In 2020, Czechia and Austria (both 9.2%) and France (9.0%) recorded the highest ratios of government expenditure devoted to health to GDP among EU Member States. Meanwhile, Latvia (4.8% of GDP), Poland and Ireland (both 5.4% of GDP) recorded the lowest ratios.
Latvia's figure was at least sustantially up on 2019's equivalent figure of 4.2%.
Health remained the second-largest function of general government expenditure in the EU, following social protection. Government expenditure on ‘health’ increased by 1 percentage point (pp) compared with 2019 (8.0% of GDP in 2020 compared with 7.0% of GDP in 2019).
The increase is due to both a decrease in nominal GDP and an increase in government expenditure on health (€1 073 billion in 2020 compared with €978 billion in 2019), mainly related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EU Member State recording the largest increase in the ratio of government expenditure devoted to health to GDP was Cyprus (5.9% in 2020 compared with 3.5% in 2019), followed by Malta (7.2% of GDP in 2020 compared with 5.2% of GDP in 2019) and Hungary (6.4% of GDP in 2020 compared with 4.5% of GDP in 2019).
