End-of-life care — Deaths in hospital by country
End of Life Care (EC) is a subgroup of indicators within the HCQO database and provides data on the quality of care provided to people who are near the end of life. End of life care is a key indicator of healthcare quality, as high rates of hospital or acute care deaths, and frequent unplanned hospital readmissions...
What the numbers show
End-of-life care — Deaths in hospital is currently reported for 24 countries. The highest value is 66.2 Percentage of deaths in Japan; the lowest is 28.6 Percentage of deaths in Norway.
The median across all reporting countries is 47.95 Percentage of deaths, and the mean is 46.65 Percentage of deaths.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 2.
Over the past decade 6 countries rose and 16 fell. The largest increase was in Romania (up 48.4%), and the largest decrease in Denmark (down 21.7%).
End-of-life care — Deaths in hospital: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 66.2 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 16.5% | falling |
| 1 | Lithuania | 64.7 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | up 12.5% | rising |
| 2 | Iceland | 64.4 Percentage of deaths | 2024 | up 16.5% | rising |
| 2 | Estonia | 55.5 Percentage of deaths | 2022 | — | falling |
| 2 | Croatia | 48.6 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 0.8% | flat |
| 3 | Israel | 62.7 Percentage of deaths | 2022 | down 8.3% | falling |
| 3 | Latvia | 48 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | up 13.2% | rising |
| 4 | Luxembourg | 58.2 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 5.7% | flat |
| 4 | Slovenia | 47.9 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 8.2% | falling |
| 5 | Malta | 57.9 Percentage of deaths | 2022 | — | flat |
| 5 | Netherlands | 21.2 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 12.4% | falling |
| 6 | Canada | 56.2 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 7.0% | falling |
| 7 | Spain | 49.5 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | up 5.8% | flat |
| 8 | Austria | 48.5 Percentage of deaths | 2021 | down 8.0% | falling |
| 9 | Ireland | 44 Percentage of deaths | 2022 | down 19.6% | falling |
| 10 | Chile | 43.7 Percentage of deaths | 2022 | down 3.1% | flat |
| 11 | Czechia | 42.1 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 9.7% | falling |
| 12 | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | 38.3 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 11.3% | falling |
| 13 | Sweden | 37.9 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 3.3% | rising |
| 14 | Romania | 36.8 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | up 48.4% | rising |
| 15 | Denmark | 35.3 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 21.7% | falling |
| 16 | New Zealand | 32.2 Percentage of deaths | 2018 | down 15.5% | falling |
| 17 | Switzerland | 31.2 Percentage of deaths | 2021 | up 3.7% | flat |
| 18 | Norway | 28.6 Percentage of deaths | 2023 | down 2.7% | flat |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- Slovak Republic 49.6 Percentage of deaths
- Korea 38.6 Percentage of deaths
About this data
End of Life Care (EC) is a subgroup of indicators within the HCQO database and provides data on the quality of care provided to people who are near the end of life. End of life care is a key indicator of healthcare quality, as high rates of hospital or acute care deaths, and frequent unplanned hospital readmissions in the final months of life may reflect gaps in access to and adequacy of community-based or palliative care. The database includes indicators on deaths occurring in inpatient acute care and hospital settings, and on the proportion of patients with unplanned readmissions during the last 30 or 180 days of life. These indicators focus on individuals who die due to conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, and dementia. Indicators are reported as crude rates. For further information, please consult: The HCQO Definitions document provides indicator definitions and calculation methodologies of HCQO indicators The Sources and Methods survey on End of Life Care (EC) provides detailed country-specific information The OECD’s Health System Performance Assessment (HSPA) Framework outlines how HCQO indicators relate to the OECD’s HSPA domains of Access, Quality and People’s needs and preferences