A new report by the OECD (organisation for economic cooperation and development) has shown that Portuguese nurses are the 5th worst paid among the 38 member countries, even though numbers per head of population have more than doubled in the last 20 years. There are currently roughly 7.1 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants (meaning roughly 78,000 in total), which is below the OECD average of 8.8 per 1,000 inhabitants.