Total Health Spending, USD PPP Per Capita (2020): $5,693.7

(Note: “Health spending measures the final consumption of health care goods and services (i.e. current health expenditure) including personal health care (curative care, rehabilitative care, long-term care, ancillary services and medical goods) and collective services (prevention and public health services as well as health administration), but excluding spending on investments. Health care is financed through a mix of financing arrangements including government spending and compulsory health insurance (“Government/compulsory”) as well as voluntary health insurance and private funds such as households’ out-of-pocket payments, NGOs and private corporations (“Voluntary”). This indicator is presented as a total and by type of financing (“Government/compulsory”, “Voluntary”, “Out-of-pocket”) and is measured as a share of GDP, as a share of total health spending and in USD per capita (using economy-wide PPPs).”

Source: OECD (2022), Health spending (indicator). doi: 10.1787/8643de7e-en (Accessed on 29 July 2022).

Current Health Expenditure As Percentage Of Gross Domestic Product (2019): 9.96%

Source: Global Health Observatory. Current health expenditure (CHE) as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.

Current Health Expenditure Per Capita in US$ (2019): $6,003

Source: Global Health Observatory. Current health expenditure (CHE) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.

Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure As Percentage Of Current Health Expenditure (2019): 14.17%

Source: Global Health Observatory. Out-of-pocket expenditure as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) (%). Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.

Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure Per Capita in US$ (2019): $850.6

Source: Global Health Observatory. Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOP) per capita in US$. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed July 26, 2022.

Current Health Expenditure Per Capita (USD) (2016): $5,566
Current Health Expenditure as Percentage of Gross Domestic Product (%) (2016): 10.4%
Domestic General Government Health Expenditure as Percentage of General Government Expenditure (%) (2016): 16.3%
Population with household expenditures on health greater than 10% of total household expenditure or income (2009-2015) (%): 2.9%
Population with household expenditures on health greater than 25% of total household expenditure or income (2009-2015) (%): 0.5%

Source: World health statistics 2019: monitoring health for the SDGs, sustainable development goals. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

Annual out-of-pocket payment, constant (2017) PPP per capita (USD) (2017): $757

Source: Global Health Expenditure Database. Health expenditure series. Geneva: World Health Organization. Last accessed Oct. 6, 2020.

Out-of-Pocket Spending as Share of Final Household Consumption (%) (2019): 3.1%

Source: OECD (2021), Health at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ae3016b9-en.

“The largest category of health spending in Denmark is outpatient care (mostly including GP appointments and ambulatory care in and outside hospital), which accounted for over one-third of all health spending in 2017 (Figure 8). This reflects reform efforts that have sought to contain spending on inpatient hospital care while developing ambulatory care.

“Inpatient care (typically provided in hospitals) accounted for one-quarter of health spending, a lower share than a decade ago. Long-term care also accounted for one-quarter of health spending, nearly twice as much as the EU average, although somewhat lower than in Sweden and Norway.

“On the other hand, spending on pharmaceuticals and medical devices dispensed outside hospitals is low in Denmark, accounting for just 10 % of total health expenditure in 2017 (compared to 18 % in the EU as a whole). This reflects ongoing efforts to control the growth of pharmaceutical spending (see Section 5.3). It is also important to note that this does not include pharmaceutical expenditure in hospitals, which is reported under inpatient or outpatient care. The inclusion of pharmaceutical spending in hospitals would add another 70 % to the retail spending.

“Only 2.5 % of health spending in Denmark was allocated to prevention programmes in 2017, less than the 3.1 % EU average. However, there is significant uncertainty concerning resources allocated to prevention and health promotion because some activities are included in outpatient care and in general municipal budgets.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2019), Denmark: Country Health Profile 2019, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

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

Page last updated Nov. 13, 2022 by Doug McVay, Editor.