Health Workers Reach Index

A major new health workers index by Save the Children has ranked the best and worst countries for a child to fall sick in — with Chad and Somalia at the bottom and Switzerland and Finland at the top.

The index measures not only how many health workers there are, but also their reach and impact.

It shows that children living in the bottom 20 countries — which fall below the WHO minimum threshold of just over two health workers for every thousand people – are five times more likely to die than those further up the index.

Released two weeks in advance of a crucial UN meeting in New York, the index highlights countries such as Ethiopia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone where millions of children could die simply because of a lack of trained health workers.