Statistics Explained

Archive:Healthcare statistics

This article has been archived. Updated data on health can be found in the online publication Health in the European Union – facts and figures.

Figure 1: Current healthcare expenditure, 2012 (1)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_sha_hf)
Table 1: Healthcare expenditure by financing agent, 2012
(% of current health expenditure)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_sha_hf)
Table 2: Healthcare expenditure by function, 2012
(% of current health expenditure)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_sha_hc)
Table 3: Healthcare expenditure by provider, 2012
(% of current health expenditure)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_sha_hp)
Table 4: Healthcare indicators, 2002 and 2011/12
(per 100 000 inhabitants)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_rs_prs), (tps00046) and (hlth_co_disch2t)
Figure 2: Number of hospital beds, EU-28, 2001–11 (1)
(per 100 000 inhabitants)
Source: Eurostat (tps00046), (hlth_rs_bds) and (demo_pjan)
Table 5: Hospital beds, 2001, 2006 and 2011
(per 100 000 inhabitants)
Source: Eurostat (tps00168) and (tps00047)
Table 6: Hospital discharges of inpatients by diagnosis
(ISHMT — international shortlist for hospital morbidity tabulation), 2012
(per 100 000 inhabitants)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_co_disch2)
Table 7: Hospital discharges of inpatients by diagnosis
(ISHMT — international shortlist for hospital morbidity tabulation), average length of stay, 2012
(days)
Source: Eurostat (hlth_co_inpst)

This article presents key statistics on monetary and non-monetary aspects of healthcare in the European Union (EU). The state of health of individuals and of the population in general is influenced by genetic and environmental factors, cultural and socioeconomic conditions, as well as the healthcare services that are available to prevent and to treat illness and disease.

Healthcare systems are organised and financed in different ways across the EU Member States, but most Europeans would agree that universal access to good healthcare, at an affordable cost to both individuals and society at large, is a basic need.

Main statistical findings

Healthcare expenditure

Total current healthcare expenditure (both in relative and absolute terms) varied significantly among the EU Member States in 2012. As shown in Figure 1, the share of current healthcare expenditure exceeded 10.0 % of gross domestic product (GDP) in six EU Member States (the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Austria), which was almost double the share of current healthcare expenditure relative to GDP recorded in Latvia (2010 data), Estonia and Romania (6.0 % or less).

The disparity was even bigger when comparing the level of total (public and private) current healthcare spending per inhabitant, which varied from a high of PPS 4 4056 per inhabitant in Luxembourg to PPS 735 per inhabitant in Romania (a ratio of 5.5 : 1).

Public and private healthcare expenditure by financing agent

Figure 1 provides an analysis of healthcare expenditure between public and private units that incur health expenditure. Public funding in the form of general government and social security funds dominates the healthcare sector in the majority of EU Member States, the main exception being Cyprus, where public funding accounted for a 46.5 % share of total healthcare expenditure. Aside from Cyprus and those EU Member States for which no data are available (Ireland, Italy, Malta and the United Kingdom), the share of public funding in current healthcare spending ranged in 2012 from 54.3 % in Bulgaria (2011 data) to more than 80 % in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

An analysis of public financing of healthcare (as shown in Table 1) suggests that social security funds were a somewhat more common means for funding healthcare within the EU Member States, as these accounted for three quarters or more of overall spending on healthcare in Croatia (76.9 %), the Netherlands (78.3 %) and the Czech Republic (79.2 %) in 2012. By contrast, Denmark and Sweden reported that general government financing accounted for more than four fifths (85.2 % and 81.2 % respectively) of their total current expenditure on healthcare.

The major source of private funding was direct household payments, referred to as out-of-pocket expenditure, which peaked in terms of its share of current healthcare expenditure in Cyprus (47.2 %) and Bulgaria (44.5 %), falling to less than 10.0 % in France and the Netherlands (7.8 % and 6.0 % respectively). Private insurance generally represented a small share of healthcare financing among the EU Member States for which data are available, its relative share rising above 10.0 % in just two of the EU Member States — Slovenia (13.7 %; 2011 data) and France (13.8 %).

Healthcare expenditure by function

The functional patterns of healthcare expenditure presented in Table 2 show that in 2012 curative and rehabilitative services incurred more than 50.0 % of current healthcare expenditure in the majority of EU Member States for which data are available, the exceptions being Belgium, Bulgaria (2011 data), Slovakia (2011 data) and Romania (where the lowest share was recorded, at 46.2 %).

Medical goods dispensed to outpatients was the second largest function, with average spending accounting for around one quarter of total current healthcare expenditure, although with a significant degree of variation: the lowest share of 10.1 % was recorded for Denmark, with this share rising to more than one third of the total in Hungary (35.4 %), Slovakia (38.0 %; 2011 data) and Bulgaria (41.4 %; also 2011 data).

Services related to long-term nursing care accounted for less than 10.0 % of current healthcare expenditure in more than half of the EU Member States for which data are available, but for around one quarter of the total spend in the Netherlands (25.1 %) and Denmark (24.4 %) and a slightly lower share in Luxembourg (22.5 %) and Belgium (22.4 %); the next highest share was recorded in Austria (14.5 %). It should be noted that limitations within the data compilation exercise make it difficult to separate the medical and social components of expenditure for long-term nursing care, leading to an inevitable impact on cross-country comparisons. In addition, the relatively low share reported for many EU Member States could result from the main burden of long-term nursing care residing with family members (typically with no payment being made for providing these services).

The proportion of current healthcare expenditure incurred for ancillary services to healthcare (such as laboratory testing or the transportation of patients) varied significantly among EU Member States, ranging from 2.0 % in the Netherlands to 8.8 % in Portugal (2011 data), with Cyprus (10.7 %) and Estonia (11.1 %) above this range. Similarly, expenditure related to prevention and public health programmes exhibited large discrepancies between EU Member States.

Expenditure on healthcare administration and health insurance ranged from 1.2 % of current healthcare expenditure in Poland and 1.3 % in Cyprus, through to 4.9 % in Belgium, 5.4 % in Germany and 6.1 % in France.

Healthcare expenditure by provider

An analysis of current healthcare expenditure by provider for 2012 is shown in Table 3. Hospitals generally accounted for the highest share of current healthcare expenditure, ranging from 25.8 % of the total in Slovakia (2011 data) to more than 45.0 % in Denmark, Estonia, Sweden and Greece. The second most important category was usually that of ambulatory care providers, its share ranging from 14.5 % of current healthcare expenditure in Romania to more than 30.0 % in Poland, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal (2011 data), Cyprus and Finland. The share of various retail establishments and other providers of medical goods in current healthcare expenditure varied by a factor of three, with the lowest shares, below 15.0 %, being recorded in Cyprus, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and Luxembourg. Most of the EU Member States reported that retail establishments and other providers of medical goods accounted for a share of current healthcare expenditure ranging between 15.0 % and 35.0 %, with somewhat higher shares recorded in Hungary, Slovakia (2011 data) and Bulgaria (also 2011 data). However, it should be borne in mind that healthcare providers classified under the same group do not necessarily perform the same set of activities. Hospitals, for example, may, in addition to inpatient services, offer day care, outpatient, ancillary or other types of service.

Non-expenditure data on healthcare

High demand for healthcare staff in some EU Member States may result in qualified resources moving across borders. One of the key indicators for measuring healthcare staff is the total number of physicians (head count), expressed per 100 000 inhabitants (see Table 4). In this context, Eurostat gives preference to the concept of practising physicians. Note that data based on this concept are not available for three EU Member States, and are replaced by the number of professionally active physicians for Greece and the Netherlands, and by the number of licensed physicians for Portugal; data for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey are also based on the concept of professionally active physicians.

In 2012, the highest number of practising physicians per 100 000 inhabitants was recorded in Austria (490), followed by Lithuania (422) and Sweden (392; 2011 data), while Norway (423) and Switzerland (392) also recorded relatively high ratios; note that Greece (614) and Portugal (410) also reported a relatively high number of professionally active and licensed physicians. Between 2002 and 2012 the number of physicians per 100 000 inhabitants increased in the majority of EU Member States (incomplete data for Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Slovakia and Finland), although modest reductions were recorded in Hungary and Poland. The reduction in the relative number of practising physicians in some of these Member States may be explained by breaks in the time series — for example, from 2004 onwards the Polish data excludes private practices (thought to account for about 2 000 physicians).

The number of hospital beds per 100 000 inhabitants averaged 535 in the EU-28 in 2011. Among the EU Member States, this ratio ranged from 271 beds per 100 000 inhabitants in Sweden to 822 in Germany; among the non-member countries for which data are available Turkey (253) and Liechtenstein (215) were the only countries outside this range.

The reduction in bed numbers between 2001 and 2011 across the whole of the EU-28 was equal to 92 beds per 100 000 inhabitants (see Figure 2). During this period, the number of hospital beds per 100 000 inhabitants fell in all but three of the EU Member States (incomplete data for Luxembourg and Poland); the exceptions were Greece, Croatia and the Netherlands where there was a modest increase in the number of beds per inhabitant. The largest reductions in the availability of hospital beds were recorded in Malta (a reduction of 303 beds per 100 000 inhabitants) and Ireland (283 beds), while there were reductions of at least 100 beds per 100 000 inhabitants in Latvia, Finland, Romania, Slovakia, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Italy. These reductions may reflect, among others, economic constraints, increased efficiency through the use of technical resources (for example, imaging equipment), a general shift from inpatient to day care or outpatient care, and shorter periods spent in hospital following an operation. It should also be noted that there were breaks in the time series for Belgium, Ireland, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom and Liechtenstein.

A closer analysis of the availability of hospital beds (as shown in Table 5), provides information on the number of curative care beds and psychiatric beds. There was a reduction in number of both bed types between 2001 and 2011 in the vast majority of the EU Member States (subject to data availability). The only exceptions were an increase in the number of curative care beds in Greece (2001–09) and the Netherlands, and an increase in the number of psychiatric beds in Germany, Croatia and Austria. It should be noted that there were breaks in the time series for Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

In terms of healthcare activity, diseases of the circulatory system often accounted for the highest number of hospital discharges in 2012 — see Table 6. There were eight EU Member States (no data are available for Greece) where the ratio of discharges per 100 000 inhabitants for diseases of the circulatory system rose in excess of 3 000, reaching a peak of almost 4 800 discharges per 100 000 inhabitants in Lithuania. The highest number of discharges for neoplasms (cancer) was recorded in Austria (2011 data), at 2 908 per 100 000 inhabitants, while for respiratory diseases the highest value was recorded in Bulgaria (3 025 per 100 000 inhabitants; 2011 data).

In 2012, the average length of a hospital stay was generally highest among those patients suffering from either cancer or diseases related to the circulatory system (see Table 7). There were three exceptions, as the longest average stays in Bulgaria (2011 data), Poland and Portugal (2010 data) were recorded among those patients who suffered from diseases of the respiratory system (in all three the average length of stay was just less than one week). For cancer, the longest average stays were recorded in Ireland (10.0 days) and Germany (9.7 days; 2011 data). For diseases of the circulatory system, the longest average stays were recorded in Finland (13.4 days), the Czech Republic (12.9 days; 2011 data), Hungary (12.1 days), Austria (10.8 days; 2011 data) and Estonia (10.7 days; 2011 data).

Data sources and availability

Eurostat, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have established a common framework for a joint healthcare data collection. Following this framework, EU Member States submit their data to Eurostat on the basis of a gentlemen’s agreement. The data collected relates to:

  • healthcare expenditure following the methodology of the system of health accounts (SHA);
  • statistics on human and physical resources in healthcare — supplemented by additional Eurostat data on hospital activities (discharges and procedures).

Monetary and non-monetary statistics may be used to evaluate how a healthcare system responds to the challenge of universal access to good healthcare, through measuring financial, human and technical resources within the healthcare sector and the allocation of these resources between healthcare activities (for example, preventive and curative care), groups of healthcare providers (for example, hospitals and ambulatory centres), or healthcare professionals (for example, medical and paramedical staff).

Healthcare expenditure

Healthcare data on expenditure are based on administrative (register-based) data sources and various surveys, as well as estimations made within the EU Member States, reflecting country-specific ways of organising healthcare and different reporting systems for the collection of statistics pertaining to healthcare.

Total current healthcare expenditure quantifies the economic resources of both the public and private sectors dedicated to healthcare, with the exception of those related to capital investment. It reflects current expenditure of resident units on the final consumption of goods and services directed at improving the health status of individuals and of the population.

The SHA provides a framework for interrelated classifications and tables relating to the international reporting of healthcare expenditure and financing. The set of core SHA tables addresses three basic questions: i) who finances healthcare goods and services; ii) which healthcare providers deliver them, and; iii) what kinds of healthcare goods and services are consumed. Consequently, the SHA is organised around a tri-dimensional system for the recording of health expenditure, by means of the international classification for health accounts (ICHA), defining:

  • healthcare expenditure by financing agents (ICHA-HF) — which provides an analysis of public and private units that directly pay providers for their provision of healthcare goods and services;
  • healthcare expenditure by provider (ICHA-HP) — which classifies units contributing to the provision of healthcare goods and services such as hospitals, various outpatients settings, diagnosis centres or retailers of medical goods;
  • healthcare expenditure by function (ICHA-HC) — which details the split in healthcare expenditure following the purpose of healthcare activities — such as, health promotion, curing illnesses, rehabilitation or long-term care.

Data coverage is close to 100 % for the first-digit level of each of the three core classifications, but ranges between 75 % and 85 % at the second-digit level. However, it is possible that despite relatively high rates of coverage, there may be departures from the standard classifications. Expenditure reported under some of these ICHA categories may be under or overestimated and it is recommended to refer to specific country metadata before analysing the data.

Non-expenditure data on healthcare

Non-expenditure healthcare data are mainly based on administrative national sources; a few countries compile this information from surveys. As a consequence, the information collected is not always comparable. Information on the non-expenditure component of healthcare can be divided into two broad groups of data:

  • resource-related healthcare data on human, physical and technical resources, including staff (such as physicians, dentists, nursing and caring professionals, pharmacists and physiotherapists) and hospital beds;
  • output-related data that focuses on hospital patients and their treatment(s), in particular for inpatients.

Hospitals are defined according to the classification of healthcare providers within the SHA; all public and private hospitals should be covered.

Data on healthcare staff, in the form of human resources available for providing healthcare services, are provided irrespective of the sector of employment (in other words, regardless of whether the personnel are independent, employed by a hospital, or any other healthcare provider). Three main concepts are used for health professionals: practising, professionally active and licensed. Practising physicians provide services directly to patients; professionally active physicians include those who practise as well as those working in administration and research with their medical education being a pre-requisite for the job they carry out; physicians licensed to practise are those entitled to work as physicians plus, for example, those who are retired.

Hospital bed numbers provide some information on healthcare capacities, in other words on the maximum number of patients who can be treated by hospitals. Hospital beds (occupied or unoccupied) are those which are regularly maintained and staffed and immediately available for the care of admitted patients. This indicator should ideally cover beds in all hospitals, including general hospitals, mental health and substance abuse hospitals, and other specialty hospitals. The statistics should include public as well as private sector establishments, although some EU Member States provide data only for the public sector, for example, Denmark (psychiatric beds), Ireland (total and curative beds), Cyprus (curative and psychiatric beds) and the United Kingdom. Curative care (or acute care) beds are those that are available for curative care; these form a subgroup of total hospital beds.

Output-related indicators focus on hospital patients and cover the interaction between patients and healthcare systems, generally through the form of the treatment they receive. Data are available for a range of indicators including hospital discharges of inpatients and day cases by age, gender, and selected (groups of) diseases; the average length of stay of inpatients; or the medical procedures performed in hospitals. The number of hospital discharges is the most commonly used measure of the utilisation of hospital services. Discharges, rather than admissions, are used because hospital abstracts for inpatient care are based on information gathered at the time of discharge.

Context

Health outcomes across the EU are strikingly different according to where people live, their ethnicity, sex and socioeconomic status. The EU promotes the coordination of national healthcare policies through an open method of coordination which places particular emphasis on the access to, and the quality and sustainability of healthcare. Some of the main objectives include: shorter waiting times; universal insurance coverage; affordable care; more patient-centred care and a higher use of outpatients; greater use of evidence-based medicine, effective prevention programmes, generic medicines, and simplified administrative procedures; and strengthening health promotion and disease prevention.

Access to healthcare, the introduction of technological progress and greater patient choice is increasingly being considered against a background of financial sustainability. Many of the challenges facing governments across the EU were outlined in the European Commission’s White paper titled ‘Together for health: a strategic approach for the EU 2008–2013’ (COM(2007) 630 final). In February 2013, the European Commission adopted a Communication titled ‘Towards social investment for growth and cohesion’ (COM(2013) 83 final), which was accompanied by a staff working document titled ‘Investing in health’ (SWD(2013) 43 final). The main axes of the Communication and working document include: ensuring that social protection systems respond to people’s needs at critical moments throughout their lives; simplified and better targeted social policies, to provide adequate and sustainable social protection systems; and upgrading active inclusion strategies in the Member States. Concerning health, the Communication notes the differences in the accessibility to and quality of healthcare between EU Member States as well as underlining the need for reforms of healthcare systems with the twin aim to ensure access to high quality healthcare and to use public resources more efficiently. In the context of social investment throughout an individual’s lifetime, the Communication notes that investing in health, starting from an early age, allows people to remain active longer and in better health, raises the productivity of the workforce and lowers the financial pressures on healthcare systems.

In March 2014, the third multi-annual programme of EU action in the field of health for the period 2014–20 was adopted (Regulation (EU) No 282/2014) under the title ‘Health for Growth’. This new programme emphasises the link between health and economic prosperity, as the health of individuals directly influences economic outcomes such as productivity, labour supply and human capital. More information is provided in the introductory article for health statistics.

See also

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Database

Dedicated section

Methodology / Metadata

Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)

External links


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