Despite major advances in the prevention of both maternal and newborn mortality, figures for both remain high, particularly in low-resource settings.
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the Council of International Neonatal Nurses, Inc. (COINN) highlights the importance of skilled nurses working in supportive environments and how a lack of safe staffing puts mothers and newborns at preventable risk.
This map, based on the latest available data from  the WHO (2018-2023), shows how uneven the distribution of care is around the world. In 31 countries and territories, there are under 10 nurses and midwifery personnel for every 10,000 population.
These  inequalities are regional, with figures lowest in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-regional differences are clear too.
For example, in China, there were 37 midwives or nurses per 10,000 population as of the latest available data (2022), while in Indonesia there were 32 per 10,000 (2023), in India 17 per 10,000 (2020) and in Cambodia just 10 per 10,000 (2019)
