22 January, 2015

By VIVA Team

Healthcare in Spain is supremely efficient, thorough and available to all

The European Commission’s Eurostat office recently published updated statistics for all of the nations in the EU, revealing some interesting contrasts between the countries of Europe.

For Spain, the data threw up few surprises, merely confirming to many the image that Spain often portrays – as a country that is safe to live in, has a liberal outlook and excellent universal healthcare, but suffers from inequality and higher-than-average unemployment.

Below, VIVA has pulled out the most interesting statistics that reveal the most about life in Spain…

Health and safety: The murder rate in Spain in 2013 was just 0.6 per 100,000 people, which is one of the lowest in Europe. In 2013 the country saw just 302 murders, falling from 364 in 2012. General crime is also low, at 46.1 per 100,000 people.

The Spanish healthcare system remains one of the best in the world, as evidenced by Spain’s high cancer survival rates, especially in prostate cancer, where 87.1 per cent of Spaniards can be expected to survive that particularly nasty disease. Breast cancer survival rates are also among the highest in the world, at 83.7 per cent.

Welcoming to outsiders: British expats in Spain are the third-biggest group of nationals, after Moroccans and Romanians. The British Embassy in Madrid estimates that around 800,000 Brits live in Spain, and very few suffer any form of discrimination. Indeed, Spain has always been a welcoming land for outsiders, and remains so even in the face of post-recession recovery: the Eurostat data suggests that Spain has 4.9 million foreign residents officially registered – that’s one in ten of every person in the country.

Unequal, but liberal: Data from Spain’s national statistics institute finds that 64.5 per cent of men aged between 20-64 are in employment, compared to 54.1 per cent of women. This is one of the highest rates of inequality in Europe, despite Spain boasting excellent female representation in its parliament: 39.7 per cent of Spanish MPs are women.

Spain performs well in liberal arenas, with more gay marriages per year than any other European country. Politically, more than half of Spaniards see themselves as left-leaning, and most support policies dedicated to ensuring the continuation of the country’s welfare safety net, which includes free healthcare and generous unemployment benefit.