The Burrow
May 7, 2025
It’s no secret that healthcare differs from country to country, with the likes of the UK offering free doctor and hospital appointments as well as surgery through the NHS, similar to many other countries in Europe, which is a stark contrast to the US, a country notorious for its steep health bills for those without insurance.
As experts in comparing health insurance, we decided to analyse 34 countries to see the average number of in-person doctor appointments each member of the population has per year. We then overlaid it with data from OECD, looking at everything from life expectancy and chronic condition rates to the percentage of the population in poor health to see if there’s a correlation.
We might not be able to determine who has the best healthcare in the world, but we did uncover some interesting findings! Here’s what we found.
With 15.65 in-person doctor consultations per person per year, South Koreans see their doctors more than anywhere else, with Japan and Slovakia a close second and third, at 11.13 and 11.03, respectively.
South Korea and Japan aside, every country in the top 10 was European; Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Czechia, Poland, Belgium and Lithuania made it onto the list, ranging between 6.48 – 9.60 in-person doctor visits per person per year.
Australia is the third highest non-European ranking country, with people visiting their doctor around 6.10 times a year. In contrast, the USA – notorious for its costly health treatment – sees just 3.40 in-person consultations – meaning Americans visit the doctors four times less per year than South Koreans.
There’s a strong correlation between doctor visits and whether healthcare is free – South Korea’s National Health Insurance means all citizens have access to free healthcare. In Japan, it’s subsidised, with the government covering 70% of medical costs.
At the other end of the spectrum, those in Mexico and Brazil visit their doctors the least, with people having around 1.52 and 1.59 in-person consultations a year. Whilst health insurance is free, in Brazil in particular, wait times are long, which could explain why residents aren’t able to see their doctor as frequently – highlighting the stark contrast in global healthcare.
We then broke the data down further, looking at depression rates, chronic conditions, life expectancy, percentage of the population living in poor health, and more to see the correlations (if any).
Ultimately, the answer is… there isn’t as much of a correlation as you might think!
Citizens in Mexico, Chile, and the US have the highest rates of chronic conditions and some of the lowest rates of in-person appointments. Arguably, you may think chronic conditions would mean regular appointments to get medication to manage them. Still, in this instance, it could mean that conditions have become chronic, as they haven’t been able to get help.
At the other end of the spectrum, European countries have the lowest rates, with 3.6% of Norwegians and Belgians suffering from chronic illnesses and 4.5% of Dutch.
Regarding depression, Australia, Canada and the US rank highest at 28.0%, 23.0% and 22.9%, respectively, with Belgium the least.
When it comes to life expectancy, you’d assume those who live longer have access to some of the best healthcare systems in the world – and while this can be said for Japan and South Korea, with citizens living to an average of 84.5 and 83.9 years old respectively, Australians, Spaniards and Norwegians sit in positions three to five for their life expectancy, yet attend fewer doctor appointments.
South Korea and Japan have the highest populations in poor health, at 13.8% and 13.6% of everyone aged 15+, respectively. Both have ageing populations, so it comes as little surprise, but one of the reasons why this is the case may be that those in poor health are managing to meet with doctors several times a year to treat any ailments, which could be enabling them to live longer.
At the other end of the scale are Canada, the US, and Costa Rica, which have the lowest population levels regarding poor health.
Mexico has the highest levels of avoidable mortality, at 665 deaths per 100,000 people, where people see the doctor just 1.5 times a year on average. At the other end of the spectrum, Hungary, Japan and South Korea have the lowest levels of avoidable mortality – and patients see doctors at least 9.5 times a year in these countries, on average.
We then looked to see the populations that exercised the most, with Australia coming out on top, with 71.3% of those aged 18+ doing 150 minutes or more of exercise per week, followed by Norway (67.6%) and the Netherlands (62.0%). Sweden and Denmark then made up the top five – with assumptions being that those who exercise more are fitter and, therefore, less likely to need to visit the doctor.
However, this doesn’t correlate at the other end of the scale, with the Portuguese exercising the least (just 16.9% of the population), followed by Greece and Italy – as they all ranked lowly for in-person doctor appointments.
For healthcare expenditure, we analysed the total amount the government paid per capita, with the USA spending the most, at a huge US$12,473.49, followed by Norway and Australia – but these countries all fell at the lower end of the doctor appointment spectrum.
There’s more of a correlation when it comes to emergency room visits. At 63.0 trips per year per 100 of the population, Portugal comes out on top, followed by Spain at 59.1 and Costa Rica at 47.5. This could mean that more people need to make emergency visits if they cannot get a face-to-face appointment.
This tracks at the other end of the spectrum, with countries with fewer emergency room appointments having more in-person consultations. For example, Czechia had the least at 6.4 visits per year, per 100, and ranked 7th overall, followed by Austria, Slovakia, Poland, and the Netherlands – who all, bar Austria, ranked within the top 10 for in-person appointments.
Finally, we looked at the percentage of the population searching for medical information online; Finland scored the most, with 81% of the population aged 16-74 searching for advice over the last three months. The Netherlands is the second most likely to search for help online at 78%, followed by Norway (76%), South Korea (74%), and Canada (72%).
You could spin these either way: three countries have lower levels of in-person appointments, so you could say they either don’t need to go to the doctor as they’ve self-diagnosed, or they’ve turned to the internet because they know they’re unlikely to get an appointment. Or, for South Korea and the Netherlands, you can argue that they’ve gotten an in-person appointment because they’ve searched their symptoms online and know they need treatment.
We also looked at monthly search volumes for doctors’ appointments across countries, then worked it out per 100,000, and found that, with monthly search volumes of 12,335.39, Luxembourg topped online searches for appointments, followed by Spain, Croatia, Lithuania, and Slovenia.
With Lithuania the only country in the top 10 for in-person consultations, this could suggest that countries unable to secure face-to-face appointments are searching to see where they can attend one or see if they can get any advice or help online.
In practice, this would then make sense that Japan has the lowest levels of search volume, at just 4.18 per 100,000 of the population; as theoretically, people needing to speak to a doctor just call their surgery directly – but then that doesn’t make sense for Mexico and France, who have the second and third lowest searches (unless people aren’t searching for it because they know they can’t access treatment). But again, this shows the stark contrast in the state of global healthcare.
Compare the Market’s Executive General Manager of Health Insurance, Steven Spicer, notes the importance of private health insurance in the event you require inpatient hospital treatment.
“It’s unsurprising to see people are much more likely to visit medical professionals if they know their appointment can be heavily subsidised, or even free,” Spicer said.
“In Australia, private health insurance cannot subsidise GP appointments, however it can pay a benefit towards inpatient hospital treatment as well as some out of hospital visits, such as chiropractor and physiotherapy appointments.
“The peace of mind this provides could be the difference between dreading your medical visits and keeping on top of your health.
“When looking at taking out private health insurance, it’s important to compare your options in order to look for a plan that suits your lifestyle and health needs.”
Methodology:
First, a list of OECD countries was compiled, and the average number of in-person doctor visits per person was determined. Then, the correlation coefficient was calculated, comparing the frequency of doctor visits with all other datasets to check for correlation between each. Search volume for each country was then collected to determine which countries had the most search demand for doctors’ appointments per 100,000 people.
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