Healthcare Spending by Country 2024

When it comes to health care spending, the U.S. spends more on health care per person than any other country.

The amount each country spends on health care can be difficult to compare because countries have unique economic, social and political characteristics that contribute to spending. Wealthy countries like the U.S. tend to spend more on health care and related expenses per person than lower-income countries. This comparison considers health care spending among countries across the globe that are similarly large and wealthy, like the U.S., when considering median GDP and median GDP per person.

Even when comparing the U.S. to similarly wealthy and large countries, it still spends a much larger amount on health care than other high-income countries.

Countries with the highest spending

In the U.S., health spending per person equaled $12,914 in 2021, the most recent available data. That's more than $5,000 greater per person than any other high-income nation. Second to the U.S. was Germany, with $7,383 per person spent on health care. Switzerland came in third at $7,179 per person, then Netherlands at $6,753, Austria at $6,693 and Sweden at $6,262.

Among all high-income nations, the average amount spent on health care per person was $6,125, or less than half of what the U.S. spent per person.

Rounding out the wealthiest countries' per capita spending on health care, France spent $6,115, Canada $5,905, Australia $5,627, Belgium $5,407, the United Kingdom $5,387 and Japan at $4,666.

Low-income countries

These amounts are significantly greater than what countries with less wealth spend. For example, In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, health care spending per person was about $21 in 2020, the most recent year of available data from the World Health Organization. Ethiopia spent $29 per person, Bangladesh spent $51, Afghanistan 80, Egypt $151, Vietnam $166, Fiji $185, Iraq $202, Algeria $215, Tunisia $222, Guatemala $289, Georgia $320, Dominican Republic $354, Guyana $378, Mexico $539, Costa Rica $953, Cuba $1,186, Portugal $2,342, and Spain $2,901.

In all high-income countries with available data, health care spending per capita increased in 2021 from the prior year. In the U.S., per capita health care expenses increased by 2.6%, less growth than in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Austria had the largest increase in per capita health care spending among high-income countries with available data between 2020 and 2021, at 13.8%.