A total of 10,494 Nigerian nationals work in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), making Nigerians the sixth-largest foreign nationality group in the health service, according to data shared by NHS Million.
The figures place Nigerians behind Indian, Filipino, Irish and Polish nationals among the largest non-UK nationality groups in the NHS.
British nationals remain by far the largest group, with 1,118,116 staff, followed by Indians with 32,117 and Filipinos with 25,423.
Irish nationals account for 14,151 NHS staff, while Polish nationals number 10,520.
Nigerians, with 10,494 staff, rank sixth, followed by Portuguese nationals with 7,831.
Nigerians among major overseas NHS workforce
The data also shows significant representation from other African countries.
Zimbabweans account for 4,780 NHS staff, while Ghanaians number 3,395.
South Africans account for 1,829 staff, followed by Kenyans with 894, Ugandans with 648 and Sierra Leoneans with 596.
The figures also include nationals from Zambia, Niger, Cameroon, Malawi, The Gambia and Mauritania.
The NHS workforce therefore remains highly international, with staff from more than 200 nationalities working across England.
Overseas workers remain vital to NHS
Separate data from the UK House of Commons Library shows that around 325,000 NHS staff in England reported a non-British nationality in June 2025.
That represented about 21 per cent of NHS staff with a known nationality.
The proportion is higher among doctors and nurses.
About 36 per cent of doctors and 30 per cent of nurses reported a non-UK nationality, compared with 19 per cent of NHS staff overall.
The data also shows the scale of overseas medical expertise within Britain’s health system.
Around 138,400 licensed doctors who qualified abroad were working in the UK in 2025, accounting for 42 per cent of all licensed doctors.
UK moves to reduce reliance on overseas recruitment
The strong presence of overseas workers comes as the UK government introduces measures aimed at building a more sustainable domestic medical workforce.
The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 received Royal Assent on March 5 and came into force on March 6. It prioritises UK medical graduates and certain other eligible groups for medical training places.
The policy applies to foundation training and specialty recruitment, with further prioritisation arrangements applying to specialty training from 2027.
The change could make the UK’s medical training pathway more competitive for some internationally trained doctors seeking specialist training.
However, the policy does not remove the contribution of international professionals already working across the NHS.
Nigeria’s growing healthcare diaspora
The presence of more than 10,000 Nigerian nationals in the NHS illustrates the scale of Nigeria’s healthcare diaspora in Britain.
It also adds to the wider debate over migration of skilled Nigerian professionals and the effect of overseas opportunities on Nigeria’s domestic health workforce.
For the UK, overseas professionals remain an important component of NHS staffing.
For Nigeria, the continued movement of trained professionals abroad raises questions around workforce retention, training capacity and how the country can maintain enough skilled personnel to meet domestic healthcare needs.
The latest figures therefore tell two sides of the same story: Nigerian professionals have become an important part of Britain’s health workforce, while Nigeria continues to face the challenge of retaining skilled workers at home.
