Medical Technology – key facts and figures

Life expectancy in EU countries is improving steadily. According to the Eurostat data, on average, life expectancy at birth for the three-year period 2006-08 stood at 76.4 years ⁵ for men and 82.2 ¹ years for women in EU-27, coming up to 76.7 ² years for men and 82.2 ² years for women in 2009 in OECD countries, an increase of more than 11 years ² since 1960. At the same time, healthcare expenditure has also risen: OECD countries spent, on average, 9.6% ² of their GDP on health, up from 4.0% ² in 1960, albeit with variations between individual countries.

Yet despite the increasing proportion of GDP allocated to healthcare, medical technology uses only 4.2% of total healthcare expenditure and its piece of the pie has not increased significantly over the last years ³.

Medical technology is a key driver for Europe’s economic well-being, providing quality employment, and a substantial contribution to Europe’s balance of trade. In 2009

• The industry employed nearly 500.000 people (World Bank, Espicom, EDMA and Eucomed calculations)
• It generated annual sales of €95 billion (World Bank, Espicom, EDMA and Eucomed calculations)
• Of that €95 billion, 8% is ploughed back into research and development each year equivalent to around €7.6 billion (Espicom, Eucomed calculations)
• There were almost 22,500 medical technology companies in Europe; of these nearly 18,000 – around 80% – were small to medium-sized or even micro -enterprises (World Bank, Espicom, EDMA and Eucomed calculations)

Useful downloads

• Spending rates on therapeutic Appliances (EU, US, Japan, Canada, Australia & Korea)
• Statistics for Cardiac Rhythm Management products, 2005-2010

¹ Eurostat
² OECD "Health at a Glance: Europe 2011"
³ World Bank, Espicom and Eucomed calculations, data referred to the year 2009