The health of populations in OECD countries has improved dramatically over the past forty years, while health expenditure has been growing rapidly and now represents more than 8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in more than half of OECD countries. As a result, health systems have become the largest service industry in most OECD countries.
 
The second edition of Health at a Glance brings together the latest comparable data and trends concerning health status and risks, the activity and resources of health care systems, as well as health expenditure and financing across the 30 OECD countries. It contains a larger set of indicators than the previous edition. 

Health at a Glance provides striking evidence of the variations across OECD countries in most indicators of health status, health care activity and expenditure. The source of many of these variations remains to be further analysed, but the sheer size of these differences suggests that there is in all countries a large scope for improving the cost-effectiveness of health systems in preventing or treating different health problems. 

Each indicator in the book is presented in a user-friendly format, consisting of charts illustrating variations across countries and over time, brief commentaries highlighting the key findings conveyed by the data, and a methodological box with the definition of the indicator. In addition, a statistical annex provides data tables for each indicator, often presenting long time series going as far back as 1960. 

The key indicators are drawn from OECD Health Data 2003. OECD Health Data 2003 is available on line at www.SourceOECD.org or on CD-ROM from the OECD’s online bookshop (www.oecdbookshop.org).

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