Overview

The State of Health in the EU cycle is a 2-year process initiated by the European Commission, designed to improve country-specific and European Union (EU)-wide knowledge in the field of health. In this context, the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) jointly developed Country Health Profiles for all 27 EU Member States and for Iceland and Norway.

These concise and policy-relevant Profiles are based on a transparent, consistent methodology that uses both quantitative and qualitative data, flexibly adapted to the context of each EU Member State.  The 2021 editions focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how countries’ health systems responded to various resilience challenges related to mitigation measures, response capacity and governance.

The aim is to create a means for mutual learning and voluntary exchange that supports the efforts of EU Member States in their evidence-informed policy-making. 

For more detailed information on country health systems, see the Health Systems and Policy Monitor (HSPM) platform.