Key Figures on European living conditions 2025 edition, published in September, provides a comprehensive overview of how Europeans live today. This publication covers topics from income distribution and inequality to households, work intensity and childcare and health, disability and discrimination. Today, we focus on health, highlighting children’s unmet needs for medical care. 

In 2024, 3.2% of children in the EU had unmet needs for medical care. This share was 3.0% for children living in households with a disposable income above the national at-risk-of-poverty threshold (60% of the median equivalised income) and 4.2% for those living in households with their disposable income below the threshold, a difference of 1.2 percentage points. 

In most EU countries, the share of children with unmet needs for medical care was higher in households with their disposable income below the threshold, with the largest difference (6.1 percentage points) observed in Bulgaria. However, in 10 EU countries this share was lower for children living in households below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, with the largest difference in this direction observed in Finland.

Children with unmet needs for medical examination or treatment, 2024 (% of children younger than 16). bar and markers chart. Link to full dataset below.

Source dataset: ilc_hch14

The Key Figures on European living conditions publication offers essential data on the EU and allows you to compare developments across EU countries and EFTA countries. For a more detailed view of the EU’s performance in other fields, explore other Key figures publications.

This news article marks World Health Summit 2025, being held in Berlin under the theme “Taking Responsibility for Health in a Fragmenting World”. 
Â