councils through a web application designed by the INE (IRIA). The coherence between the variables is compared from the time of completion of the data, since the web application detects inconsistencies and displays some warnings that allow for an initial quality control of the information when the respondent unit completes it.

    As the information is received, the coherence of the data is checked and compared with the series of data from previous years. In case of anomalous data, the unit is contacted directly to confirm the data.

• 16Cost and burden
  • 16.1Cost and burden

    The respondent units are the Associations and General Councils that provide their information from the use of their enrolment registers. Contact with units takes place shortly before the statistical reference date (31 December) in order to facilitate the collection of information. The use of a web questionnaire has facilitated the completion of the statistics by the respondent units.

    The estimate of the budgetary appropriation necessary to finance this statistic foreseen in the 2024 Annual Programme is 36.85 thousand euros.

     

• 17Data revision
  • 17.1Data revision - policy

    The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).

    This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow:  routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.

    
    

    No provisional data is published in the statistic.

  • 17.2Data revision - practice

    The published data is definitive, however each year the respondent unit has the data from previous years at its disposal and, in the event that they have provided erroneous data in any of them, they are modified.

• 18Statistical processing
  • 18.1Source data

    The statistical data is obtained from the information completed by the Associations or General Councils depending on the type of health professional.

    The information is collected through a web application (IRIA) where the aggregate data on the number of members distributed according to the classification variables is requested. The data is collected as of the first week of January of the following year to the reference year.

    The questionnaires are adapted to each of the professionals. There are two types of questionnaires:

    1. General Councils of Associations: pharmacists, veterinarians, podiatrists, physicists, optician-optometrists,
    psychologists, chemists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, nutritionists, orthodontists and biologists.
    2. Provincial/Autonomous Associations of doctors, nurses, dentists, orthodontists and physiotherapists.

  • 18.2Frequency of data collection

    Data collection takes place once a year. The data refers to 31 December of the reference year (stock variable).

  • 18.3Data collection

    The information is collected through the IRIA web application, designed by INE (CAWI collection).

  • 18.4Data validation

    The information monitoring process to guarantee its quality is carried out in two phases:

    1/ During the completion of the statistics: the web application detects inconsistencies and displays some warnings that allow for an initial quality control of the information when the respondent unit completes it.

    2/. Centralised data processing: as the information is received, the data consistency is checked and compared with the series of previous years. In case of anomalous data, the unit is contacted directly to confirm the data.

  • 18.5Data compilation

    Once the initial data has been received, it is filtered, as described in the previous section, and the tables are prepared for publication.

  • 18.6Adjustment

    No calibration or weighting adjustment is required as this is a statistic with complete coverage.

• 19Comment
  • 19.1Comment