Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Statistics on healthcare non-expenditure provide information on healthcare human resources, healthcare facilities, and healthcare utilisation.
The people active in the healthcare sector (doctors, dentists, nurses, etc.) and their status (graduates, practising, migration of doctors and nurses, etc.);
The available healthcare technical resources and facilities (hospital beds, beds in residential care facilities, medical technology, etc.);
The health activities or patient contacts undertaken (hospital discharges, surgical procedures, ambulatory care data, etc.).
Annual national and regional data are provided in absolute numbers or as a rate of a relevant population.
Data are based mainly on administrative records (see section 18.1 ‘Source data’ for more information).
3.2. Classification system
For the collection of data on healthcare non- expenditure, the classifications used in the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and its related set of International Classification for the Health Accounts are applied.
For Health Employment, the Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications apply.
Definitions of mandatory variables are laid down in Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/2294.
Where possible, the statistics are separated by sex (male/female), age group and NUTS2 region.
Healthcare resources' statistics describe the process of providing healthcare services in countries by referring to the participating institutions. Institution-related data are mostly related to and derived from available resources and so focus primarily on a capacity dimension.
Health care activities' statistics describe the process of providing health care services in countries by referring to the services provided. Service-related data aim at quantifying directly elements of the healthcare delivery process.
The respective data are, due to their heterogeneity, collected, stored and disseminated via different tables. They are based on different, mainly administrative sources. This may lead to differences in the coverage of time series and/or in the geographical coverage; data validity, reliability and comparability may vary. Furthermore, it may not always be possible to have the healthcare system, implicitly underpinning the data collection, being consistently defined across data sources.
Non-expenditure healthcare resources data are grouped as follows:
Healthcare staff: data refer to human resources available for providing health care services in the country, irrespective of the sector of employment (i.e. whether they are independent, employed by a hospital or any other health care provider). 'Manpower' categories focus on health care professionals (physicians, dentists, nursing and caring professionals, pharmacists, physiotherapists); socio-demographic elements (age, sex) are partly included.
Three different concepts are used to present the number of health care professionals:
'practising', i.e. health care professionals providing services directly to patients;
'professionally active', i.e. 'practising' health care professionals plus health care professionals for whom their medical education is a prerequisite for the execution of the job;
'licensed to practice', i.e. health care professionals who are registered and entitled to practice as health care professionals.
There is also a table on health workforce migration, which presents data on the number and annual inflow of foreign trained doctors and nurses.
Healthcare facilities: data refer to available beds in hospitals (HP.1) and subcategories (such as curative care beds, rehabilitative care beds, etc.) and available beds in nursing and residential care facilities (HP.2) as well as medical technology and technical resources in hospitals (HP.1).
Total hospital beds (HP.1) are all hospital beds which are regularly maintained and staffed and immediately available for the care of admitted patients. Total hospital beds are broken down as follows:
Curative care (acute care) beds;
Rehabilitative care beds;
Long-term care beds (excluding psychiatric care beds);
Other hospital beds.
Beds in nursing and residential care facilities (HP.2) are available beds for people requiring ongoing health and nursing care due to chronic impairments and a reduced degree of independence in activities of daily living (ADL) in establishments primarily engaged in providing residential care combined with either nursing, supervision or other types of care as required by the residents. The care provided can be a mix of health and social services.
The definition of healthcare facilities follows the International Classification for Health Accounts - Providers of health care (ICHA-HP) of the System of Health Accounts (SHA).
Hospital patients: data refer to (1) hospital discharges of in-patients and day cases by age, sex, and selected (groups of) diseases; (2) average length of stay of in-patients; (3) a selection of medical procedures applied in hospitals.
A (hospital) discharge is the formal release of a patient from a hospital after a procedure or course of treatment (episode of care). A discharge occurs anytime a patient leaves because of finalisation of treatment, signs out against medical advice, transfers to another health care institution or because of death. A discharge can refer to in-patients or day cases. Healthy newborns should be included. Transfers to another department within the same institution are excluded.
An in-patient is a patient who is formally admitted (or 'hospitalised') to an institution for treatment and/or care and stays for a minimum of one night or more than 24 hours in the hospital or other institution providing in-patient care.
Day case: day care comprises medical and paramedical services (episode of care) delivered to patients who are formally admitted for diagnosis, treatment or other types of health care with the intention of discharging the patient on the same day. An episode of care for a patient who is admitted as a day-care patient and subsequently stays overnight is classified as an overnight stay or other in-patient case.
Average length of stay (ALOS) is computed by dividing the number of hospital days (or bed-days or in-patient days) from the date of admission in an in-patient institution (date of discharge minus date of admission) by the number of discharges (including deaths) during the year.
Procedures are all types of medical interventions with the intention of achieving a result in the care of persons with health problem.
Next to absolute numbers, density rates are provided for healthcare statistics.
Density rates are used to describe the availability of resources or the frequency of services rendered, expressed in per 100 000 inhabitants. They are calculated by dividing the absolute number of health care resources available or services rendered in a given period by the respective population in the same period and then multiplied by 100 000. The availability of resources may also be expressed by an inverse figure - e.g. the number of inhabitants per physician - which is selectively used here.
National changes of statistical concepts and national definitions deviating from Regulation (EU) 2022/2294: see Annex at the bottom of the page.
3.5. Statistical unit
Administrative data sources refer to registered patients treated or procedures applied. The underlying totality of institutions, for which data collections are available, may differ. In some countries, data may not be available for a subgroup of institutions (e.g. private hospitals).
3.6. Statistical population
All health care staff.
All available beds or equipment in hospitals or in nursing and residential care facilities.
All discharges or procedures performed in all hospitals.
3.7. Reference area
Complete national territory excluding Åland (Ahvenanmaa).
3.8. Coverage - Time
Availability varies across indicators. The longest requested time series is 1960-2023 and while the shortest is 2015-2023.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Current non-expenditure data are presented according to following units:
Total number of health workers at NUTS1 level
Total number of hospital beds at NUTS1 level
Number of doctor and dentist consultations, per capita
Number of doctor teleconsultations, per capita
Percentage of immunisation against influenza, population aged 65 and over
Breast cancer screening, percentage of females aged 40-74
Cervical cancer screening, percentage of females aged 20-69
Inpatient care, number of discharges and days of ALOS
Curative care, number of discharges, number of bed-days, days of ALOS and percent of occupancy rate
Number of several different surgical procedures (shortlist)
Number of practising, professionally active and licensed; physicians, midwives, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists
Number of physicians by age and gender
Number of physicians by categories
Number of medical, dentists, pharmacists, midwives and nursing graduates
Total number of hospitals
Number of hospitals by function
Number of ICU beds
Number of beds in residential long-term care facilities
Number of several different medical technology equipment available in hospitals
Total number of doctors by domestically-trained and foreign-trained and country
Percentage of foreign-trained doctors
Number of annual inflow of foreign-trained doctors by country
Total number of nurses by domestically-trained and foreign-trained and country
Percentage of foreign-trained nurses
Number of annual inflow of foreign-trained nurses and country
The exact definition for the data presented for Finland may differ slightly from the list above. For more information, see Annex at the bottom of the page.
Calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) is responsible for delivering the data requested by Eurostat via the Joint Questionnaire on Non-Monetary Health Care Statistics. Gentlemen’s agreement between national agencies and data holders, and established work processes to provide data to THL for reporting to the Joint Questionnaire on Non-Monetary Health Care Statistics.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Joint Questionnaire on Non-Monetary Health Care Statistics, which is carried by Eurostat, OECD and WHO-Europe.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Statistical confidentiality in Finland is guaranteed by law, in Data Protection Act (1050/2018). The provision refers specifically to secrecy for the protection of individuals.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
The rules applied for treating the data set to ensure statistical confidentiality and prevent unauthorised disclosure, differ depending on sources for each indicator.
8.1. Release calendar
Most of the data collected for Joint Questionnaire is official statistics of Finland that is published according to the national publishing calendar.
Data that only is collected nationally for reporting to the Joint Questionnaire is not published elsewhere, for example, the indicators on medical technology.
Data holders responsible for official statistics in Finland publish statistics on a public webpage at a certain time, made available for all users at the same time.
Most of the data are disseminated yearly on a national level, for example statistics on higher education and statistics based on the National Patient Register. Some of the data is disseminated less frequently than yearly, for example European Health Interview Survey (EHIS). For a few variables the data are disseminated for this reporting, such as data on medical technology.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
The results from the Joint Questionnaire are not published jointly in Finland, but a majority of the indicators are published on each data holder's websites and statistical databases. See more information on 10.3 Dissemination format - online database.
Data and statistics that form the basis for the reporting in the Joint Questionnaire can be found in various data holders websites and databases reports
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
For this reporting no microdata are reported or presented, only aggregated data. However, the possibility for THL to share microdata with researchers is organized via national data permit authority Findata. Before external users are allowed access to microdata for research and statistical purposes, they need to make a data request. The request must include topics like client information, form which registry and/or database data is requested, description of data, confidentiality, ethical review and details of purpose and publishing. The responsible agency reviews the request and decides whether the researcher should have access to the data or not.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not available.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
For the production of health and welfare statistics in Finland there is a number of different legislations to follow and a handbook to take into consideration. Information about these documents is found on THL’s webpage.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
The Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS), which is the standard for quality reporting, is published in the Eurostat Database for every variable pertaining to the Joint, non-Monetary Health Care questionnaire, as from reference year 2021.
11.1. Quality assurance
THL complies with the European Statistics Code of Practice, which is the cornerstone of the common quality framework of the European statistical system. The Code of Practice contains principles covering the institutional environment, statistical processes and statistical outputs. Information on the quality of the statistics to the users of the statistics is reported for the quality components relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, availability and clarity as well as comparability and coherence according to THL’s regulations on quality in statistics.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The quality of the data meets the requirements for accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, comparability and consistency.
When evaluating statistical indicators, the quality of the obtained information is analyzed. The results of the calculation are compared with the results of the previous year. Outstanding values of indicators are identified and analyzed. In the event of significant deviations, the data provider shall be contacted and the reasons for the deviation explained.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Main national users in Finland for the national sources are policymakers, stakeholders, agencies, researchers, care givers and the public.
The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.
The Finnish wellbeing counties (provide the health services and social services)
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Within the framework of the different national sources, there are ongoing dialogues with main users where knowledge and experience are being exchanged.
12.3. Completeness
Most of the data is considered to be complete. However the following data are unavailable:
Associate professional nurses
Associate professional nurses by age group
Associate professional nursing graduates
Breast cancer screening (mammography) based on survey data
Cervical cancer screening based on survey data
Colorectal cancer screening rate based on survey data
Operation theatres in hospital
Day care places altogether
Surgical day care places
Oncological day care places
Psychiatric day care places
Geriatric day care places
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Data sources are mainly administrative data, which is considered to be accurate.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Member States are required to transmit their data to Eurostat in compliance with the transmission deadline outlined in Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008.
For most of the data sources in Finland the length of time between data availability and the event or phenomenon they describe are reasonable but differ depending on data sources.
14.2. Punctuality
Data are generally released on time, according to the release calendar. Some delays have been present concerning health care professionals due to changes in the data collection.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
For most of this reporting, population administrative data with national coverage are used and there is no problem with coverage between regions.
15.2. Comparability - over time
See Annex at the bottom of the page for potential breaks in time series for each variable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Most of the data reported is based on population administrative data with national coverage, so most of the data is consistent. However, when other national data sources are used there can be differences in coverage between regions, which is stated for each variable in the Annex at the bottom of the page.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Not applicable
Most of the data is based on administrative data, and the costs are related to acquisition and compilation, meetings with national data holders and international work group meetings for developing measurements and variables in the survey. If new data are requested that currently isn't available nationally, the time and cost for reporting will noticeable increase.
Most of the data is based on administrative data, so the response burden for compiling this data is small. However, the national work group for this reporting constantly tries to improve the national data collection process to minimise the burden of reporting for data holders.
17.1. Data revision - policy
For official statistics in Finland there is a guideline for revisions of statistics. This provides guidance on how to do planned revisions, benchmark revisions, unplanned revisions, and revisions due to conceptual and/or methodological changes.
In general, methodological improvements apply to the total time span, while punctual data corrections could occur (new data sources, updated statistical information based on surveys or administrative sources, errors discovered in the data compilation). When a new source of information is identified and used, the data for previous years are revised, if possible. Corrected data are delivered to Eurostat once a year, in connection with each year's data collection.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Information om revisions made is stated for each variable in the Annex at the bottom of this page.
18.1. Source data
Most of the statistics for this survey are based on administrative data. Data sources for the different variables are given in the Annex at the bottom of the page.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annually for most of the data.
18.3. Data collection
The Finnish data for JQNMNHCS are mainly based on official statistics. It also includes data from Finnish social security authority KELA, National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health, Cancer register, Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority and the Finnish intensive care consortium. THL is responsible for compiling the data and sending it to Eurostat.
Data are collected through the Joint Questionnaire on Non-Monetery Health Care Statistics (JQNMHCS) that countries submit to Eurostat annually. There is a mandatory deadline to send the JQNMHCS questionnaire for the reference year by the 28th of February. The JQNMHCS is coordinated in agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Countries submit data to Eurostat on the basis of Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/2294 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards healthcare facilities, healthcare human resources and healthcare utilisation.
18.4. Data validation
National agencies responsible for the reported data comply with the European Statistics Code of Practice, which contains principles covering the institutional environment, statistical processes and statistical outputs.
The JQNMHCS includes a number of features which allow national data correspondents to perform various quality checks before submitting the data. Checks like consistency of the data between tables and consistency of the data within tables are embedded in each excel file.
Data validation is also performed when the national data correspondents send the files to Eurostat via the EDAMIS system. Two different validations of each file are made, one structural validation and one content validation. The structure validations consist of checks for use of correct excel questionnaire, allowed flags and allowed characters/signs. Content validation consists of checks for mandatory cells filled, allowed combination of flags and values and countries derogations special rules.
18.5. Data compilation
Most of the data for this survey is based on administrative data, and no imputation or design weights are used.
Statistics on healthcare non-expenditure provide information on healthcare human resources, healthcare facilities, and healthcare utilisation.
The people active in the healthcare sector (doctors, dentists, nurses, etc.) and their status (graduates, practising, migration of doctors and nurses, etc.);
The available healthcare technical resources and facilities (hospital beds, beds in residential care facilities, medical technology, etc.);
The health activities or patient contacts undertaken (hospital discharges, surgical procedures, ambulatory care data, etc.).
Annual national and regional data are provided in absolute numbers or as a rate of a relevant population.
Data are based mainly on administrative records (see section 18.1 ‘Source data’ for more information).
26 February 2025
Healthcare resources' statistics describe the process of providing healthcare services in countries by referring to the participating institutions. Institution-related data are mostly related to and derived from available resources and so focus primarily on a capacity dimension.
Health care activities' statistics describe the process of providing health care services in countries by referring to the services provided. Service-related data aim at quantifying directly elements of the healthcare delivery process.
The respective data are, due to their heterogeneity, collected, stored and disseminated via different tables. They are based on different, mainly administrative sources. This may lead to differences in the coverage of time series and/or in the geographical coverage; data validity, reliability and comparability may vary. Furthermore, it may not always be possible to have the healthcare system, implicitly underpinning the data collection, being consistently defined across data sources.
Non-expenditure healthcare resources data are grouped as follows:
Healthcare staff: data refer to human resources available for providing health care services in the country, irrespective of the sector of employment (i.e. whether they are independent, employed by a hospital or any other health care provider). 'Manpower' categories focus on health care professionals (physicians, dentists, nursing and caring professionals, pharmacists, physiotherapists); socio-demographic elements (age, sex) are partly included.
Three different concepts are used to present the number of health care professionals:
'practising', i.e. health care professionals providing services directly to patients;
'professionally active', i.e. 'practising' health care professionals plus health care professionals for whom their medical education is a prerequisite for the execution of the job;
'licensed to practice', i.e. health care professionals who are registered and entitled to practice as health care professionals.
There is also a table on health workforce migration, which presents data on the number and annual inflow of foreign trained doctors and nurses.
Healthcare facilities: data refer to available beds in hospitals (HP.1) and subcategories (such as curative care beds, rehabilitative care beds, etc.) and available beds in nursing and residential care facilities (HP.2) as well as medical technology and technical resources in hospitals (HP.1).
Total hospital beds (HP.1) are all hospital beds which are regularly maintained and staffed and immediately available for the care of admitted patients. Total hospital beds are broken down as follows:
Curative care (acute care) beds;
Rehabilitative care beds;
Long-term care beds (excluding psychiatric care beds);
Other hospital beds.
Beds in nursing and residential care facilities (HP.2) are available beds for people requiring ongoing health and nursing care due to chronic impairments and a reduced degree of independence in activities of daily living (ADL) in establishments primarily engaged in providing residential care combined with either nursing, supervision or other types of care as required by the residents. The care provided can be a mix of health and social services.
The definition of healthcare facilities follows the International Classification for Health Accounts - Providers of health care (ICHA-HP) of the System of Health Accounts (SHA).
Hospital patients: data refer to (1) hospital discharges of in-patients and day cases by age, sex, and selected (groups of) diseases; (2) average length of stay of in-patients; (3) a selection of medical procedures applied in hospitals.
A (hospital) discharge is the formal release of a patient from a hospital after a procedure or course of treatment (episode of care). A discharge occurs anytime a patient leaves because of finalisation of treatment, signs out against medical advice, transfers to another health care institution or because of death. A discharge can refer to in-patients or day cases. Healthy newborns should be included. Transfers to another department within the same institution are excluded.
An in-patient is a patient who is formally admitted (or 'hospitalised') to an institution for treatment and/or care and stays for a minimum of one night or more than 24 hours in the hospital or other institution providing in-patient care.
Day case: day care comprises medical and paramedical services (episode of care) delivered to patients who are formally admitted for diagnosis, treatment or other types of health care with the intention of discharging the patient on the same day. An episode of care for a patient who is admitted as a day-care patient and subsequently stays overnight is classified as an overnight stay or other in-patient case.
Average length of stay (ALOS) is computed by dividing the number of hospital days (or bed-days or in-patient days) from the date of admission in an in-patient institution (date of discharge minus date of admission) by the number of discharges (including deaths) during the year.
Procedures are all types of medical interventions with the intention of achieving a result in the care of persons with health problem.
Next to absolute numbers, density rates are provided for healthcare statistics.
Density rates are used to describe the availability of resources or the frequency of services rendered, expressed in per 100 000 inhabitants. They are calculated by dividing the absolute number of health care resources available or services rendered in a given period by the respective population in the same period and then multiplied by 100 000. The availability of resources may also be expressed by an inverse figure - e.g. the number of inhabitants per physician - which is selectively used here.
National changes of statistical concepts and national definitions deviating from Regulation (EU) 2022/2294: see Annex at the bottom of the page.
Administrative data sources refer to registered patients treated or procedures applied. The underlying totality of institutions, for which data collections are available, may differ. In some countries, data may not be available for a subgroup of institutions (e.g. private hospitals).
All health care staff.
All available beds or equipment in hospitals or in nursing and residential care facilities.
All discharges or procedures performed in all hospitals.
Complete national territory excluding Åland (Ahvenanmaa).
Calendar year.
Data sources are mainly administrative data, which is considered to be accurate.
Current non-expenditure data are presented according to following units:
Total number of health workers at NUTS1 level
Total number of hospital beds at NUTS1 level
Number of doctor and dentist consultations, per capita
Number of doctor teleconsultations, per capita
Percentage of immunisation against influenza, population aged 65 and over
Breast cancer screening, percentage of females aged 40-74
Cervical cancer screening, percentage of females aged 20-69
Inpatient care, number of discharges and days of ALOS
Curative care, number of discharges, number of bed-days, days of ALOS and percent of occupancy rate
Number of several different surgical procedures (shortlist)
Number of practising, professionally active and licensed; physicians, midwives, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists
Number of physicians by age and gender
Number of physicians by categories
Number of medical, dentists, pharmacists, midwives and nursing graduates
Total number of hospitals
Number of hospitals by function
Number of ICU beds
Number of beds in residential long-term care facilities
Number of several different medical technology equipment available in hospitals
Total number of doctors by domestically-trained and foreign-trained and country
Percentage of foreign-trained doctors
Number of annual inflow of foreign-trained doctors by country
Total number of nurses by domestically-trained and foreign-trained and country
Percentage of foreign-trained nurses
Number of annual inflow of foreign-trained nurses and country
The exact definition for the data presented for Finland may differ slightly from the list above. For more information, see Annex at the bottom of the page.
Most of the data for this survey is based on administrative data, and no imputation or design weights are used.
Most of the statistics for this survey are based on administrative data. Data sources for the different variables are given in the Annex at the bottom of the page.
Most of the data are disseminated yearly on a national level, for example statistics on higher education and statistics based on the National Patient Register. Some of the data is disseminated less frequently than yearly, for example European Health Interview Survey (EHIS). For a few variables the data are disseminated for this reporting, such as data on medical technology.
Member States are required to transmit their data to Eurostat in compliance with the transmission deadline outlined in Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008.
For most of the data sources in Finland the length of time between data availability and the event or phenomenon they describe are reasonable but differ depending on data sources.
For most of this reporting, population administrative data with national coverage are used and there is no problem with coverage between regions.
See Annex at the bottom of the page for potential breaks in time series for each variable.
