KS-30-10-690-EN-C

Publications
Statistics in focus
These are short publications released on topical issues. The most recent releases relating to health statistics include: 8.6 % of workers in the EU experienced work-related health problems, 63/2009 Perception of health and access to healthcare in the EU-25 in 2007, 24/2009 Health expenditure, 2003-2005, 26/2008

Compact guides

Statistical books
Health and safety at work in Europe (1999-2007) presents a statistical portrait of health and safety at work in Europe from 1999 to 2007. It focuses on accidents at work, work-related health problems, occupational diseases and exposure to risk factors at work. Data from different European surveys and register based statistical systems are presented in this report, including the EU labour force survey, European statistics on accidents at work, European occupational diseases statistics, the European survey on working conditions, and the European survey of enterprises on new and emerging risks. Health statistics Atlas on mortality in the European Union describes the situation regarding mortality in the EU. The atlas includes 2002-2004 mortality data from national statistical authorities in the 27 EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Croatia, broken down by age and gender, by main causes of death and for 272 different European regions. In addition, differences in risk factors as a potential basis for differences of mortality profiles are described.
ISBN 978-92-79-1857-5; doi:10.2785/10335 European Union, 2011 Cover photo: Shutterstock

Health statistics

public health policies. These indicators result from the collection of statistics through two different surveys: the annual EU survey on income and social conditions (EU-SILC) which includes a short set of health questions and the five-yearly European health interview survey (EHIS). Some examples of topics covered by these surveys include self-perceived health, smoking behaviour and vaccination.

Public health and health and safety at work statistics

Supporting policymaking and monitoring
Health is an important priority for Europeans, who expect to be protected against illness and disease at home, in the workplace and when travelling. Health issues cut across a range of topics including consumer safety, health and safety at the workplace, environmental and social policies. The competence for the organisation and delivery of health services and healthcare is largely held by the Member States, which the European Commission complements through a number of actions, such as: fostering good health in an ageing Europe, publishing health information and knowledge (Community health strategy 2008-2013), developing indicators for monitoring healthcare and long-term care following the open method of coordination on social inclusion and protection, promoting the sustained reduction of accidents at work and work related health problems (Community strategy on health and safety at work 2007-2012).

Causes of death
Statistics on causes of death (CoD) inform users about the major diseases or medical conditions that lead to death. This information provides important statistics that are used for evidence based health and healthcare policy. Annual administrative data from the EU Member States feed into a European database, which is broken down by CoD, gender, age groups and region (NUTS 2). Standardised death rates allow comparability between countries independently of the age structure of their populations.

Accidents at work and work related health problems

Health and safety at work statistics focus on accidents at work, which are reported from administrative data sources in the EU Member States, and work-related health problems from surveys. They form the background for evidence based policies relating to improvements of health and safety in the workplace. Available breakdowns include by gender, age, occupation, activity sector and types of injury or health problem.

Healthy life years

Healthy life years (HLY) are the number of years that a person is expected to continue to live in a healthy condition. HLY is an important structural indicator relating to the quality of life that complements information on life expectancy; it presents the expected mean number of years still to be lived at any given point in ones lifetime. The basis for the HLY indicator is annual data from the EU survey on income and social conditions (EUSILC) relating to self-perceived disability. Eurostat calculates HLY broken down by gender and for two ages (at birth and at the age of 65).

Healthcare
Healthcare statistics that are not related to expenditure focus on hospital patients and their treatment(s) as well as healthcare resources.

Healthcare: hospital discharges, hospital length of stay and medical procedures

Data on hospital patients and their treatment(s) are available for a range of indicators including hospital discharges of inpatients and day cases broken down by age, gender, and selected (groups of) diseases, the average length of stay of hospital inpatients, or the medical procedures performed in hospitals. The number of hospital discharges is the most commonly used indicator for the use of hospital services.

Health status, health determinants and use of healthcare services

Harmonised and comparable statistics on health status, lifestyle and the use of healthcare based on self-assessment via general population surveys are of major interest for national and EU

Healthcare: human and physical resources

Resource-related healthcare statistics report on staff such as physicians, dentists, nursing and caring professionals, pharmacists and

physiotherapists, as well as on hospital beds. These data provide information on healthcare capacities and resources.

Healthcare expenditure
Current healthcare expenditure quantifies the financial resources of both the public and private sectors dedicated to healthcare, with the exception of those related to capital investment. It reflects expenditure directed at improving the health status of individuals and of the population. The set of interrelated classifications and tables that compose the System of Health Accounts (SHA) that is used by Eurostat for data and metadata collection provides detailed answers to 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.

database. For public health statistics there are two structural indicators concerning healthy life years as well as four groups of tables: causes of death, healthcare resources and patients, healthcare indicators, and health status. For health and safety at work there are four indicators concerning accidents at work. 2. Database this contains a complete set of available statistics on public health as well as health and safety at work. Concerning public health, as well as national data there are regional statistics on the causes of death, healthcare resources and patients. The data presented may be extracted in a variety of formats and the user can freely select the information to be presented.

Website and data

Eurostat provides free access to all of its databases, as well as PDF versions of its publications. To discover more, open a web browser and go to the Eurostat homepage at: ec.europa.eu/eurostat. Information relating to health statistics may be found on Eurostats website. From the Eurostat homepage, statistical themes may be accessed from the Statistics tab that is permanently available in the top menu bar. From there, select Health (Public health/Health and safety at work) under the Population and social conditions heading. This dedicated section provides access to Eurostats online databases concerning public health and also health and safety at work, as well as access to the most recent publications relating to health statistics. Furthermore, there are links to websites of relevant Commission Directorate-Generals and European health agencies and foundations. Statistics Explained, part of Eurostats website, is another valuable source of information relating to health statistics for more details refer to: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/ Category:Health.

Eurostats website provides two main entry points to data:

1. Main tables these are pre-defined tables where the axes of the tables are fixed; they present the key indicators and are refreshed automatically as a function of the data being loaded into the

Figure 1: Proportion of the population assessing their health as good or very good, 2008 (%)
0 EU-27 Ireland United Kingdom Sweden Netherlands Cyprus Greece Denmark Luxembourg Malta Belgium Spain Austria Romania France Finland Germany Italy Bulgaria Czech Republic Slovakia Slovenia Poland Hungary Estonia Portugal Lithuania Latvia Iceland Norway Good Very good 25 50 75 100

Figure 2: Healthy life years at age 65, 2008 (years)

0 EU-27 (1) Belgium (1) Bulgaria Czech Republic Denmark Germany Estonia Ireland Greece Spain France Italy (1) Cyprus Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Hungary Malta Netherlands Austria Poland Portugal Romania Slovenia Slovakia Finland Sweden United Kingdom (1) Iceland Norway Female Male (1) 2007. Source: Eurostat (online data code: hlth_hlye) 5 10 15

Source: Eurostat (online data code: hlth_silc_01)

Figure 3: Causes of death - standardised death rates, EU-27, 2008 (per 100 000 inhabitants) (1)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Figure 4: Workers reporting one or more accidental injuries at work or in the course of work, analysis by activity, EU-27, 2007 (%)
0 Total Agriculture, hunting & forestry Fishing 1 2 3 4 5 6

Circulatory system diseases

Cancer

Ischaemic heart diseases Mining & quarrying Manufacturing Electricity, gas & water supply Construction Lung cancer Distributive trades Hotels & restaurants Transport, storage & communication Nervous system diseases Financial intermediation Real estate, renting & business activities Public admin., defence & compulsory social security Transport accidents Education Female Male ( ) Provisional; note the difference in the scales employed in the two parts of the figure.
1

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Respiratory diseases

Colorectal cancer

Suicide (intentional self harm)

Health & social work Other community, social & personal service activities Female Male Source: Eurostat (online data code: hsw_ac5)

Source: Eurostat (online data code: hlth_cd_asdr)

Table 1: Healthcare indicators (per 100 000 inhabitants)

physicians (1) : 293 361 353 341 356 335 309 600 355 332 414 286 299 371 282 309 304 369 468 216 377 222 239 300 271 357 270 372 398 385 266 254 158 Number of: hospital beds (2) 562 660 651 716 358 820 572 520 478 325 685 371 377 638 685 562 705 482 426 769 662 337 657 477 655 654 : 337 586 354 525 547 516 244 hospital discharges (3) : 15 741 21 665 20 624 16 498 22 692 : 13 501 : 10 567 16 075 13 887 7 500 20 290 21 686 13 887 19 486 9 512 10 953 27 539 13 965 : 22 495 16 154 18 174 18 821 14 910 12 248 15 018 17 214 16 217 16 259 9 876 :

Figure 5: Healthcare expenditure, 2008 (1)

0 Luxembourg Austria (3) Germany Netherlands (3) France (3) Belgium (3) Denmark (3) Sweden Finland (3) Spain Portugal (2) Cyprus Slovenia Czech Republic Hungary Slovakia (2) Estonia Lithuania Poland Latvia (2) Bulgaria Romania United States (2) Switzerland (3) Norway (2) Canada Iceland Australia (3) New Zealand Japan (3) Korea (South) 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 1 000 2 000 3 000 4 000 5 000 6 000

EU-27 Belgium Bulgaria Czech Republic Denmark Germany Estonia Ireland Greece Spain France Italy Cyprus Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Hungary Malta Netherlands Austria Poland Portugal Romania Slovenia Slovakia Finland Sweden United Kingdom Iceland Norway Switzerland Croatia FYR of Macedonia Turkey

(1) Greece, France, Italy, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey, professionally active physicians; Ireland, Netherlands and Portugal, licensed physicians. Spain, Latvia, Malta, Austria, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, 2009; Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovakia, 2007; Sweden and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 2006. (2) Latvia and Malta, 2009; Ireland and Iceland, 2007; the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 2006. (3) Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom, 2007; Sweden, Iceland and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 2006. Source: Eurostat (online data codes: hlth_rs_prs, tps00046 and hlth_co_disch2t)

Private expenditure per inhabitant (PPS) top scale Public expenditure per inhabitant (PPS) top scale Current health expenditure relative to GDP (%) bottom scale (1) Countries are ranked on the current health expenditure (PPS per inhabitant); Ireland, Italy, Malta and the United Kingdom, not available. (2) 2006. (3) 2007. Source: Eurostat (online data code: hlth_sha_hf)