Statistics

2024 Health Manpower Survey
Summary of the Characteristics of Enrolled Nurses Enumerated

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I.   Types of Enrolled Nurses Covered

1.1  The enrolled nurses covered in the 2024 Health Manpower Survey on Enrolled Nurses (HMS - EN) were nursing personnel enrolled in any part of the roll under the Nurses Registration Ordinance (Chapter 164) as at the survey reference date of 30 September 2024, with exclusion of those subsequently found to have passed away on or before the survey reference date.

1.2  The number of enrolled nurses covered was 16 606.

II.  Response Rate

2.1  Of the 16 606 enrolled nurses covered, 6 606 responded to the HMS-EN. Among the respondents, 1 923 (29.1%) submitted their responses through the online platform and 4 683 (70.9%) by post, giving an overall response rate of 39.8%.

III.   Activity Status

3.1  The responding enrolled nurses were classified as either “economically active”¹ or “economically inactive”¹ based on their status as at the survey reference date of 30 September 2024.

3.2  Economically active (“active”) enrolled nurses included:

1. “Employed” enrolled nurses - enrolled nurses practising in the nursing profession in Hong Kong as at the survey reference date; and
2. “Unemployed” enrolled nurses - enrolled nurses who (i) were not practising in the local nursing profession as at the survey reference date; (ii) had been available for work during the seven days before the survey reference date² AND (iii) had sought work in the local nursing profession during the 30 days before the survey reference date³.

3.3  Economically inactive (“inactive”) enrolled nurses referred to the responding enrolled nurses who were not practising in the nursing profession in Hong Kong as at the survey reference date, excluding those who were on leave and who were “economically active” but “unemployed”.

3.4  Among the 6 606 respondents, 5 422 (82.1%) were “active” in the local nursing profession and 1 184 (17.9%) were “inactive” as at the survey reference date of 30 September 2024(Chart A).

3.5  Of the 5 422 active enrolled nurses enumerated, 5 325 (98.2%) were practising in the local nursing profession, 85 (1.6%) were seeking jobs in the local nursing profession, ten (0.2%) reported that they were available for work but had not sought work during the 30 days before the survey reference date, mainly because they were waiting to take up a new job in the local nursing profession, believed that no work was available in the local nursing profession, or expected to return to their original job in the local nursing profession. The remaining two (<0.1%) had not been available for work because of temporary sickness (Chart A).

¹  In the survey, the criteria used in defining economically active / inactive followed those recommended by the International Labour Organization, which are also being used by the Census and Statistics Department in Hong Kong.

² The respondent would be classified as “unemployed” if he/she had sought work in the local nursing profession but had not been available for work because of temporary sickness.

³  The respondent would also be classified as “unemployed” if he/she fulfilled conditions (i) and (ii) but had not sought work during the 30 days before the survey reference date because he/she believed that work was not available; or had made arrangements to take up a new job; or was starting business on a subsequent date; or was expecting to return to their original job in the local nursing profession.

3.6  Of the 1 184 inactive enrolled nurses enumerated, 1 089 (92.0%) reported not seeking jobs in the local nursing profession during the 30 days before the survey reference date, 52 (4.4%) reported practising overseas, three (0.3%) reported practising in Macao or other areas of the Greater Bay Area, two (0.2%) reported practising in other areas of the Mainland and 38 (3.2%) were not available for work during the seven days before the survey reference date. Among the 1 089 inactive enrolled nurses who reported not seeking jobs in the local nursing profession, the main reasons for not seeking jobs included: 554 (50.9%) were retired, 213 (19.6%) were engaged in household duties, 72 (6.6%) were due to health issues, 71 (6.5%) wanted to take a rest/had no motive to work/had no financial need, 66 (6.1%) were working in other professions, 49 (4.5%) were undertaking training in the nursing profession and 14 (1.3%) had emigrated, etc (Chart A).

Notes:	*	Figure refers to the number of nursing personnel enrolled in any part of the Roll of Enrolled Nurses under the Nurses Registration Ordinance (Chapter 164) as at the survey reference date of 30 September 2024.
	†	Figure refers to the number of enrolled nurses subsequently found to have passed away on or before the survey reference date of 30 September 2024.
	‡	Figure refers to the number of responding enrolled nurses who (a) were not practising in the nursing profession in Hong Kong as at the survey reference date; (b) had been available for work in the local nursing profession during the seven days before the survey reference date; AND (c) had sought work in the local nursing profession during the 30 days before the survey reference date.
	§	Figure refers to the number of responding enrolled nurses who were not available for work in the local nursing profession during the seven days before the survey reference date.
	‖	Figure refers to the number of responding enrolled nurses who reported not seeking work in the local nursing profession during the 30 days before the survey reference date because of expecting to return to their original job in the local nursing profession, waiting to take up a new job in the local nursing profession, believing that no work was available in the local nursing profession or unspecified reasons.
	Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

IV.   Characteristics of Activity Local Enrolled Nurses Enumerated

4.1  The survey results presented in this section were based on the information provided by 5 325 responding enrolled nurses who were practising in the local nursing profession as at the survey reference date of 30 September 2024 (hereafter referred to as “active local enrolled nurses”).

4.2  Of the 5 325 active local enrolled nurses enumerated, there were 701 (13.2%) males and 4 584 (86.1%) females. The remaining 40 (0.8%) did not indicate their gender. For the 5 285 respondents who indicated their gender, the overall sex ratio (males per 100 females) was 15. After excluding 28 respondents who did not indicate their age, the median age of the remaining 5 297 active local enrolled nurses enumerated was 36.0 years. Among the 5 261 responding active local enrolled nurses with known age and gender, the median age was 37.0 years for females and 35.0 years for males.

4.3  Among the 5 325 active enrolled nurses enumerated who were practising in the local nursing profession, 5 312 (99.8%) indicated their practising streams. Among the 5 312 respondents, 4 724 (88.9%) were in the general stream and 588 (11.1%) were in the psychiatric stream.

4.4  The respondents were requested to indicate the characteristics of their main jobs⁴. Among the 5 325 active local enrolled nurses enumerated, 2 265 (42.5%) reported that their main jobs were in the private sector, 1 871 (35.1%) in the Hospital Authority, 895 (16.8%) in the subvented sector, 237 (4.5%) in the Government and 26 (0.5%) in the academic sector. The remaining 31 (0.6%) did not mention the type of institution for their main jobs.

4.5  Among the 5 267 active local enrolled nurses enumerated who indicated their ages and the sectors of their main jobs, the median age for respondents working in the subvented sector was 42.0 years, while the median ages for those working in the Government, the Hospital Authority, the academic sector and the private sector were 39.0 years, 38.0 years, 38.0 years and 33.0 years respectively.

4.6  Among the 5 325 active local enrolled nurses enumerated, 4 793 (90.0%) reported only one main area of work, while 383 (7.2%) reported more than one main area of work, and 149 (2.8%) did not indicate their area of work. Among the 4 793 active local enrolled nurses who reported one main area of work, 4 642 (96.8%) reported working in clinical fields and 151 (3.2%) in non-clinical fields. Among the 4 642 respondents who spent most of their working time in clinical fields, the most commonly reported areas were residential care (1 151, 24.8%), geriatrics (567, 12.2%), medicine (440, 9.5%) and mental health/ psychiatry/addiction treatment (386, 8.3%). Among the 151 respondents who spent most of their working time in non-clinical fields, 68 (45.0%) reported working in administration/ management, 56 (37.1%) in public health, 25 (16.6%) in teaching/education/research and two (1.3%) in occupational health as their main areas of work.

4.7  Among the 5 249 active local enrolled nurses enumerated who reported their weekly working hours, the median number of hours of work (excluding meal breaks) per week was 44.0 hours. Among the 5 325 active local enrolled nurses enumerated, 719 (13.5%) were required to undertake on-call duties (excluding normal duty), with a median 9.0 hours of on-call duty (excluding normal duty) per week.

4.8  Among the 5 325 active local enrolled nurses enumerated, 58.7% had received Student/Pupil Nurse Training, 35.5% held a Higher Diploma and 2.9% held a Bachelor’s Degree as their earliest basic qualification.

4.9  Of the 5 325 active local enrolled nurses enumerated, 96.2% obtained their earliest basic qualification in Hong Kong, 2.5% in the Mainland and 0.3% in Macao.

⁴ Main jobs referred to the jobs in which the enrolled nurses had spent most of their working time.

4.10  Of the 5 325 active local enrolled nurses enumerated, 2 290 (43.0%) had obtained additional training. Among the 2 290 respondents, 559 (24.4%) held a Certificate, 534 (23.3%) held a Bachelor’s Degree and 357 (15.6%) held a Higher Diploma as their highest level of additional training.

4.11  Of the 2 290 respondents who had obtained additional training, 1 329 (58.0%) had obtained training in only one field, which included training in general nursing (16.8%), mental health nursing (12.3%), emergency/first aid nursing (9.9%) and the conversion programme for Enrolled Nurses to become Registered Nurses (‘EN to RN Conversion Programme’) (8.9%).

4.12  Of the 2 290 active local enrolled nurses enumerated who had obtained additional training, 743 (32.4%) had obtained more than one field of additional training. Among the 743 active local enrolled nurses enumerated who had obtained more than one field of additional training, the most commonly reported fields included: geriatric nursing (316, 42.5%), emergency/first aid nursing (315, 42.4%), general nursing (293, 39.4%) and community and primary health care (251, 33.8%).

4.13  Among the 5 325 active local enrolled nurses enumerated, 3 706 (69.6%) reported that they had participated in Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) activities during the 12-month period preceding the survey reference date, 1 438 (27.0%) reported no participation in any CNE activities and 181 (3.4%) did not report whether they had participated in any CNE activities or not. Among the 3 706 respondents who had participated in CNE activities, the distribution of CNE points/hours attained in the past 12 months was: 1 to 5 points/hours (25.4%), 6 to 10 points/hours (20.8%), 11 to 15 points/hours (17.6%), 16 to 20 points/hours (10.7%) and more than 20 points/hours (25.5%).

V.   Trend Observation

5.1  Selected characteristics of active local enrolled nurses collected during the survey years between 1987 and 2024 are tabulated in Table A for reference. As the enumeration approaches, reference dates and coverage varied across survey years, comparisons across years should be made with caution. In particular, the 2009 and 2012 surveys covered only enrolled nurses who were required to renew their practising certificates in those years, and their coverage was substantially different from that adopted in other survey years. Therefore, figures from the surveys in these two years are not used for comparison in this section (Chart B).

5.2  The number of enrolled nurses covered increased from 8 077 in 2000 to 16 606 in 2024. Among active local enrolled nurses enumerated, the proportion working in the general stream remained broadly stable at around 90% during the survey years between 2000 and 2024(Chart B & Table A).

5.3  The proportion of active local enrolled nurses enumerated who were working in the private sector had increased from 20.9% in 2000 to 42.5% in 2024. The Hospital Authority was previously the most commonly reported sector, but its share decreased from 53.9% in 2000 to 35.1% in 2024 (Table A).During the corresponding period, the proportion reported to be working in the Government was also on a trend of decrease, dropping from 9.3% in 2000 to 4.5% in 2024.

5.4  The sex ratio (males per 100 females) of active local enrolled nurses enumerated has shown an increase, from 8 in 2006 to 15 in 2024. The median age has been recorded since the 1992 survey, which showed a steady increase from 31.5 years in 1992 to 40.0 years by 2006. The median age recorded in the 2024 survey dropped to 36.0 years, compared to the figure of 40.0 years in 2018(Table A).