In 2019, asthma affected almost 6% of the EU population, a small increase compared with 2014 (+0.3 percentage points).
Among EU countries, Finland stood on the top of the list, with 9% of the people reporting to have asthma, followed by Germany and France (both 8%). In contrast, only 2% of people in both Romania and Bulgaria reported having this disease.
Source dataset: hlth_ehis_cd1e
Compared with 2014, Germany (+1.9 percentage points (pp)), Croatia (+1.8 pp), and Belgium (+1.5 pp) saw the number of people reporting to have asthma go up the most in 2019. On the other hand, Ireland (-1.7 pp), Greece (-1.1 pp) and France (-1.0 pp) registered the biggest decrease in people reporting this disease.
As in 2014, more women than men reported having asthma (6% vs. 5%) in 2019. The highest share of reported asthma among both sexes and all age intervals was found in women 65 and above (7%).
For more information:
- Statistics Explained article on respiratory diseases
- Eurostat dedicated section on health statistics
- Eurostat database on health statistics
- The indicator presented in this article refers to the proportion of the population reporting asthma in the past 12 months.
- The data are from the third wave of the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), conducted in 2019 covering people aged 15 and over. You can read more about the EHIS in the methodological Statistics Explained article.
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