Almost all European children receive the health care they need, new data shows — but in some countries, they are more likely to skip care than in others.
Last year, 3.2 per cent of children in the European Union missed medical care, whether routine examinations or more serious treatments, according to thelatest data from Eurostat.
That share rose to 4.2 per cent among children at risk of poverty, meaning their families’ disposable income was below 60 per cent of the median level. The rate was 3 per cent among kids from wealthier families.
The key reasons why European adults skip health care are long waiting times, high costs, and transportation or distance.
The new findings come amid growing concern among health experts about young children missing routine vaccinations, which puts them at higher risk of preventable illnesses such as measles.
The data shows there were big differences in children’s health care access across European countries — and within them — in 2024.
Children in Finland were more likely to miss medical care than any of the other 27 countries included in the analysis, at 9.4 per cent.
It was followed by France (5.7 per cent), Ireland (4.8 per cent), and Sweden (4.2 per cent).
On the other end of the spectrum were Malta and Croatia (0.1 per cent each), as well as Cyprus (0.6 per cent), Greece (0.8 per cent), and Belgium (1.1 per cent).
Meanwhile, the gap between children from wealthier and lower-income families was highest in Norway (8.2 percentage points), Bulgaria (6.1 percentage points), Estonia (5.2 percentage points), Denmark (4.9 percentage points), and Cyprus (4.1 percentage points).
In a handful of countries, including Finland, Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Romania, children from lower-income families were actually more likely to receive needed medical care than their wealthier peers.
Notably, the share of people reporting “unmet needs” is subjective. Other researchers have noted that it depends largely on people’s expectations of their health systems, which can help explain disparities between and even within countries.