In 2022, expenditure on preventive care in the EU amounted to €202 per inhabitant, a 6% decrease compared with 2021 (€216 per inhabitant). 

Among EU countries, Germany (€458) had the highest preventive care expenditure per inhabitant, followed by Austria (€411) and the Netherlands (€312).

By contrast, Poland (€22), Romania (€24) and Bulgaria (€31) recorded the lowest expenditures. Latvia spent just €43 – roughly half the €82 it spent in COVID-affected 2021. 

In 2022 Estonia spent €106 per inhabitant on preventive care, while Lithuania spent €80.

In 2022 preventive healthcare spending accounted for 0.21% of Latvian GDP. The EU average was 0.57%. Estonia spent 0.40% of its GDP on preventive healthcare and Lithuania 0.34%.

As a percentage of total healthcare spending, Latvia also ranks rather low. Just 2.8% of its heathcare spending is classed as preventive. The highest shares recorded in 2022 were in Germany (7.9% of total health expenditure), Austria (7.4%) and Finland (6.4%). The lowest share was recorded in Malta (1.2%), followed by Poland (1.9%) and Slovakia (2.0%).

The data was published to mark World Cancer Day, observed annually on 4 February to raise awareness about cancer and encourage its prevention.

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