By the occasion of World Health Day, celebrated on 7 April, Statistics Portugal is releasing a new edition of "Health Statistics", mainly with indicators for 2024.
The following results stand out:
• After hospital activity had been severely affected by the pandemic, a recovery in the number of medical procedures carried out in hospitals continued to be observed in 2024. In 2024, the number of medical appointments, operating room surgeries and diagnostic and/or therapeutic complementary acts reached their highest levels since the series began in 1999.
• In 2024, the number of hospital hospitalisations exceeded the 2019 figure for the first time, whilst the number of emergency attendances remained slightly below the level recorded in 2019, despite the recovery seen since 2021.
• In 2024, public hospitals and those operating under public-private partnerships remained the main providers of healthcare services, accounting for 85.1% of diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures, 79.9% of emergency care attendances, 73.5% of operating room surgeries and 73.0% of hospitalisations. Public sector hospitals accounted for over 60% of medical consultations, but this is the area of activity in which private hospitals achieved the most significant share, accounting for 37.6% of the total.
• The proportion of the population aged 16 and over with limitations in carrying out usual activities due to health problems, which is an internationally recognized approximation to the concept of disability, reached 23.8% in 2025.
• In 2023, life expectancy at age 65 was 22.7 years for women and 19.2 years for men. The adjustment for limitations due to health problems reduced the healthy life expectancy of the general population by almost 13 years, with this expectation being more penalizing for women (7.8 years) than for men (9.1 years).
• In 2025, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-item (GAD-2) model indicates an increase in the population aged 16 and over with symptoms of generalized anxiety (39.4% compared to 32.0% in the previous year).
See the Publication
