Health

🩺 Health

How long we live, what we die of and how things have changed, based on INE vital statistics. Further down, the health system: waiting lists, doctors, nurses, beds and spending.

Life expectancy at birth: Spain 83.9 EU 81.6OECD 80.4France 83Portugal 82.4Germany 80.8Italy 84Morocco 75.5US 78.9China 78 Japan 84South Korea 83.6 years · 2024 · World Bank (WDI) All countries →

Infant mortality: Spain 2.6 EU 3.2OECD 5.8France 3.4Portugal 2.7Germany 3.1Italy 2.3Morocco 14.7US 5.5China 4.1 Japan 1.8Sweden 2 deaths under age 1 per 1,000 live births · 2024 · World Bank (WDI) All countries →

Current health expenditure per capita: Spain 4,934.9 EU 6,701.9 (2024)OECD 6,928.6France 6,868.2 (2024)Portugal 4,928 (2024)Germany 8,825.6 (2024)Italy 4,992.8 (2024)Morocco 606US 13,473.2China 1,486.9 current international dollars (PPP) per capita · 2023 · World Bank (WDI, OMS) All countries →

Doctors: Spain 4.3 EU 4.2OECD 3.4France 3.3Portugal 5.9Germany 4.5Italy 4.2Morocco 0.7 (2021)US 3.7China 3.1 per 1,000 inhabitants · 2022 · World Bank (WDI, OMS) All countries →

Hospital beds: Spain 2.9 EU 5.1 (2022)OECD 4.6 (2022)France 5.7 (2022)Portugal 3.5 (2022)Germany 7.6Italy 3.1 (2022)Morocco 0.7US 2.7 (2022)China 5.6 Japan 12.6 (2022)South Korea 12.8 (2022) per 1,000 inhabitants · 2023 · World Bank (WDI, OMS) All countries →

Suicide rate: Spain 8.7 EU 12.1OECD 12.5France 16.6Portugal 11.5Germany 12.9Italy 7Morocco 2.9US 15.6China 9 South Korea 27.5 per 100,000 inhabitants · 2021 · World Bank (WDI, OMS) All countries →

If you need help, or know someone who might, call 024, Spain's suicide prevention helpline (free, confidential, 24 hours a day).

How long we live

The 2020 drop is the COVID-19 pandemic (more than a year of life expectancy lost); the 2019 level was not regained until 2023. Spain has one of the highest life expectancies in the world.

Life expectancy at birth by province of residence in 2024. The highest figures are in Madrid and the northern interior; the lowest, in the south, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla.

What we die of

In 2024, for the first time, cancers overtook diseases of the heart and blood vessels as the leading cause of death. Mental disorders are rising mainly because of dementia (Alzheimer's and others), linked to population ageing. These are crude rates: with an ever older population, they rise even if the probability of dying at each age falls.

Suicide, road deaths and homicide

Since 2008 more people in Spain have died by suicide than in road traffic accidents, which have fallen to less than a third of their 2000 level. Figures are by the deceased's place of residence and based on the cause stated on the death certificate (the DGT's road death count, measured at 30 days, differs slightly).

Three out of four suicides are men. The highest rates are in the north-west (Asturias, Galicia), where the population is older.

Excess mortality

The comparison with 2015-2019 is made per inhabitant, so it already discounts a population that grows larger every year, but it does not adjust for a population that grows older, so since 2023 part of the "excess" is simply ageing. The peaks coincide with winter flu seasons and with heatwaves (see Heat). The most recent weeks may be incomplete.

Health system

How long people wait for surgery or to see a specialist in the public health service, how many doctors, nurses and beds there are per inhabitant and how much is spent on health, compared with the rest of the European Union.

Waiting lists

At 31 December 2025, 17.7 people per 1,000 inhabitants were waiting for a scheduled operation in the public health service, compared with 12.3 in December 2013. The average wait was 122 days for surgery and 102 days for a first appointment with a specialist.

Structural waiting: patients awaiting a non-urgent operation or a first outpatient appointment in specialised care whose wait is attributable to the organisation and resources of the system (primary care is not included). The average time is how long those still on the list on the reference date have been waiting; the rate is calculated on the population holding a health card. Each region supplies its data and the Ministry of Health aggregates them; criteria have changed over time: until June 2016 one region's data were estimated, in 2018 Andalusia changed its counting system (a break in the series, according to the ministry) and in recent editions the share of appointments over 60 days includes patients who do not yet have an appointment date. The 2020 peak coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Situation at 31 December 2025. The average wait for surgery ranges from 50 days in Comunidad de Madrid to 173 in Andalucía. Regions do not count their patients in the same way (the ministry warns that each one is responsible for its own data), so differences between them should be read with caution.

Doctors, nurses and beds

In 2024 Spain had 4.6 practising doctors per 1,000 inhabitants (above the EU average of 4.5), 5.7 nurses (EU average: 8.0; ranked 19 of 27 countries with data) and 2.8 hospital beds (EU average: 5.1; ranked 23 of 27). The EU average is population-weighted and is only calculated for years in which at least 24 countries report; where a country does not report practising staff, professionally active staff are used instead, so comparisons are approximate.

Doctors and beds (public and private) by region in 2024, according to Eurostat. These are the resources located in each region, which also treat patients from other regions.

How much is spent on health

In 2024 total health spending in Spain was €3,097 per person (2025 euros), 9.3 % of GDP. Government paid 72 %; the rest came out of households' own pockets or from private insurance. In 2023, the latest year with European data, public spending was 6.8 % of GDP in Spain and 8.0 % on average across the EU.

Current health expenditure according to Eurostat's health accounts (SHA 2011). Public includes government and compulsory social insurance (including civil servants' mutual insurance schemes); private covers voluntary insurance and out-of-pocket payments by households. The cross-country comparison uses purchasing power standards (PPS), which remove differences in price levels.

Health spending by each autonomous community per person in 2024 (provisional figures), in 2025 euros: from €1,702 in Andalucía to €2,394 in País Vasco; €2,010 across all regions. This is spending by the regional health services (Ministry of Health's Public Health Expenditure Statistics), more than 90 % of public health spending; it does not include civil servants' mutual insurance schemes or local councils. Ceuta and Melilla do not appear because their health care is run by central government (INGESA).

Sources and notes

• INE – Basic demographic indicators: life expectancy at birth by region (table 1448) and province (1485); Eurostat – demo_mlexpec for the Spain total.
• INE – Deaths by cause of death (table 9936, short list of causes by province of residence, since 1980; the latest published year is final, with a one-year lag).
• INE – Weekly Death Estimates (EDeS) (table 35177): deaths by week and region.
• Ministry of Health – NHS waiting lists (SISLE-SNS): half-yearly reports (30 June and 31 December) on surgical and outpatient waiting lists by region and specialty, since December 2013 (archive). The ministry only publishes them as PDFs; the figures are read from their tables.
• Ministry of Health – Public Health Expenditure Statistics: public health spending by autonomous community (euros per person and % of GDP, annexes I.1 and I.2).
• Eurostat – hlth_rs_prs2 (doctors and nurses), hlth_rs_bds1 (hospital beds), hlth_rs_physreg and hlth_rs_bdsrg2 (by region) and hlth_sha11_hf (health spending by financing scheme). Spain's euros per person are adjusted for inflation using INE's CPI.
• Health spending as part of total government spending is covered in Public spending.

Data updated 7 minutes ago