Demographic and professional profile of the dental hygiene workforce in Saudi Arabia and its alignment with vision 2030 goals

Saudi Vision 2030 emphasizes preventive healthcare, workforce development, and equitable access to health services. Dental hygienists play an important role in preventive oral care; however, comprehensive national evidence on their demographic and professional characteristics, geographic distribution, and workforce density in Saudi Arabia remains limited. Such evidence is important for strategic oral health workforce planning. This study aimed to describe the demographic and professional profile of licensed dental hygienists in Saudi Arabia, examine their geographic distribution and workforce density, and assess differences in professional experience and rank across demographic and workplace characteristics in support of workforce planning under Vision 2030. A cross-sectional secondary analysis was conducted using individual-level workforce microdata from the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS). The dataset included all eligible licensed dental hygienists recorded at the time of data extraction on 17 July 2025. Variables included age, sex, nationality, employment region, employment sector, professional rank, and years of experience. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize workforce characteristics, and chi-square tests were used to examine associations between categorical demographic and professional characteristics. Among 1,458 licensed dental hygienists, 61.4% were aged 20–34 years, 53.6% were male, and 95.8% were Saudi nationals. Most were classified in the Practitioner category (83.4%) and employed in the government sector (61.7%). The workforce was concentrated in the Central (41.1%), Western (25.5%), and Eastern (20.6%) macro-regions, with smaller proportions in the Southwestern (6.0%) and Northern (1.0%) regions. Professional rank was significantly associated with age group, nationality, employment sector, macro-region, and years of experience (all p ≤ 0.009), but not sex ( p = 0.207). The national dental hygienist-to-population ratio was approximately 4.13 per 100,000 population, ranging from 6.03 per 100,000 in the Central region to 0.82 per 100,000 in the Northern region. The Saudi dental hygiene workforce is relatively young and predominantly Saudi, with substantial geographic variation in workforce density and professional rank across demographic and workplace characteristics. These findings highlight the need for strategic workforce planning, strengthened training and career-development pathways, and targeted approaches to improve equitable deployment of dental hygienists in support of Saudi Vision 2030.