This second edition of Health at a Glance: Europe presents the most recent key indicators of health and health systems across 35 countries: the 27 European Union member states, five candidate countries and three European Free Trade Association countries. The report comes at a difficult time for European health systems. The economic crisis is increasing poverty, unemployment and stress, all of which are associated with worse health outcomes, yet public and private budgets are under great strain. The report highlights the marked slowdown (sometimes even reduction) in health spending over recent years in many countries, as part of broader efforts to reduce large budgetary deficits. If the report does not yet show any worsening health outcomes due to the crisis, there is no cause for complacency – it takes time for poor social conditions or poor quality care to take its toll from people’s health. Policy makers have often done what they could to ensure that access to high quality care remains the norm in Europe; whether this is enough to protect the health of the population will only become clear in years to come.

European countries have achieved major gains in population health in recent decades. Life expectancy at birth in European Union (EU) member states has increased by more than six years since 1980, to reach 79 years in 2010, while premature mortality has reduced dramatically. Over three-quarters of these years of life can be expected to be lived free of activity limitation. Gains in life expectancy can be explained by improved living and working conditions and some health-related behaviours, but better access to care and quality of care also deserves much credit, as shown, for instance, by sharply reduced mortality rates following a heart attack or stroke.

Health at a Glance: Europe 2012 presents key indicators of health and health systems in 35 European countries, including the 27 European Union member states, 5 candidate countries and 3 European Free Trade Association 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 (ECHIM, 2012). It is complemented by additional indicators on health expenditure and quality of care in the related chapters.