Public healthcare expenditure in Italy 2002-2021

Public healthcare expenditure in Italy increased steadily in the last two decades. This figure stood at approximately 80 billion euros in 2002, whereas it exceeded 127 billion euros as of 2021. Similarly, private expenditure on healthcare grew steadily in recent years, reaching nearly 40 billion euros in 2020. This brought the annual healthcare expenditure (public and private combined) to 9.5 percent of the country’s GDP in 2021.

Hospitals in Italy

Despite both the increase in government funding for healthcare and the increase in hospital spending, there has been a closure of smaller healthcare facilities and a decrease in the number of hospitals, which, as a consequence, led to a decline in the number of hospital beds. The number of individuals employed in hospitals fluctuated, reaching almost 655 thousand individuals in 2020.

Hospitalization rates

The hospitalization rate per one thousand inhabitants in Italy stood at 133.5 in 2019. Hospitalization rates, however, varied significantly across regions and depended on the type of treatment. Aosta Valley, the Italian region neighboring France and Switzerland, for example, recorded a hospitalization rate of 164.44. By contrast, the rate registered in the region of Sicily stood at 117.34.