Health at a Glance: Europe 2012
This second edition of Health at a Glance: Europe presents a set of key indicators of health status, determinants of health, health care resources and activities, quality of care, health expenditure and financing in 35 European countries, including the 27 European Union member states, 5 candidate countries and 3 EFTA countries. The selection of indicators is based largely on the European Community Health Indicators (ECHI) shortlist, a set of indicators that has been developed to guide the reporting of health statistics in the European Union. It is complemented by additional indicators on health expenditure and quality of care, building on the OECD expertise in these areas. Each indicator is presented in a user-friendly format, consisting of charts illustrating variations across countries and over time, a brief descriptive analysis highlighting the major findings conveyed by the data, and a methodological box on the definition of the indicator and any limitations in data comparability.
Health expenditure in relation to GDP
In 2010, EU member states devoted on average (unweighted) 9.0% of their GDP to health spending in 2010 (), up significantly from 7.3% in 2000, but down slightly from the peak of 9.2% reached in 2009 following the economic crisis which started in many countries in the middle of 2008. In many countries, public spending on health was maintained in 2009 while GDP was falling strongly, but this was followed in 2010 by the implementation of a range of measures to reduce government health spending as part of broader efforts to reduce large budgetary deficits and debts (see ).