Germany would need 280,000 to 690,000 additional nurses in the next 25 years to meet the rising demand because of the ageing population, SchengenVisaInfo said on Thursday.

The need for nursing staff throughout the European country is anticipated to increase from 1.62 million in 2019 to 2.15 million by 2049, according to the German Federal Statistical Office forecast

It would be a major increase of 33%, showing the country would have to hire foreign nurses to meet the demand in the nursing department.

The statistical office stated that two variants were contributing to the surge. The “trend variant” reviewed the demographic developments and positive trends observed in the nursing labour market since 2010. The number of employed nursing staff is expected to spike to 1.74 million by 2034 and to 1.87 million by 2049.

But it added that the number of nursing staff would fall short by 90,000 by 2034 and 280,000 by 2049, below the requirements of the country.

The “status quo variant” was the second variant where only the effects of demographic changes on the future number of nursing staff were considered. It predicted that the number of nursing staff in the country would fall from 1.62 million in 2019 to 1.48 million by 2034 and to 1.46 million by 2049.

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Amidst such predictions, the country would need 350,000 nursing staff in the next 10 years and 690,000 nursing staff by 2034.

To address the anticipated shortage, Germany is making efforts to recruit additional nurses from Latin America. The country has the potential to recruit around 700 nursing staff per year, according to the Federal Employment Agency of Germany.