Spending on health care up by 6.1 percent in 2025

• The Netherlands spent 120.2 billion euros on health care in 2025. 
• Health care spending as a percentage of GDP hardly increased, however. 
• Spending on long-term care is rising the fastest.

The Netherlands spent 120.2 billion euros on health care in 2025. That was 6.9 billion euros (or 6.1%) more than was spent in 2024. Over the past four years, since the COVID-19 pandemic, spending on health care has grown at roughly the same rate as the economy as a whole. In 2025, health care spending accounted for 10.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to 10.1 percent in 2022. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of newly released provisional figures.

CBS publishes two figures on health care spending: the first is based on the international definition of health care spending, as applied by Eurostat/OECD/WHO; and the second includes spending on social care in addition to spending on health care. This news release concerns the first of these figures, based on the international definition. The second figure will be published in the autumn when more source data has become available.

The international definition of health care spending concerns spending on medical and nursing care. As such, spending on long-term care is only partially covered by this definition.

With the exception of the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care spending as a share of GDP has remained fairly stable since 2009. This indicator reflects both changes in health care spending and changes in the size of the overall economy. Factors such as policy, demographic changes (such as the ageing population), new treatments, and changes in prices all affect health care spending; GDP is determined by economic growth and changes in prices.

Spending on long-term care rose more quickly than spending on regular health care

Spending on long-term care (provided under the Long-Term Care Act, or WLZ) increased by 7.6 percent in 2025. This type of care covers elderly care and care for people with disabilities or mental health conditions who require intensive, ongoing care. Spending on regular health care (under the Health Insurance Act or ZVW) rose by 5.4 percent.

Out-of-pocket payments (paid by the users of health care themselves) rose by 6.7 percent. Within this, direct out-of-pocket payments were up by 7.7 percent, and copayments for long-term care were up by 11.0 percent. The amount spent on mandatory health insurance copayments increased by 2.2 percent.

The share of out-of-pocket payments in total health care spending was unchanged at 11.9 percent. In 2024, this share was lower in the Netherlands than in most other EU countries. Figures on this for 2025 are not yet available for other countries.

High spending on long-term care

Health care spending is made up of various components, including medical care, long-term care and preventive care. In 2025, the largest share of spending went to medical care (46.1 percent), followed by long-term health care (29.6 percent) and medicines and medical devices (9.7 percent).

Spending on long-term health care rose the fastest in 2025, up by 7.3 percent. One reason for this was that, in addition to general annual price indexation, prices for disability care and short-term residential care were raised by the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa).

Spending on rehabilitative care rose by 4.6 percent, making it the slowest-growing category. This includes spending on geriatric care and other rehabilitative care, physical therapy, occupational therapy and exercise therapy. The limited growth in this category was primarily due to slower growth in geriatric rehabilitative care.

How does spending on health care in the Netherlands compare with the rest of the world?

In 2024, health care spending accounted for 10.1 percent of gross domestic product in the Netherlands. As such, the Netherlands ranked 8th among the 27 member states of the EU on this indicator. Germany spent the highest share of its GDP on health care at 12.30 percent, while Romania spent the lowest share at 5.8 percent. No figures are available yet for 2025.