Tehran, Isfahan and East Azarbaijan provinces had the highest number of pharmacists per 10,000 population in 2007, while the lowest ratios were seen in Hormozgan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Sistan and Baluchistan provinces (Table 1). As such, in 2012, the highest number of pharmacists per 10,000 population belonged to Tehran, Isfahan and East Azarbaijan provinces, 5.15, 2.11 and 2.08, respectively; whilst the lowest number of pharmacists per 10,000 population were in Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchestan and Kurdistan provinces, 0.39, 0.77 and 0.89.
Table 1
Pharmacist-to-10000 population and rank in the country for 2007-2012-2016-2019
Province | 2007 | 2012 | 2016 | 2019 |
Ratio1 | Rank2 | Ratio | Rank | Ratio | Rank | Ratio | Rank |
Tehran | 4.68 | 1 | 5.15 | 1 | 5.92 | 1 | 6.14 | 1 |
Isfahan | 1.91 | 2 | 2.11 | 2 | 2.48 | 2 | 2.60 | 3 |
East Azerbaijan | 1.86 | 3 | 2.08 | 3 | 2.41 | 4 | 2.58 | 4 |
Alborz | 1.86 | 4 | 1.87 | 6 | 2.26 | 7 | 2.21 | 8 |
Mazandaran | 1.76 | 5 | 2.00 | 4 | 2.42 | 3 | 2.52 | 5 |
Razavi Khorasan | 1.75 | 6 | 2.00 | 5 | 2.39 | 5 | 2.50 | 6 |
Gilan | 1.68 | 7 | 1.84 | 7 | 2.09 | 8 | 2.22 | 7 |
Qom | 1.58 | 8 | 1.72 | 9 | 1.91 | 9 | 1.88 | 12 |
Fars | 1.53 | 9 | 1.82 | 8 | 2.38 | 6 | 2.61 | 2 |
Golestan | 1.19 | 10 | 1.29 | 17 | 1.54 | 22 | 1.69 | 20 |
Qazvin | 1.18 | 11 | 1.43 | 10 | 1.62 | 15 | 1.77 | 18 |
Zanjan | 1.17 | 12 | 1.37 | 14 | 1.67 | 13 | 1.81 | 17 |
Yazd | 1.17 | 13 | 1.39 | 12 | 1.85 | 10 | 1.98 | 10 |
Semnan | 1.15 | 14 | 1.39 | 13 | 1.60 | 17 | 1.63 | 23 |
Ardabil | 1.08 | 15 | 1.40 | 11 | 1.74 | 12 | 1.95 | 11 |
Khuzestan | 1.08 | 16 | 1.23 | 19 | 1.40 | 25 | 1.57 | 24 |
Hamadan | 1.05 | 17 | 1.33 | 15 | 1.60 | 18 | 1.85 | 14 |
Kermanshah | 1.00 | 18 | 1.20 | 21 | 1.81 | 11 | 2.11 | 9 |
West Azerbaijan | 0.98 | 19 | 1.15 | 22 | 1.43 | 24 | 1.51 | 26 |
Lorestan | 0.97 | 20 | 1.31 | 16 | 1.61 | 16 | 1.83 | 15 |
Markazi | 0.94 | 21 | 1.25 | 18 | 1.59 | 19 | 1.86 | 13 |
Kerman | 0.88 | 22 | 1.05 | 25 | 1.47 | 23 | 1.67 | 21 |
South Khorasan | 0.83 | 23 | 0.97 | 27 | 1.64 | 14 | 1.83 | 16 |
Bushehr | 0.82 | 24 | 1.03 | 26 | 1.31 | 27 | 1.31 | 27 |
Kurdistan | 0.78 | 25 | 0.89 | 29 | 0.89 | 30 | 1.20 | 29 |
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad | 0.76 | 26 | 1.21 | 20 | 1.59 | 20 | 1.70 | 19 |
North Khorasan | 0.74 | 27 | 1.07 | 24 | 1.39 | 26 | 1.55 | 25 |
Ilam | 0.68 | 28 | 1.08 | 23 | 1.57 | 21 | 1.64 | 22 |
Sistan and Baluchestan | 0.63 | 29 | 0.77 | 30 | 0.99 | 29 | 1.10 | 30 |
Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari | 0.62 | 30 | 0.90 | 28 | 1.13 | 28 | 1.31 | 28 |
Hormozgan | 0.33 | 31 | 0.39 | 31 | 0.52 | 31 | 0.52 | 31 |
Mean | 1.84 | - | 2.1 | - | 2.5 | - | 2.67 | - |
1. Ratio: pharmacist/population * 10000 2. Rank among provinces |
In 2016, Tehran, Isfahan and Mazendaran provinces had the highest number of pharmacists per 10,000 population, 5.92, 2.48 and 2.42, and the lowest ratios were in Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchistan, and Kurdistan provinces, 0.52, 0.99, and 1.12, respectively. Similarly, Tehran, Fars and Isfahan having the highest ratios of 6.14, 2.61 and 2.6, and Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchestan, and Kurdistan provinces were lowest with the ratios of 0.52, 1.1 and 1.2 in 2019.
As presented in Table 1, nine provinces had steadily rising trends in terms of rank among other provinces, and nine other had a fixed declining trend. Between 2007 and 2019, the five provinces, Tehran, Mazendaran, Razavi Khorasan, Gilan and Hormozgan were ranked 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th and 31st, respectively for the all period.
Additionally, the rank of some provinces was fluctuating significantly inter-provincially during the whole period. For example, the provinces of Kermanshah, Markazi, South Khorasan, Fars, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, and Ilam were ranked 18th, 21st, 23rd, 9th, 26th and 28th, in 2007, whereas they were in the 9th, 13th, 16th, 2nd, 19th and 22nd positions, in 2019. As such, Golestan, Semnan, Khuzestan, Qazvin and West Azarbaijan provinces were ranked 10th, 14th, 16th, 11th and 19th in 2007, but in 2019 they were ranked 20th, 23rd, 24th, 18th and 26th, respectively.
The findings regarding the distribution of pharmacists per 10,000 individuals per province displayed that most provinces in 2007 had less than 1.5 pharmacists per 10,000 population, whilst in 2019 only five provinces were under this ratio namely; Bushehr, Kurdistan, Sistan and Baluchistan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Hormozgan (Fig. 1).
Table 2
Trend of pharmacists’ distribution between 2007 and 2019
| 2007 | 2012 | 2016 | 2019 | Growth rate 2007–2019 (%) |
Total Population | 70,495,416 | 75,149,669 | 78,769,121 | 82,084,000 | 16.44 |
Number of pharmacists | 12986 | 15759 | 19681 | 21919 | 68.79 |
Pharmacist Per 10000 Population | 1.84 | 2.10 | 2.50 | 2.67 | 45.11 |
Gini Coefficient * | 0.26 | 0.23 | 0.21 | 0.19 | -26.92 |
* The closer to zero, the more equitable distribution |
Overall, the results indicated that the number of pharmacists in 2007 was 12986, increased by 69% and reached 21919 in 2019. Pharmacist per 10,000 people ratio, across the country, demonstrated a growing trend over the study years, with a change of 45%. The Gini coefficients obtained in 2007, 2012, 2016 and 2019 were 0.26, 0.23, 0.21 and 0.19, respectively (Table 2). Furthermore, Fig. 2 illustrates Lorenz curve trend and shows that this trend is closer to the equilibrium line over the four targeted intervals.