Healthcare in Italy

Healthcare in Italy is one of the most effective worldwide.

Probably the most important indicator that can be used to summarize the efficiency of all measures is general life expectancy. In other words, the theoretical age that a newborn child could potentially reach today. At the moment, this age in Italy is 80.6 years for men and 85.1 years for women. For comparison: worldwide life expectancy is about 11.4 years lower (men: 68.9 / women: 73.9 years).

A total of 3,351.48 USD per inhabitant is spent annually on health measures at state expense. This corresponds to approximately 9.5 percent of the gross domestic product. Internationally, this amount averages 1,177.15 USD (~ 10.9% of the respective GDP).

Back to overview: Italy

Spread of COVID-19 in Italy

Current incidence in the week ending 06/04/2023: 8.4 new infections per 100,000 population

Since the beginning of the pandemic until June 4th, 2023, a total of 25,857,572 infected people and 190,392 deaths have been reported in Italy.

The total of 25,857,572 infected people currently represents 43.36 percent of the total population. The number of new infections during the seven days preceding June 4th, 2023, was 5,022, for a 7-day incidence of 8.4 cases per 100,000 population. In the same week, 51 people died from (or with) COVID-19. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, this results in a mortality rate of about 0.7 percent in Italy.

Current vaccination status

According to official WHO data, a total of 150.31 million vaccine doses have been administered as of May 14th, 2023. More recent data are not yet available to WHO. There are 50.58 million people who have received at least one vaccination (84.8 percent). The booster vaccination was received by 44.91 million people (75.3 percent).

49.48 million of these are considered fully vaccinated in Italy (= 83.0 percent).
This means that Italy is still one of the better countries in terms of vaccination coverage. The vaccination rate is higher in 37 countries.

Weight and size

	Male	Female
Body height	174 cm	161 cm
BMI	26.7	24.9
Weight	80.9 kg	64.8 kg

Diseases

	Italy	Ø worldwide
Diabetes *	5.00%	8.81%
Tuberculosis	0.05‰	1.34‰
HIV / Aids	0.00%	0.03%

* The number of people suffering from diabetes refers only to inhabitants aged between 20 and 79 years.

Child vaccinations

	Italy	Ø worldwide
Measles	92.0%	81.7%
Hepatitis B	0.09%	0.08%
DTP *	9.40%	8.14%

* DTP is a combined basic vaccination against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus, which should be given to children up to the age of 23 months.

In Italy, 23.1 percent of all over 15-year-olds are still smokers.

Medical supplies

The medical care provided by doctors and hospitals in Italy is above average, but is not as good as the average within the EU. The country provides 3.1 hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants. The global mean here is 2.9 beds. Within the EU, 4.6 beds are available for every 1,000 residents.

With about 242,000 physicians in Italy, there are about 4.09 doctors per 1000 inhabitants. Here again the comparison: worldwide this standard is 1.50 physicians per 1,000 inhabitants and in the EU is 3.57.

Through medical care, the mortality of major known diseases can be reduced to an above-average extent. For example, only about 9 percent of all people who suffer from cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases or chylomicron retention disease (CRD) currently die.

Drinking water supply

About 96 percent of the population has access to an immediately available, running drinking water supply. At least via springs and wells within a maximum distance of 30 minutes or supplied water, 100 peprcent of the population is supplied with largely clean drinking water. The population is thus better served than average. In a global comparison, only about 74 percent of the population has direct access to tested and always available drinking water. Within the European Union, this share is 98 percent. Only in a few countries does the proportion fall below 10 percent.

Sources

The above data correspond to the information from the World Health Organization, Global Health Workforce Statistics, UNICEF, State of the World's Children, Childinfo, Global Health Observatory Data Repository and OECD. The case numbers for the spread of the COVID-19 come from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Average age by countryRising average age worldwide: since 1950 alone, more than 4 years. A list by country.

Average life expectancy by countryInternational ranking of life expectancy in 119 countries including summary by continents. Explanation of significant factors.

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