[Excerpt from publisher] The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is protection of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses eligible to practise within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct. Currently the number of registrants exceeds 682,000. The Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001 (The Order), sets out the NMC's role and responsibilities. The aim of publishing a statistical analysis of the register is to assist workforce planners, researchers, government and employers in their several activities that depend on information about numbers on the register. There may also be public interest in the information.