As we emerge from the economic crisis, the squeeze on health budgets continues in many EU countries, and policy makers face the challenge of maintaining universal access to essential and high-quality care with reduced resources.

European countries have achieved significant gains in population health, but there remain large inequalities in health status both across and within countries. Life expectancy at birth in European Union (EU) member states has increased by more than five years on average since 1990, although the gap between those countries with the highest and lowest life expectancies remains around eight years. There are also persistently large inequalities within countries among people from different socio-economic groups, with individuals with higher levels of education and income enjoying better health and living several years longer than those more disadvantaged. These disparities are linked to many factors, including some outside health care systems, such as the environment in which people live, individual lifestyles and behaviours, and differences in access to and quality of care.

Health at a Glance: Europe 2014 presents key indicators of health and health systems in 35 European countries, including the 28 European Union member states, four candidate countriesAlbania has become a EU candidate country on 27 June 2014, but is not included in this publication due to limited data availability when this report was prepared. and three European Free Trade Association countries. This third edition builds on the two previous in 2010 and 2012 and presents a greater number of indicators included in the list of European Core Health Indicators (ECHI, www.echim.org), reflecting progress in data availability and comparability. Complemeting the chapter on quality of care which was added in 2012, this 2014 edition includes a new chapter on access to care, based mainly on ECHI indicators, complemented with some additional indicators related to financial access and geographic access.