Entries · Health spending
What Europe spends on health, and who pays
In 2024, Germany spent 42% more than the EU-27 average on health per person, after adjusting for price levels: the most of all 27 EU countries. Of every €100 spent on health there, government and compulsory insurance paid €86 and people paid €11 out of their own pocket.
EU-27 average
Highest
Lowest
Spending and out-of-pocket share, 2024
Each dot is a country. Further right: more spent on health (per person, price-adjusted (PPS)). Higher up: people pay a larger share themselves. Click a dot to compare that country with the EU-27 below; play the years to see dots move.
What the money goes to
Germany compared with the EU-27, 2024. Click a category to compare every country on it.
Long-term care
Share of all health spending, 2024
Table view: all countries
| Rank | Country | Spending | Government & compulsory | Out of pocket | Voluntary |
|---|
Sources
- Eurostat: Health care expenditure by financing scheme (
hlth_sha11_hf). CC BY 4.0, © European Union. Last updated , retrieved . - Eurostat: Health care expenditure by function (
hlth_sha11_hc). CC BY 4.0, © European Union. Last updated , retrieved . - The data on this page: CSV, same licence and credit.
Notes
Figures are current health expenditure from Eurostat's System of Health Accounts: everything spent on health care in a year, from hospital stays and doctor visits to medicines and prevention, but not investments such as building hospitals. Prices differ a lot across Europe, so "price-adjusted" figures use Eurostat's purchasing power standard (PPS), an artificial currency that buys the same amount everywhere; across the EU as a whole, one PPS equals one euro. "Per person in €" shows the amounts actually spent, and "share of GDP" how much of a country's economy goes to health: a small economy can spend a high share and still little per person.
Who pays: government and compulsory insurance covers public budgets and statutory health insurance (in Germany, mainly the GKV); voluntary insurance covers private policies people choose to take out; out of pocket is what people pay directly, including co-payments. A small rest, in a few countries, is paid from abroad or not assigned. The main chart puts each country's spending (across) against the share paid out of pocket (up); the out-of-pocket share is independent of how much a country spends, so countries of any size can be compared. "Of every €100" in the opening sentence uses Eurostat's shares, rounded. What the money goes to follows Eurostat's functions of care: medicines given in hospital count as treatment; "not assigned" is what Eurostat doesn't assign to a function (in some countries nothing). Amounts per person on each function are Eurostat's, in PPS; changes since 2016 are in percentage points of the share. Values Eurostat marks provisional are labelled so in the tooltip and marked "p" in the table. The jump in prevention spending in 2021–2022 reflects COVID-19 testing and vaccination.