One Greek in Nine Went Without Medical Care They Needed
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 30 July 2026
- Data source
- Eurostat
- Reference period
- 2025
- Last updated
- 30 July 2026
Key estimates
- 2.4% of Europeans aged 16 and over reported an unmet need for medical examination in 2025.
- Greece records 11.5%, Finland 7.8%, Estonia 7.7% and Latvia 7.6%.
- Malta and Cyprus record 0.1% and Czechia 0.3%.
- The measure counts three reasons only: cost, distance and waiting time.
- Finland and Estonia are high-income Member States near the top, which rules out affordability as the sole explanation.
Care needed and not received
Respondents are asked whether there was a time in the previous twelve months when they needed a medical examination or treatment and did not receive it, and if so why. This indicator counts three reasons: they could not afford it, it was too far to travel, or the waiting list was too long.
Reasons such as fear of the doctor or wanting to wait and see are excluded, which is what makes the measure one of access rather than of choice.
Across the EU in 2025, 2.4% reported an unmet need on those grounds.
Greece
Greece records 11.5%, more than four times the EU figure and roughly one person in nine.
Greek health spending fell substantially during the sovereign debt crisis and the reductions were not subsequently reversed in full. The Greek figure has been the Union's highest for most of the past decade.
It sits alongside everything else this site records about Greece: the lowest life satisfaction in the Union, the highest housing cost overburden, the most negative external investment position. Greece is the Member State whose crisis is most visible across unrelated indicators, fifteen years after it began.
Finland, and why the ranking is not about money
Finland records 7.8% and Estonia 7.7%, second and third.
Finland is among the Union's wealthiest Member States, has universal health coverage and records the highest life satisfaction in the EU. It also has the third-lowest number of healthy life years, which the quality of life study on this site reports.
Finnish unmet need is a waiting time problem rather than an affordability one. Access to non-urgent specialist care in the public system involves queues, and a respondent who waited too long and gave up is counted here in exactly the same way as someone in Greece who could not pay.
That is the indicator's central ambiguity, and it means the ranking cannot be read as a ranking of health system funding. Three quite different failures — cost, distance and delay — are added together into one number.
The very low figures
Malta and Cyprus record 0.1%, Czechia 0.3%, the Netherlands 0.5% and Austria.
Rates this low are worth treating carefully. A figure of 0.1% means roughly one respondent in a thousand, which is at the limit of what a household survey can measure reliably.
They also depend on expectations. Someone who does not expect to receive a particular treatment may not report it as an unmet need, so a population accustomed to limited provision can record a low rate. Self-reported access measures are affected by what people think they are entitled to, and that is not constant across the Union.
Self-reported unmet medical need, 2025
| Country | % of population aged 16 and over | Gap to EU averagepercentage points, derived |
|---|---|---|
| Greece | 11.5 | +9.1 |
| Finland | 7.8 | +5.4 |
| Estonia | 7.7 | +5.3 |
| European Unionaggregate | 2.4 | — |
| Czechia | 0.3 | −2.1 |
| Cyprus | 0.1 | −2.3 |
| Malta | 0.1 | −2.3 |
What these figures cannot tell you
- Three different failures in one number
- Cost, distance and waiting time are added together. A country with queues and a country where people cannot pay record the same thing, and the policy response to each is entirely different. Finland and Greece sit second and first for opposite reasons.
- Self-reported, and shaped by expectations
- Whether someone describes an experience as an unmet need depends on what they expected to receive. Populations accustomed to limited provision may report less unmet need than their access would justify.
- Very low rates are at the limit of measurement
- Figures around 0.1% correspond to roughly one respondent in a thousand and carry wide relative uncertainty. Differences among the lowest-ranked Member States should not be treated as meaningful.
- Medical examination only
- The indicator covers medical examination and treatment. Unmet need for dental care is measured separately and is substantially more common across the Union.
Frequently asked questions
- How many Europeans go without needed medical care?
- 2.4% of people aged 16 and over reported an unmet need for medical examination in 2025, counting only needs unmet because of cost, distance or waiting time.
- Which EU country has the most unmet medical need?
- Greece, at 11.5% in 2025 — roughly one person in nine, and more than four times the EU figure. Greek health spending fell substantially during the sovereign debt crisis and was not fully restored.
- Why does Finland rank second?
- Because the indicator counts waiting time alongside cost. Finland is among the Union's wealthiest Member States with universal coverage, and its 7.8% reflects queues for non-urgent specialist care rather than people unable to pay.
- Which countries report the least unmet need?
- Malta and Cyprus at 0.1% and Czechia at 0.3%. Rates that low are at the limit of what a household survey can measure, and self-reported access also depends on what people expect to receive.
Methodological note
Eurostat publishes self-reported unmet need for medical examination from EU-SILC. This study uses the population aged 16 and over, both sexes, all income groups, with unmet need attributed to cost, distance or waiting time.
Values are for 2025 and cover all 27 Member States.
The characterisation of the Finnish figure as a waiting-time rather than an affordability problem follows from the reasons included in the indicator and from Finland's income level; this extraction does not break the total down by reason. The comparisons with life satisfaction, healthy life years and housing costs draw on companion studies on this site.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser. The filters below are the ones applied.
Self-reported unmet need for medical examination and care
sdg_03_60
- Filters applied:
- freq=A · age=Y_GE16 · sex=T · reason=TXP_TFAR_WLIST · unit=PC · quant_inc=TOTAL · time=2025
- Extracted:
- 2026-08-11
- Source last updated:
- 2026-07-27
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