Introduction to the Public Health Workforce

Public Health is everyone's business….

Working in public health means you get to improve people's lives on an individual, local, national, and even international scale. You'll look at the 'bigger picture' and be passionate about making change for the better.

The graphic below illustrates the variety of different Public Health roles:

Core public health roles are those where public health is identified as being the main part of the role. It is estimated that around 40,000 people work in core public health roles.

We refer to people who contribute to public health in some way through their actions (even if they do not realise it) as the 'wider public health workforce'.

It is estimated that 15-20 million people in over 170 occupations work in the wider public health workforce. Many people therefore make a contribution to the health and wellbeing of others in their daily lives.

If you do not already work in a public health role (or if you don't think you do), have you thought about how, in your working life, you have an impact on the health and wellbeing of others?