This dataset contains perceived health status statistics for countries members of OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and countries in accession negotiations with OECD. The perceived health status data cover periods from 1980 to 2015.

This data package contains a wide spectrum of internationally comparable indicators that cover population demographics and population health status (including natality, mortality, quality of life and morbidity) and major determinants of health like healthcare system and services and behavioral health risk factors. It must be mentioned that OECD available data cover predominantly two major areas: population health status and healthcare services (resources and utilization).

This dataset contains mortality statistics for countries members of OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), for OECD key partners and countries in accession negotiations with OECD. The estimated values of the three mortality indicators: number of deaths, crude rate and age-adjusted rate, cover periods from 1960 to 2015.

Among OECD member countries, the United States had the highest percentage of gross domestic product spent on health care as of 2023. The U.S. spent nearly ** percent of its GDP on health care services. Germany, France and Japan followed the U.S. with distinctly smaller percentages. The United States had both significantly higher private and public spending on health compared with other developed countries. Why compare OECD countries?OECD stands for Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. It is an economic organization consisting of ** members, mostly high-income countries and committed to democratic principles and market economy. This makes OECD statistics more comparable than statistics of developed and undeveloped countries. Health economics is an important matter for the OECD, even more since increasing health costs and an aging population have become an issue for many developed countries. Health costs in the U.S.  A higher GDP share spent on health care does not automatically lead to a better functioning health system. In the case of the U.S., high spending is mainly because of higher costs and prices, not due to higher utilization. For example, physicians’ salaries are much higher in the U.S. than in other comparable countries. A doctor in the U.S. earns almost twice as much as the average physician in Germany. Pharmaceutical spending per capita is also distinctly higher in the United States. Furthermore, the U.S. also spends more on health administrative costs compare to other wealthy countries.

The OECD Health database is an online database with comparative information on health policies and health care systems across the OECD countries (OECD). The purpose of the database is to give a broad overview of health care in the member countries. It offers a series of reports, which contain diverse cross-national policy data, on issues like long-term care for older people, high-performing health systems and private health insurance. Here we focus on policy data.

OECD data for Health System

The dataset includes a decision matrix, with the most recent available data representing performance values of 16 selected countries with regard to 25 criteria of healthcare system efficiency collected in 2023. The data was collected from the following sources: websites of OECD Health Statistics, Eurostat, and World Health Organization. Data is available in PDF, XLSX, and TEX format. XLSX and TEX files are provided in a folder named data.zip.

Context

"Launched in 2002, the Global Pension Statistics' project aims to provide a valuable device for measuring and monitoring the pension industry, and to permit inter-country comparisons of current statistics and indicators on key aspects of retirement systems across OECD and non-OECD countries."

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/data/oecd-pensions-statistics/pensions-at-a-glance-2011_data-00625-en

Content

"The Pensions at a Glance database includes reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary pensions. It covers 34 OECD countries and aims to cover all G20 countries. Pensions at a Glance reviews and analyses the pension measures enacted or legislated in OECD countries. It provides an in-depth review of the first layer of protection of the elderly, first-tier pensions across countries and provideds a comprehensive selection of pension policy indicators for all OECD and G20 countries."

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/data/oecd-pensions-statistics/pensions-at-a-glance-2011_data-00625-en

Acknowledgements

https://doi.org/10.1787/data-00625-en Author: OECD

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/data/oecd-pensions-statistics/pensions-at-a-glance-2011_data-00625-en

Photo by Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash

Inspiration

The elderly, their pensions and their protection.

WBD05 - Students in OECD Countries at Level 3 Proficiency in Reading. Published by Central Statistics Office. Available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0).Students in OECD Countries at Level 3 Proficiency in Reading...

The Better Life Index is an initiative created by the OECD to compare the well-being priorities of people around the world. It consists of 11 social indicators: “housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety, work-life balance” that contribute to well-being in OECD countries. This initiative aims to involve citizens in the debate on measuring the well-being of societies, and to empower them to become more informed and engaged in the policy-making process that shapes all our lives.

The 11 indicators in turn are composed of 20 sub-indicators through averaging and normalization. The visualization tool is available here. By selecting a set of weights to the sub-indicators, a user can rank countries according to their weighted sum.

The data included here allows one to reproduce all the results from the paper, "Not Evidence for Baumol's Cost Disease". All the results were produced using Eviews, Version 10. Please refer to the "ReadMe" file for instructions.

United States US: Mortality from Exposure to Lead: per 1 000 000 Inhabitants data was reported at 63.230 Person in 2019. This records an increase from the previous number of 63.080 Person for 2018. United States US: Mortality from Exposure to Lead: per 1 000 000 Inhabitants data is updated yearly, averaging 76.590 Person from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2019, with 30 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.330 Person in 1990 and a record low of 62.380 Person in 2017. United States US: Mortality from Exposure to Lead: per 1 000 000 Inhabitants data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.GGI: Social: Air Quality and Health: OECD Member: Annual.

This statistic shows the pharmaceutical and health-related research and development expenditure by OECD region and type in 2016. In that year, R&D expenditure in the U.S. pharmaceutical sector which came from business enterprises (BERD) stood at almost 65 billion U.S. dollars while health-related R&D spending from governmental budgets (GBARD) stood at some 36 billion dollars.

This dataset supports the findings presented in the article titled "Effects of Neurological Disorders on Health Expenditure and Economic Output: Dynamic Panel Analysis for OECD Countries", published in Systems (2025, Vol. 13). The panel data covers annual indicators from OECD countries and includes variables related to neurological disorder prevalence, health expenditure, and economic output between 2000 and 2022. All variables were harmonized and prepared for dynamic panel data modeling, including Arellano–Bond and Blundell–Bond estimators.
The dataset is fully anonymized, aggregated at the country-year level, and publicly available for replication and further research purposes.

BO: Physicians: per 1000 People data was reported at 1.269 Ratio in 2021. This records an increase from the previous number of 0.952 Ratio for 2020. BO: Physicians: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 0.499 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2021, with 18 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.558 Ratio in 2016 and a record low of 0.267 Ratio in 1960. BO: Physicians: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Bolivia – Table BO.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. Physicians include generalist and specialist medical practitioners.;World Health Organization's Global Health Workforce Statistics, OECD, supplemented by country data.;Weighted average;This is the Sustainable Development Goal indicator 3.c.1 [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/].

This dataset contains statistics regarding the levels of exposure (consumption) to tobacco, alcohol, foods, macronutrients and calories for country members and partners of OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and for countries in accession negotiations with OECD. The exposure levels to health risk or protection factors statistics cover the period 1960-2018.

United States US: Percentage of Population Exposed to More Than 10 Micrograms per Cub m data was reported at 7.660 % in 2020. This records an increase from the previous number of 2.840 % for 2019. United States US: Percentage of Population Exposed to More Than 10 Micrograms per Cub m data is updated yearly, averaging 34.600 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2020, with 23 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 81.470 % in 1990 and a record low of 2.840 % in 2019. United States US: Percentage of Population Exposed to More Than 10 Micrograms per Cub m data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.GGI: Social: Air Quality and Health: OECD Member: Annual.

In 2023, Singapore dominated the ranking of the world's health and health systems, followed by Japan and South Korea. The health index score is calculated by evaluating various indicators that assess the health of the population, and access to the services required to sustain good health, including health outcomes, health systems, sickness and risk factors, and mortality rates. The health and health system index score of the top ten countries with the best healthcare system in the world ranged between 82 and 86.9, measured on a scale of zero to 100.

Global Health Security Index  Numerous health and health system indexes have been developed to assess various attributes and aspects of a nation's healthcare system. One such measure is the Global Health Security (GHS) index. This index evaluates the ability of 195 nations to identify, assess, and mitigate biological hazards in addition to political and socioeconomic concerns, the quality of their healthcare systems, and their compliance with international finance and standards. In 2021, the United States was ranked at the top of the GHS index, but due to multiple reasons, the U.S. government failed to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The GHS Index evaluates capability and identifies preparation gaps; nevertheless, it cannot predict a nation's resource allocation in case of a public health emergency.

Universal Health Coverage Index  Another health index that is used globally by the members of the United Nations (UN) is the universal health care (UHC) service coverage index. The UHC index monitors the country's progress related to the sustainable developmental goal (SDG) number three. The UHC service coverage index tracks 14 indicators related to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health, infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, service capacity, and access to care. The main target of universal health coverage is to ensure that no one is denied access to essential medical services due to financial hardships. In 2021, the UHC index scores ranged from as low as 21 to a high score of 91 across 194 countries. 

This dataset contains statistics regarding the population exposed to tobacco, foods or overweight/obesity for country members and partners of OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and for countries in accession negotiations with OECD. The exposure levels to health risk or protection factors statistics cover the period 1960-2018.

This dataset contains statistics for the absences from work and compensated absences from work due to illness for countries members of OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and countries in accession negotiations with OECD. The perceived health status data cover the period 1970-2021.