Austria: Preventive Healthcare - World Health Systems Facts

Life expectancy at birth (years), 2021: 81.0 years
Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births), 2023: 6
Under-five mortality rate (per 1000 live births), 2023: 3.1
Neonatal mortality rate (per 1000 live births), 2023: 2.0
Tuberculosis incidence (per 100,000 population), 2023: 5.2
Probability of dying from any of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease between age 30 and exact age 70 (%), 2021: 9.9%
Suicide mortality rate (per 100,000 population), 2021: 14.5
Adolescent birth rate (per 1000 women aged 15-19 years), 2015-2024: 3.9
Adolescent birth rate (per 1000 women aged 10-14 years), 2015-2024: 0.0
Diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) immunization coverage among 1-year-olds (%), 2023: 84%
Measles-containing-vaccine second-dose (MCV2) immunization coverage by the locally recommended age (%), 2023: 94%
Human papillomavirus (HPV) immunization coverage estimates among 15 year-old girls (%), 2023: 53%
Prevalence of anaemia in women aged 15-49 years (%), 2023: 16.7%

Source: World health statistics 2025: monitoring health for the SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals. Tables of health statistics by country and area, WHO region and globally. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

Life Expectancy at Birth, 2023: 82 years
Under-Five Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births), 2022: 3
Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births), 2022: 3
Neonatal Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births), 2022: 2
Mortality Rate Among Children Aged 5-14 Years (per 1,000 children aged 5), 2022: 1
Maternal Mortality Ratio (per 100,000 live births), 2020: 5
Lifetime Risk of Maternal Death (1 in x), 2020: 1 in 13,728
Immunization for Vaccine Preventable Diseases (%), 2023:
– Percentage of surviving infants who received the first dose of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccine: 91%
– Percentage of surviving infants who received three doses of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccine: 84%
– Percentage of surviving infants who received three doses of the polio vaccine: 84%
– Percentage of surviving infants who received the first dose of the measles-containing vaccine: 95%
– Percentage of children who received the second dose of measles-containing vaccine as per national schedule: 94%
– Percentage of surviving infants who received three doses of hepatitis B vaccine: 84%
– Percentage of surviving infants who received three doses of Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine: 84%
– Percentage of surviving infants who received the last dose of rotavirus vaccine as recommended: 61%
Adolescent Birth Rate (Births Per 1,000 Adolescent Girls and Young Women), 2017-2023:
– Aged 10-14: 0%
– Aged 15-19: 4%

Notes: Under-five mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly 5 years of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.
Infant mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly 1 year of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.
Neonatal mortality rate – Probability of dying during the first 28 days of life, expressed per 1,000 live births.
Mortality rate (children aged 5 to 14 years) – Probability of dying at age 5–14 years expressed per 1,000 children aged 5.
Maternal mortality ratio – Number of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births during the same time period (modelled estimates).
Lifetime risk of maternal death – Lifetime risk of maternal death takes into account both the probability of becoming pregnant and the probability of dying as a result of that pregnancy, accumulated across a woman’s reproductive years (modelled estimates).
BCG – Percentage of live births who received bacilli Calmette-Guérin (vaccine against tuberculosis).
DTP1 – Percentage of surviving infants who received the first dose of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccine.
DTP3 – Percentage of surviving infants who received three doses of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccine.
Polio3 – Percentage of surviving infants who received three doses of the polio vaccine.
MCV1 – Percentage of surviving infants who received the first dose of the measles-containing vaccine.
MCV2 – Percentage of children who received the second dose of measles-containing vaccine as per national schedule.
HepB3 – Percentage of surviving infants who received three doses of hepatitis B vaccine.
Hib3 – Percentage of surviving infants who received three doses of Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine.
Rota – Percentage of surviving infants who received the last dose of rotavirus vaccine as recommended.
PCV3 – Percentage of surviving infants who received three doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.
Protection at birth (PAB) – Percentage of newborns protected at birth against tetanus with tetanus toxoid.
Adolescent mortality rate – The probability of dying among adolescents aged 10-19 years expressed per 1,000 adolescents aged 10.
Adolescent birth rate – Number of births per 1,000 adolescent girls and young women aged 10–14 and
15–19.

Source: United Nations Children’s Fund, The State of the World’s Children 2024: The Future of Childhood in a Changing World – Statistical Compendium. UNICEF, Nov. 20, 2024.

Congestive heart failure hospital admission in adults, age-sex standardized rate per 100,000 population, 2021: 220
Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospital admissions in adults, age-sex standardized rate per 100,000 population, 2021: 144

Source: OECD (2023), Health at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi.org/10.1787/7a7afb35-en.

“The health system in Austria is relatively effective in terms of avoiding deaths from causes that are treatable by timely and effective healthcare. However, although mortality from treatable causes was below the EU average in 2020, several EU Member States achieve even lower rates (Figure 13). Ischaemic heart disease, colorectal and breast cancers, and stroke were the main treatable causes of mortality, which could be reduced further through earlier diagnosis and timelier and more effective treatment.

“Preventable mortality in Austria was also lower than the EU average in 2020, but also still markedly higher than in the best-performing countries in the EU. The leading causes of preventable mortality are lung cancer, ischaemic heart disease and alcohol-related diseases, followed in 2020 by COVID-19. Chronic respiratory diseases are also a significant contributor to preventable deaths. The high prevalence of behavioural risk factors, including smoking, alcohol consumption and poor nutrition, contributes to these preventable deaths (see Section 3).”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2023), Austria: Country Health Profile 2023, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“Spending on prevention increased greatly during the pandemic and accounted for over 10 % of health spending in 2021 driven by COVID-19 testing and vaccination, amuch higher share than the only about 2 % before the pandemic (Figure 11).”

“Behavioural risk factors, including not only smoking but also unhealthy eating, alcohol consumption and low physical activity, continue to be a major driver of mortality in Austria (see Section 2). Greater public health and prevention efforts could help to reduce such mortality. Some progress has been made in Austria since the inception of the 2014 Health Promotion Strategy, agreed on by the national target-based commission and renewed in 2016. It was aligned with the “Austrian Health Goals” – the overarching and long-term goals for health policy at the national level, which defined a number of strategic goals for prevention and health promotion and allocated additional funds for this purpose, including through the creation of state-level prevention funds. The strategy particularly emphasised prevention for children and adolescents and health literacy of working-age adults and older people. However, as a share of overall health spending, spending on public health and prevention still accounted for only about 2 % of overall spending before the pandemic.”

“Health status is strongly affected by lifestyle-related health determinants. The estimates of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reveal that over 28% of the overall burden of disease in Austria in 2015 (measured in terms of disability-adjusted life years) could be attributed to behavioural risk factors, including smoking and alcohol use, as well as diet and low physical activity contributing to high body mass index and other health risks (IHME, 2017). Indeed, with nearly every fourth adult reporting to smoke daily, Austria has the seventh highest smoking prevalence among EU-28 countries. The rate of adults reporting that they smoke every day has remained stable in Austria against an overall declining trend in many European countries. However, the proportion of daily smokers among men has decreased, while smoking prevalence in women increased. Smoking is also prevalent among young people: 23% of 15-year-old girls and 27% of 15-year-old boys reported first smoking at the age of 13 or even younger (2014). Nevertheless, smoking prevalence among young people has decreased considerably: 15.5% of 15-year-old girls and 14.2% of 15-year-old boys reported weekly smoking in 2014 down from 37.1% for girls and 26.1% for boys in 2001/2002 (Currie 2004; Currie et al., 2012; Ramelow et al., 2011; Ramelow et al., 2015).

“Alcohol consumption per capita in Austria in 2014 was the third highest in the EU: adults consumed 12.3 litres of pure alcohol per year on average in Austria (EU average 10 litres per year). Alcohol consumption has decreased since the 1980s but has remained stable since the early 2000s. Binge drinking rates, which involves consuming six or more alcoholic drinks on a single occasion, at least once a month over the past year, among Austrian adults (19%) are slightly below the EU average (20%). Self-reported obesity is slightly below EU-28 average but has increased substantially since 2000. In 2014, 13.4% of women and 16.0% of men reported to be obese. Overweight and obesity have also increased considerably among adolescents. For example, the share of overweight or obese boys increased from 13.9% in 2002 to 17.3% in 2014 (see Table 1.6).

“Austrian adults are among the most physically active in the EU. About half of 18 to 64 year-old adults (women 49%, men 52%) report regular physical activity (i.e. above 150 minutes per week); and 36% of men and 29% of women report muscle-strengthening activities at least twice per week (WHO, 2017a). However, physical inactivity among 15-year olds is relatively high compared to other EU countries.”

Source: Bachner F, Bobek J, Habimana K, Ladurner J, Lepuschütz L, Ostermann H, Rainer L, Schmidt A E, Zuba M, Quentin W, Winkelmann J. Austria: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2018; 20(3): 1 – 256.

Austria: Preventive Healthcare - Lifestyle, diet, substance use, environment - National Policies - World Health Systems Facts

World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems and policies in the US and sixteen other OECD member nations.

Page last updated September 18, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.