Fact-checked against primary sources: China’s National Health Commission (NHC), and four independent peer-reviewed cross-sectional studies published in BMC Nursing, BMC Health Services Research, and Frontiers in Public Health. Last verified September 2026.

According to recent nurse retention statistics China: A 2026 national study of 125,344 nurses across 67 tertiary hospitals in all 31 Chinese provinces found turnover intention of just 13.7%, a figure the study’s own authors describe as “relatively low,” comparable to Germany’s 14% and lower than almost every other published study on Chinese nurses.

A separate peer-reviewed study of nurses in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, published in the same window, found turnover intention nearly identical to 43%.

A third study across six provinces found 42.8%. A fourth, focused on Guangdong province specifically, found 64.1%.

These aren’t rival claims about the same fact, they’re four different, methodologically rigorous studies measuring genuinely different populations in genuinely different ways, and the gap between them is the real story. China’s nursing workforce has also grown 29% in five years, now exceeding 6 million registered nurses, even as the country’s doctor-to-nurse ratio still lags international benchmarks.

Below are the 20 nurse retention statistics for China that matter most in 2026, sourced directly from the National Health Commission and four independent peer-reviewed studies

Nurse Retention Statistics China at a Glance

  1. 13.7% — turnover intention among 125,344 nurses across 67 tertiary hospitals in all 31 provinces, the largest national study to date (BMC Nursing, 2026)

  2. 43% — turnover intention among 2,504 nurses in 26 hospitals across eastern China’s Jiangsu province (BMC Health Services Research, 2024)

  3. 42.8% — turnover intention among 2,863 nurses in 48 public hospitals across six provinces (Frontiers in Public Health, 2023)

  4. 64.1% — turnover intention reported in a Guangdong province study, the highest of any Chinese regional study identified

  5. 6.06 million — registered nurses in China as of end-2025, up 29% from 2020 (National Health Commission)

  6. 4.32 — registered nurses per 1,000 population in 2025, up from 3.34 in 2020

  7. 11.27%–1.57% — actual (not intention-based) nurse turnover rate in China from 2019 to 2021, substantially lower than any intention-based figure

  8. 39.3% — nurses with turnover intention who said they would prefer to leave the nursing profession entirely, not just their current hospital

  9. 70.8% — nurses in the six-province study who reported experiencing workplace violence at least sometimes, the strongest single predictor of turnover intention identified

  10. 1:1.17 — China’s doctor-to-nurse ratio as of 2021, still short of the country’s own national target of 1:2

Nurse Retention Statistics China: The National Picture

  1. China’s largest-ever study of nurse turnover intention, published in 2026, surveyed 125,344 nurses across 67 public tertiary hospitals spanning all 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, finding 13.7% reported frequently thinking about leaving their job in the past year.

  2. The study’s authors explicitly describe this 13.7% figure as low by international and domestic standards — comparable to Germany (14%) and higher only than Italy (11.7%) among comparison countries, and notably lower than almost every previously published study specifically on Chinese nurses.

  3. The study used a deliberately strict measurement: only nurses who said they “often” thought about leaving in the past year were classified as having turnover intention, excluding those who answered “sometimes” — a narrower definition than most other turnover-intention studies use, which the authors argue makes their 13.7% figure a better proxy for nurses at genuine risk of actually leaving.

  4. Consistent with that reasoning, the study cites separate data showing China’s actual nurse turnover rate ran between just 1.57% and 11.27% from 2019 to 2021 — significantly lower than the 13.7% intention figure, confirming that most nurses who report turnover intention do not follow through and actually leave.

  5. Among the 17,164 nurses who did report turnover intention, 39.3% said they would prefer to change careers entirely rather than move to a different nursing job, and only 25.75% of nurses who had already resigned said they intended to continue working in nursing elsewhere — indicating that for a meaningful share of departing nurses, leaving isn’t a job change, it’s an exit from the profession itself.

Nurse Retention Statistics China: Why the Regional Numbers Run So Much Higher

  1. A 2024 study of 2,504 nurses across 26 hospitals in Jiangsu province (eastern China) found 43% reported high turnover intention — more than three times the national 2026 figure — using a validated six-item scale rather than the national study’s single-item measure.

  2. That Jiangsu study explicitly compares its 43% figure to other countries: 35.5% in Italy, under 25% in Czechia, Slovakia, and South Korea, and just 16.2% in Japan — placing eastern Chinese nurses among the higher end of the international range even though the national 2026 study places China among the lower end.

  3. A separate 2023 study of 2,863 nurses across 48 public hospitals in six provinces — two from the developed eastern region, two from the central region, and two from the less-developed western region — found 42.8% turnover intention, a figure nearly identical to the Jiangsu-only result despite covering a broader, more varied set of regions.

  4. Workplace violence was the single strongest predictor of turnover intention identified in that six-province study, with an adjusted odds ratio between 3.0 and 4.8 — meaning nurses who experienced workplace violence were three to nearly five times more likely to report turnover intention than those who didn’t.

  5. 70.8% of nurses in that same study reported experiencing workplace violence at least “sometimes,” and 15.2% reported experiencing it “frequently” — an exposure rate high enough that the study’s authors describe tackling workplace violence as requiring “a systems approach involving governmental agencies, funding bodies, healthcare providers, and the public.”

Nurse Retention Statistics China: Reconciling the Gap

  1. The 2026 national study’s own authors directly address why their 13.7% figure sits so far below regional studies like the ones above: they attribute part of the gap to their exclusive focus on Grade A tertiary hospitals specifically, which tend to offer better compensation, working environments, and career development than the mixed urban-and-rural, tertiary-and-secondary hospital samples used in some regional studies.

  2. Methodology also plays a measurable role. The national study’s single-item, strict “often” threshold captures only persistent, high-intensity turnover intention, while the regional studies used multi-item validated scales that also count nurses who “sometimes” consider leaving — a broader definition that mechanically produces a higher percentage.

  3. Despite using a narrower hospital sample, the national study still found that nurses in lower-GDP provinces had modestly higher turnover intention (13.9%) than those in higher-GDP provinces (13.3%) — a statistically significant but comparatively small gap, suggesting regional economic conditions matter, but hospital tier and sample composition may matter considerably more in explaining the large gap between the national and regional figures.

  4. ICU, pediatric, and emergency nurses showed the highest turnover intention in the national study — a pattern also found in the six-province and Guangdong studies, indicating that despite the very different headline percentages, the specialty-level risk pattern is one of the few findings that replicates consistently across nearly every Chinese study on this topic.

Nurse Retention Statistics China: What Drives Nurses to Consider Leaving

  1. Night shift, high work pressure, and low welfare benefits were the top three reasons nurses cited for wanting to leave in the 2026 national study — a self-reported ranking directly from the 17,164 nurses who expressed turnover intention.

  2. In the Jiangsu eastern China study, nurses with a monthly income between roughly $786 and $1,572 (or below $786) had 66% to 103% higher odds of high turnover intention than higher-paid nurses, and 80.4% of nurses who had actually resigned cited family reasons — including raising two or more children — as their primary motivation.

  3. Being assigned to nursing by parental wishes rather than choosing it voluntarily nearly doubled the odds of turnover intention in the Jiangsu study (OR = 1.95), and 72.5% of nurses who had actually resigned reported they had not freely chosen the nursing profession in the first place — a career-choice mismatch factor rarely highlighted in non-Chinese nursing retention research.

  4. Contractual or third-party agency nurses showed 62% higher odds of turnover intention than formally employed nurses in the Jiangsu study, and 98% of nurses who had actually resigned were informal employees — pointing to China’s dual formal/informal nursing employment structure as a distinct, measurable retention risk factor.

  5. In the six-province study, higher job and career satisfaction, professional pride, and better work-family balance were all independently associated with lower turnover intention, even after controlling for workplace violence, sleep deprivation, and job title — confirming that quality-of-work-life factors matter on top of, not instead of, the more dramatic risk factors like violence exposure.

  6. China’s registered nurse count grew 29% between 2020 and 2025, reaching 6.06 million, with the National Health Commission specifically citing plans in its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) to “improve incentive and support measures for nurses” — indicating the government’s own stated policy priority has shifted toward retention and support measures, not solely headcount expansion.

Why Nurse Retention Statistics in China Disagree So Sharply

China offers an unusually clear demonstration of how methodology alone can produce wildly different headline numbers from the same underlying country:

  • Hospital tier and sample composition matter enormously. The lowest figure (13.7%) comes from a study restricted to Grade A tertiary hospitals nationwide; the higher figures (42.8%–64.1%) come from studies mixing tertiary and secondary, urban and rural hospitals — settings the national study’s own authors acknowledge tend to have worse conditions.

  • Measurement strictness changes the number mechanically. A single-item “often” threshold (national study) will always produce a lower percentage than a multi-item scale counting “sometimes” responses too (regional studies) — this is a measurement artifact, not necessarily a sign that conditions are actually better nationally than regionally.

  • Turnover intention and actual turnover are consistently different things. China’s actual turnover rate (1.57%–11.27%, 2019–2021) sits well below every intention-based figure cited here, a pattern consistent with global research showing intention reliably overstates actual departure.

  • Specialty-level findings replicate even when headline national numbers don’t. ICU, pediatric, and emergency nursing show elevated turnover risk in multiple independent Chinese studies despite their wildly different overall percentages — suggesting this specific pattern is more robust than any single national or regional headline figure.

What the Evidence Says Would Help

  • Address workplace violence directly, given it’s the strongest documented predictor identified in Chinese nurse retention research. With odds ratios as high as 4.8 in the six-province study, and over 70% of surveyed nurses reporting some exposure, this is a specific, measurable, and actionable target distinct from broader “burnout” language.

  • Narrow the formal-versus-informal employment gap. Contractual and third-party agency nurses show significantly higher turnover intention and made up 98% of actual resignations in the Jiangsu study — standardizing benefits and job security across employment types is a concrete structural lever.

  • Target ICU, pediatric, and emergency departments specifically, since this is the one finding that holds consistently across nearly every Chinese study reviewed here, regardless of how differently each study measured overall turnover intention.

  • Treat career-choice mismatch as a distinct retention factor. With nearly three-quarters of actual resigning nurses in the Jiangsu study reporting they hadn’t freely chosen nursing as a career, earlier career counseling and voluntary specialty selection could meaningfully reduce this specific driver.

  • Continue the shift toward incentive and support measures signaled in China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, since the National Health Commission’s own stated 2026-2030 priorities already point toward retention-focused policy, not just continued headcount growth.

Workplace violence, night shift burden, and career mismatch are documented, statistically verified drivers of nurse turnover intention in China, not abstract complaints — peer-reviewed research directly links these factors to intention-to-leave rates ranging from 13.7% to 64.1% depending on the population studied. [web:472][web:457][web:450] Employer-led staffing reform, workplace violence prevention, and licensed clinical mental health support remain the primary tools for addressing burnout tied to this kind of structural strain. Some hospitals report that complementary, non-clinical wellbeing resources — such as Ne Ste Al Mind Reprogramming sessions offered remotely alongside existing staff support programs — can play a supportive role for nurses experiencing stress and burnout symptoms; many nurses and clients who use these sessions describe a noticeable shift in how they feel, though individual experiences vary and no specific outcome is guaranteed. Ne Ste Al does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical or psychiatric condition; anyone experiencing burnout or clinical symptoms should consult a licensed healthcare provider first, and any wellbeing program a hospital adopts should be built around licensed, evidence-based care as its foundation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the actual nurse turnover rate in China?

It depends heavily on which study and measurement method you use. China’s largest national study (125,344 nurses, 2026) found 13.7% turnover intention, while regional studies in Jiangsu and six other provinces found 42.8% to 43%, and a Guangdong-specific study found 64.1%. Actual confirmed turnover — as opposed to stated intention — ran between just 1.57% and 11.27% from 2019 to 2021.

Why do national and regional studies on Chinese nurses show such different numbers?

The national study sampled only Grade A tertiary hospitals, which tend to offer better conditions, and used a stricter single-item measure counting only nurses who “often” considered leaving. Regional studies sampled a broader mix of tertiary, secondary, urban, and rural hospitals and used multi-item scales that also counted nurses who “sometimes” considered leaving — both factors that mechanically produce higher percentages.

Is China's nursing workforce growing or shrinking?

Growing significantly in absolute terms. China’s National Health Commission reports 6.06 million registered nurses as of the end of 2025, up 29% from 2020, with nurse density rising from 3.34 to 4.32 per 1,000 population. However, the doctor-to-nurse ratio (1:1.17 as of 2021) still falls short of China’s own national target of 1:2.

What's the biggest single driver of nurse turnover intention in China?

Workplace violence shows the strongest statistical association identified across Chinese nurse retention research, with adjusted odds ratios as high as 4.8 in a six-province study — meaning nurses who experienced workplace violence were up to nearly five times more likely to report turnover intention. Over 70% of nurses in that study reported experiencing some form of workplace violence.

Which nursing specialties in China have the highest turnover risk?

ICU, pediatric, and emergency department nurses consistently show elevated turnover intention across multiple independent studies, including both the low-figure national study and the higher-figure regional studies — making this one of the few findings that holds steady despite the large differences in overall reported turnover rates.

 

Related

Nurse Retention Statistics South Korea 2026
Nurse Retention Statistics Sweden 2026
Nurse Shortage Statistics Singapore 2026

Nurse Turnover in U.S. Hospitals: Causes, Costs, and Solutions (2026)

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