The use of medicine differs between Member States. In the EU, almost half of the population (49 %) used prescribed medicines in 2014. Among the Member States, this proportion ranged from 23 % in Romania, 36 % in Cyprus, 38 % in Italy and 39 % in Bulgaria, to 55 % in the Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Finland, 56 % in Portugal and 60 % in Belgium.
Without exception, women were more likely than men to have used prescribed medicines, with this gender difference being narrowest in Cyprus and broadest in Latvia. In part, the difference between men and women can be attributed to the use of contraceptive pills and hormones for different purposes than contraception. It can also be explained by the fact that the elderly take more medicine and that there are more elderly women than men in the total population.
Further information is provided in the Statistics Explained article Medicine use statistics.
