Designed to contribute to planners' understanding of the state of the art and to the improvement of health manpower planning, this monograph describes and evaluates various methods used to determine present and future health manpower supply and requirements. The methodologies presented, chosen after a review of the documents identified in the Inventory of Health Manpower Planning Activities of 1973 in the Bureau of Health Manpower, are considered to be practical with regard to the resources available to state and local health planners. This first volume provides an analytical perspective, the definition of terms, the factors that determine supply and requirements, the concepts that underline each methodological approach, and the uses and limitations of health manpower statistics within the context of the subject area. A second volume is a manual that describes the methodology step-by-step. (WL)