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October 29, 2026

Ontario’s nursing supply continues to grow: new info sheets

A hand holding a mobile phone. Text on the screen reads:

In an ongoing trend seen since 2018, the number of nurses in Ontario continues to rise.

As the governing body for Registered Nurses (RNs), Registered Practical Nurses (RPNs) and Nurse Practitioners (NPs) in Ontario, CNO collects data on the nursing profession, which is used by decision-makers in the health care system.

“CNO is the authoritative source of province-wide data about nursing registration, application and employment in Ontario. This is because we are able to collect data from every nurse in the province,” said Brent Knowles, CNO’s Director, Analytics & Research. “We share our data with health system partners, to help inform health human resource planning.”

In 2026, 197,020 nurses renewed at least one certificate of registration with CNO. Most of these — 153,321 — received their nursing education in Ontario, which represents a 2.2% increase from the year before.

Bar chart showing growth in Ontario-educated nurse renewals and total nurse renewals from 2021 to 2026. Ontario renewals increased annually by 1.0% to 2.2%, while total renewals increased by 1.8% to 3.9%. Total renewals grew faster than Ontario renewals in every year shown.

As the largest source of the province’s nursing workforce and supply, Ontario-educated nurses continue to demonstrate strong rates for renewing their nursing registrations annually with CNO. In 2026, nurses renewing their registrations for the first time had a rate of 97.8%, and since 2021, these rates have remained steady around 98%. High first-time renewal rates suggest that first-year retention is stable, and that once Ontario graduates enter the nursing profession, they are likely to register the following year.

While the total number of Ontario-educated nurses continues to climb, the increase in the population of internationally educated nurses (IENs) has outpaced their growth. As a result, while Ontario-educated nurses made up 83.6% of the total nursing supply in 2021, they now make up only 77.8%.

Stacked bar chart showing the proportion of nurse renewals by location of education from 2021 to 2026. The proportion of Ontario-educated renewals decreased each year, from 83.6% in 2021 to 77.8% in 2026, while the combined proportion of internationally and other Canadian-educated renewals increased.

Composition of nursing workforce evolving

CNO’s data highlights the growing importance of IENs to Ontario’s health system, as the composition of the workforce evolves. Over the last five years, growth in the nursing supply was driven in part by an increase in nurses who received their education outside of Canada. The province’s 35,635 IENs make up 18.1% of the nursing supply and nearly one-third of newly registered nurses. As well, since 2025 there has been an 8.4% increase in IENs who renewed their registration.

To support IENs, CNO has initiated strategies and made evidence-informed regulatory changes to enhance registration processes and support smooth transition to practice. CNO now accepts nursing education that is recognized or approved in any jurisdiction, if the education was designed to prepare the applicant for the category they are applying to, and it meets the credentials required. As well, a new Transition to Practice requirement helps familiarize IENs with practice in Canada. The Supervised Practice Experience Partnership (SPEP) helps applicants safely meet two critical registration requirements while integrating into the workforce.

Recognizing and including diverse educational backgrounds and qualifications reflects CNO’s adaptability. It also allows CNO to remain responsive to the needs of the health care system and the broader community, by registering nurses from around the world who have the knowledge, skill and judgment to practice safely in Ontario.

CNO releases new data resources

CNO has released three new information sheets that highlight data and information in the Nursing Statistics Report 2026. The information sheets are available on our Recent Statistical Reports page.

“The information sheets are another way of viewing the trends in the Nursing Statistics Report 2026,” said Niels Thakkar, CNO’s Manager, Analytics & Research. “They show key data points related to a specific nursing group, so you can understand trends over time at a glance. It’s an easy way to access our data, and helps readers to understand the nursing workforce narrative of 2026.”

The information sheets, which focus on Ontario-educated nurses, internationally educated nurses and members of the Non-Practising Class, each begin with a snapshot of essential statistics, followed by a focused data story, helping to make the data more digestible.

Sharing insights from the Nursing Statistics Report in this way allows CNO to share complex data in a format that a variety of system partners can reference.

Read now:

For more information, including all of CNO’s statistical reports, visit Recent Statistical Reports.

About CNO

The College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) is the regulator of the nursing profession in Ontario. It is not a school or a nursing association. CNO acts in the public interest by:

  • assessing qualifications and registering individuals who want to practice nursing in Ontario.
  • setting the practice standards of the profession that nurses in Ontario are expected to meet.
  • promoting nurses' continuing competence through a quality assurance program.
  • holding nurses accountable to those standards by addressing complaints or reports about nursing care.

The College was founded in 1963. By establishing the College, the Ontario government was acknowledging that the nursing profession had the ability to govern itself and put the public's well-being ahead of professional interests.

For the latest information, please see our Nursing Statistics page.

Anyone who wants to use a nursing-related title — Registered Nurse (RN), Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) or Nurse Practitioner (NP) must become a member of CNO.

Frequently Asked Questions

Go to the public Register, Find a Nurse, to conduct a search for the nurse. Contact us if you can't find the person you are looking for.

All public information available about nurses is posted in the public Register, Find a Nurse, which contains profiles of every nurse in Ontario. Publicly available information about nurses include their registration history, business address, and information related to pending disciplinary hearings or past findings.

Unregistered practitioners are people who are seeking employment in nursing or holding themselves out as being able to practice nursing in Ontario, but who are not qualified to do so. They are not registered members of CNO. Only people registered with CNO can use nursing-related titles or perform certain procedures that could cause harm if carried out by a non-registered health professional. CNO takes the issue of unregistered practitioners seriously. See Unregistered Practitioners for more information.

To ensure procedural fairness for both the patient (or client) and the nurse, the Regulated Health Professions Act requires that information gathered during an investigation remain confidential until the matter is referred to the Discipline Committee or Fitness to Practise Committee. CNO will not disclose any information that could identify patients (or clients) or compromise an investigation. See Investigations: A Process Guide for more information.

Information obtained during an investigation will become public if the matter is referred to a disciplinary hearing. If a complaint is not referred to a hearing, no information will be available publicly.

See CNO's hearings schedule, which is updated as hearing dates are confirmed. Hearings at CNO are open to the public and the media. For details on how to attend a hearing, contact the Hearings Administration Team.

A summary of allegations and the disciplinary panel outcomes can be found on the public Register, Find a Nurse. Full decisions and reasons are also available.

Where a disciplinary panel makes a finding of professional misconduct, they have the authority to reprimand a nurse, and suspend or revoke a nurse's registration. Terms, conditions and limitations can also be imposed on a nurse's registration, which restricts their practice for a set period. Nurses can also be required to complete remedial activities, such as reviewing CNO documents and meeting with an expert, before returning to practice.

For detailed information see the Sexual Abuse Prevention section.

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