South Korea has fewer medical doctors per person than other members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a lawmaker revealed Friday.

According to Health Ministry data released by Rep. Nam In-soon of The Minjoo Party of Korea, Korea ranks last in terms of the number of doctors, along with Mexico, in the OECD’s ranking of 28 member states. The nation had 2.2 doctors per every 1,000 people as of 2014.

Austria has the highest ratio of doctors at 5.1 for every 1,000 people, followed by Norway at 4.4, and Germany, Sweden and Switzerland with 4.1 each. The corresponding figure is 2.6 for the United States and 2.4 for Japan. The OECD average is 3.3.

Korea’s figure includes oriental medicine doctors. If they are excluded, the number of doctors per 1,000 of the population would fall to 1.89 as of June, the ministry said.

According to the Health Ministry’s data, a minimum of 1,103 doctors are needed at public hospitals and rural areas that lack medical support, Nam said. “At least 120 to 150 public doctors should be trained annually to make up for the shortage.”

By region, Seoul had the biggest number of doctors per 1,000 of the population at 2.82, followed by Gwangju at 2.34 and Daejeon at 2.27. Sejong city, a new city where many government ministries and agencies have relocated, showed the lowest number of doctors with 0.76.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)