Eurostat Data: Treatable Mortality 172 in Hungary, 83 in Germany

Some deaths should not happen in a country with working health care. A bacterial infection, a treatable cancer caught late, an appendix that bursts. Statisticians call these treatable deaths, and Europe counts them country by country.

The gap is large. In 2023, Luxembourg recorded 51.7 treatable deaths per 100,000 people under 75. Romania recorded 199.7, almost four times as many.¹ The countries in between include several that sell surgery to foreigners: Hungary, Türkiye, Poland and Czechia all sit above the EU average.

Below is what the figures show and why two official sources disagree. Then comes what a patient choosing a destination can and cannot read from them.

Treatable deaths, country by country

Eurostat publishes the rate for every EU member state plus several neighbours, including Türkiye and Georgia. All use the same list of causes and the same age adjustment, so the countries can be compared directly.²

The EU average for treatable deaths was 86.8 per 100,000 in 2023.¹ Luxembourg had the lowest rate in the EU and Romania the highest.¹ Outside the EU, Switzerland recorded 42.9.²

Look at the countries patients travel from and to. Germany recorded 83.3, Austria 68.5 and the Netherlands 60.0.² The destinations look different. Czechia recorded 107.2 and Poland 132.7. Türkiye recorded 147.4, Hungary 172.3 and Georgia 176.2.²

England is not in the Eurostat table for 2023. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a rate of 227.6 avoidable deaths per 100,000 in England in 2024, of which 35.9% were treatable.³ That works out at roughly 82 treatable deaths per 100,000, close to Germany. The ONS uses the same European age standard as Eurostat, though the year differs by one.³

Preventable is a different measure

Eurostat splits avoidable deaths into two groups. Treatable deaths are those that timely, effective health care should prevent. Preventable deaths are those that public health and prevention should stop, such as many lung cancers and alcohol-related deaths.¹

Preventable deaths are more common. The EU recorded 655,000 preventable deaths in 2023, a rate of 150.9 per 100,000. Treatable deaths numbered 376,000.¹ Cyprus had the lowest preventable rate, at 89.7, and Latvia the highest, at 309.0.¹

The two measures do not always move together. Cyprus has the EU's lowest preventable rate but sits mid-table on treatable deaths, at 62.9.² Hungary is high on both: 300.4 preventable and 172.3 treatable.²

Heart disease caused the most avoidable deaths in the EU, about 146,000. Lung cancer came next, at about 136,000.¹ Both straddle the line between prevention and treatment.

Why two official sources give different numbers

The OECD publishes the same indicator in its Health at a Glance report. Its figures are lower. Luxembourg's government, summarising the 2025 edition, quotes 39 treatable deaths per 100,000 and 84 preventable.⁴ Eurostat's figure for Luxembourg is 51.7 treatable.¹

Both organisations work from the same list of causes. The most likely reason for the gap is age adjustment. The ONS states that it standardises to the 2013 European Standard Population, as Eurostat does.³ The OECD adjusts its figures to a different reference population.

Neither figure is wrong. They answer the same question with a different reference population, so they must not be mixed. A table that puts an OECD figure next to a Eurostat figure compares nothing.

The OECD figures are the only source for countries outside Europe. Mexico recorded 175 treatable deaths per 100,000, against an OECD average of 77.⁵ Costa Rica recorded 94.⁶ Those can be compared with each other and with the OECD average, but not with the chart above.

What the numbers leave out

The measure was never meant as a hospital rating. Ellen Nolte and Martin McKee reviewed the measure for the Nuffield Trust in 2004. They wrote that avoidable mortality "was never intended to be more than an indicator of potential weaknesses in health care that can then be investigated in more depth."⁷

Other researchers go further. A 2012 commentary in the Annals of Medicine and Surgery noted that several studies found "weak or no association" between health systems and amenable mortality. It also noted that income and lifestyle had "a larger effect" than care quality.⁸

That matters for anyone reading the chart as a guide to clinics. A country's rate covers everyone: rural hospitals, waiting lists, people who never see a doctor in time. A private clinic in Budapest or Istanbul serving paying foreigners is a small and unusual part of that system.

The figures also lag. Eurostat's most recent full year is 2023.¹ The Euronews summary of the previous edition, using 2022 data, put the EU's combined avoidable rate at 258 per 100,000.⁹ A year later Eurostat put it at 237.7.¹ A single year's change can reflect a bad winter as much as better care.

The United States is moving the other way

The trend matters as much as the level. A study led by Irene Papanicolas of Brown University, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in March 2025, compared 2009 and 2021.¹⁰

Avoidable deaths in the US rose by 32.5 per 100,000 over that period. In EU countries they fell by 25.2, and across OECD countries by 22.8.¹⁰ The study found rates rising in every US state.¹⁰

So a country's direction can change the picture. A high but falling rate tells a different story from a low but rising one.

How to use these numbers

Use a country's treatable death rate as a question, not an answer. A high rate suggests that the public system struggles to treat some conditions in time. It says nothing direct about the clinic quoting you a price.

Then ask the questions the statistic cannot answer. What is this clinic's complication rate for your procedure? Which hospital would take you if something went wrong, and does it hold an accreditation you can check? Who treats a complication once you are home?

Finally, keep the sources apart. Compare Eurostat with Eurostat and OECD with OECD. Mixing them produces gaps that come from arithmetic, not from health care.