The UK spends less public money on healthcare than nine of 14 European countries, according to new analysis of public health spending.
The research compared the UK to the 14 ‘EU14’ countries that were members of the European Union before 2004. The UK’s publicly funded health spend per person was found to be $4,479. This was 55% lower than Germany, which was found to be the highest spending country at $6,930 per person.
The Netherlands had the second highest healthcare spend per person ($5,672), 27% higher than the UK’s. Germany’s GDP per capita is 16% higher than the UK’s, while the Netherlands’ is 29% higher.
‘This means they can afford to spend more on health. If we were in the same position economically,’ the researchers said. ‘Even if these countries spend the same share of their national income on health as the UK, the level of spending is higher.’
However they clarified that GDP does not have to correlate with the level of investment in health.
They said: ‘Even with a difficult economic position, investing more in health is still possible. It just creates more challenging political and economic trade-offs. France invested 26% more per head than the UK in health, despite their economic performance being similar to the UK’s, with a GDP per capita 1% higher than our own.’
‘Meet growing demand and improve standards’
The analysis was published by the Health Foundation based on figures from 2022.
The Health Foundation said than an extra £38 billion a year in public health funding would ‘enable the NHS in England to meet growing demand and improve standards’. This would represent a 17.4% rise in annual spending compared to 2024/25. The increase would put the UK at a similar spending level to Denmark, which was ranked seventh at $5,324 per person.
However the foundation also noted that such an increase would still leave the UK behind several EU countries. It said: ‘As these countries also face cost pressures from the impact of an ageing population, they are all also likely to have increased spending by the end of the decade.’
The full ranking of countries was as follows:
| Ranking | Country | Health spend per person | Percentage difference from UK |
| 1 | Germany | $6,930 | 55% |
| 2 | The Netherlands | $5,672 | 27% |
| 3 | Austria | $5,664 | 26% |
| 4 | France | $5,622 | 26% |
| 5 | Luxembourg | $5,527 | 23% |
| 6 | Sweden | $5,525 | 23% |
| 7 | Denmark | $5,324 | 19% |
| 8 | Belgium | $5,058 | 13% |
| 9 | Ireland | $4,678 | 4% |
| 10 | UK | $4,479 | 0% |
| 11 | Finland | $4,476 | 0% |
| 12 | Italy | $3,255 | -27% |
| 13 | Spain | $3,113 | -31% |
| 14 | Portugal | $2,640 | -41% |
| 15 | Greece | $1,785 | -60% |
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