The demand for health care in the Republic of Korea has increased with continuing socioeconomic development, improvement of the living standards, and the introduction of a national health insurance system in 1989. To meet this rising demand a major concern is providing an adequate number of health care professionals. Nurses are very important to health care because they constitute the largest group of health care workers who give direct patient care. Also, as the emphasis of health care changes from the cure of diseases to health promotion, nurses will fill an increasingly important role. Thus, it is necessary to project how many nurses will be needed to meet the demand. At first glance, the large number of unemployed nurses and nurses’ low employment rate (60%) in the Republic of Korea suggests an oversupply of nurses. Parts of the country, however, are experiencing a shortage of nurses in clinical areas. Maldistribution of nurses is therefore a problem, especially within some geographical areas and work places (Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), 1997). Geographically more than 96% of nurses are working in urban areas, and more than 75% of nurses are working in clinical areas. National nurse manpower planning is necessary to solve these problems and to seek ways to better utilize nurses.