Registration & Licensure Statistics

The Nova Scotia College of Nursing (NSCN) is committed to transparency and publicly sharing registration and licensure data.

This page contains statistics about nurses who have currently applied for registration and licensure and those who have become eligible for licensure with NSCN.

Nursing Workforce Data Reports

Each year, the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness creates a report containing a snapshot of the nursing workforce using data provided by the Nova Scotia College of Nursing.  The following reports contain key metrics related to nursing supply in the province including inflow and outflow, total nurses employed, age distribution, and proportion of nurses employed by county.

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

 

Expedited Licensure Process for International Applicants from the Philippines, India, Nigeria, USA, UK, Australia, or New Zealand 

In the Spring of 2023, NSCN implemented two expedited registration and licensure processes, establishing a fast and predictable pathway to licensure in Nova Scotia for registered nurses who demonstrate good standing and good character and are licensed elsewhere in Canada, or the Philippines, India, Nigeria, USA, UK, Australia, or New Zealand. 

Our current statistics reports reflect data since November 1, 2023, the start of our 2023-2024 licensure year, and onwards. To view May 1, 2023 - October 31, 2023 data, please click here

View our October 3, 2024 report here.

New nurses eligible for licensure

Breakdown by Licence Type

Current (Since November 1, 2023)
graph since nov 1

Direct International Registration and Licensing (DIRL) Project Evaluation Report

Formal evaluations of the expedited licensure process for those who were licensed since May 1, 2023 began in the fall of 2023 and will take place over a period of 24 months, at six month intervals, until May 2025. The data is collected through various sources including an online survey, the NSCN website analytics, the NSCN practice database, a Verification of Registration Request Tracking tool, the NSCN registrant portal, and through the Nova Scotia Health Learning Institute for Health Care Providers.

Please see highlights of our interim reports below.

Direct International Registration and Licensing (DIRL) Project Evaluation Report (Interim) November 1, 2023-April 30, 2024

Direct International Registration and Licensing (DIRL) Project Evaluation Report (Interim) May 1, 2023-October 31, 2023