Electronic Health Reporter

The data displayed in this infographic is sourced from the Economist Intelligence Unit’s “Healthcare Outcomes Index 2014.” This report took into account a number of diverse and complex factors to produce a ranking of the world’s best-performing countries in health outcomes.

The EIU used basic factors like life expectancy and infant mortality rates alongside weighted factors, such as Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) and Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALEs), while also taking aging populations and adult mortality rates into consideration to produce a rounded set of outcome rankings.

The EIU also provided an overview of the expenditure per capita of each country on healthcare, using data from the World Health Organization (WHO). By plotting the EIU’s outcome rankings against spending rankings for each country, we are able to develop a global overview of how effectively countries use their healthcare budgets.

This image is an excellent opportunity to dig into the weeds of outcomes worldwide, based on the finances of healthcare per country and region. According to this data, the US doesn’t stack up so well in the spend-to-return ratio, which is much discussed and often the subject of much debate. While these facts remain well know, the following infographic paints a pretty vivid picture of the truth of the situation and allows us to see healthcare spending a bit more clearly.

What does it say that most of the world’s “developed” countries have worse outcomes than those of the developing world? Specifically Europe as a whole is ranked below much of Africa and the US is listed as far worse that, say, Cuba.