Health at a Glance: Europe 2024 marks the start of the fifth State of Health in the EU cycle – an initiative launched by the European Commission, in co‑operation with the OECD and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, to assist EU Member States in improving the health of their citizens and the performance of their health systems. While the preparation of this publication was led by the OECD, the European Commission provided guidance and substantive inputs throughout the process, as well as financial support via the EU4Health Programme.
This publication would not have been possible without the efforts of national data correspondents from the 40 countries covered in this report who have provided most of the data and metadata. We are also grateful to all the national officials who have provided helpful comments on a draft of this report.
This report was prepared by a team from the OECD Health Division under the overall co‑ordination of Gaétan Lafortune. Chapter 1 on health workforce challenges was prepared by Federico Pratellesi, Jose Ramalho and Gaétan Lafortune. Chapter 2 on ageing and health was prepared by Eileen Rocard and Gaétan Lafortune. Chapter 3 on the health status of populations was prepared by Gaétan Lafortune, Liora Bowers, Abbey Horner, Emily Hewlett and Anna Perez-Lopez. Chapter 4 on risk factors was prepared by Federico Pratellesi, Eileen Rocard and Elina Suzuki, with input from Joao Matias and Maria Ana Santos from the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) for the indicator on illicit drug consumption among adults. Caroline Penn, Michael Mueller and Jose Manuel Jerez Pombo prepared Chapter 5 on health expenditure and financing. Chapter 6 on effectiveness and quality of care was prepared by Rie Fujisawa, Kadri-Ann Kallas, Kate de Bienassis, Candan Kendir, Riho Isagi, Eliana Barrenho, Nicolas Larrain and Ricarda Milstein. Chapter 7 on accessibility was prepared by Lucie Bryndova, Gaétan Lafortune, Michael Mueller, Ekin Dagistan, Abbey Horner, Pauline Fron, Christine Le Thi and Marie‑Clémence Canaud, with input from Sarah Thomson and Marcos Gallardo Martínez on behalf of the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Strengthening for the indicator on the financial hardship of out-of-pocket spending. Chapter 8 on resilience was prepared by Federico Pratellesi, David Morgan, Jose Manuel Jerez Pombo and Katarina Vujovic. This publication benefited from useful comments from Francesca Colombo, Head of the OECD Health Division.
Many useful comments were also received from Maya Matthews, Dirk Van den Steen, Katarzyna Ptak-Bufkens and Corina Vasilescu from the European Commission’s Health and Food Safety Directorate General, from Ebba Barany, Estefanía Alaminos-Aguilera and Lucian Agafitei from Eurostat, and from many other colleagues who commented on parts of the publication.
Editorial assistance was provided by Lucy Hulett and Alastair Wood from the OECD ELS Communications Team.