Office for National Statistics

Healthcare expenditure

Download the report here

Main points of the report:

Total current healthcare expenditure in 2018 was £214.4 billion, equating to £3,227 per person.

Total current healthcare expenditure in the UK accounted for 10.0% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018, compared with 9.8% in 2017 and 6.9% in 1997.

Total current healthcare spending more than doubled in real terms, adjusted for inflation, between 1997 and 2018; in 2018, it grew by 3.2%, its strongest rate of annual growth since 2009.

Government-financed healthcare expenditure was £166.7 billion in 2018, accounting for 78% of total healthcare spending.

Government-financed healthcare expenditure, in real terms, grew by 2.0% in 2018, and accounted for the largest contribution to growth in total healthcare expenditure, while non-government healthcare financing grew by 7.6%, largely driven by an increase in out-of-pocket spending.

Over the period 2014 to 2018, growth in long-term care expenditure exceeded that of current healthcare expenditure in real terms; however, spending on long-term care grew by only 2.6% in 2018, its slowest growth since 2014.

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