As people get older, it becomes more likely that they will need day-to-day help with activities such as washing and dressing, or help with household activities such as cleaning and cooking. This type of support (along with some types of medical care) is what is called long-term care. Demand for long-term care is expected to rise, thanks in part to ageing populations and increasing prevalence of long-term conditions such as dementia. The OECD has been at the forefront of analysis on long-term care since 2005, reviewing and providing best practices on several key areas:

How can countries ensure that the elderly live a long and healthy life and that care needs are delayed? How can the quality of care be improved in long-term care and for people with dementia in particular? How is long-term care provided across countries and who are the workers? How can countries ensure a more efficient distribution of the costs of long-term care across public and private means? How can countries provide appropriate palliative care at the end of life?

SOCIAL PROTECTION

WORKFORCE

DEMENTIA

END-OF-LIFE CARE‌

Data on long-term care

Access our latest data from OECD Health Statistics in the dataset Long-term care resources and utilisation:

• Long-term care workers (formal sector)
• Beds in nursing and residential care facilities
• Long-term care recipients
  

A significant share of the spending on LTC services is covered by government or compulsory insurance schemes. Total government/compulsory spending on LTC (including both the health and social care components) accounted for 1.7% of GDP on average across OECD countries in 2017. At 3.7% of GDP, the highest spender was the Netherlands, followed by Norway (3.3%) and Sweden (3.2%). In these countries, public expenditure on LTC was around double the OECD average. At the other end of the scale, Hungary, Estonia, Poland, and Latvia all allocated less than 0.5% of their GDP to the delivery of LTC services.

Long-term care expenditure (health and social components) by government and compulsory insurance schemes, as a share of GDP, 2017 (or nearest year) 

Note: The OECD average only includes 17 countries that report health and social LTC. Access the data behind the graph.
Source: OECD Health Statistics 2020.
 

Publications

• Workforce and safety in long-term care during the COVID-19 pandemic, Policy Brief (June 2020)
• Who Cares? Attracting and Retaining Care Workers for the Elderly (June 2020)
• Assessing the Comparability of Long-Term Care Spending Estimates under the Joint Health Accounts Questionnaire, Technical Paper (May 2020)
• The effectiveness of social protection for long-term care in old age, OECD Health Working Paper No. 117 (April 2020)
• The latest Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators contains a chapter on Ageing and Long-term Care (Chapter 11) (November 2019)
• Promoting Healthy Ageing - Background report for 2019 G20 Japanese Presidency and Booklet (October 2019)
• Care Needed: Improving the Lives of People with Dementia (2018)
• Preventing Ageing Unequally (2017)
• Measuring social protection for long-term care, OECD Health Working Paper No. 93 (2017)
• Addressing Dementia: the OECD Response (2015)
• A Good Life in Old Age? Monitoring and Improving Quality in Long-Term Care (2013)
• Help Wanted? Providing and Paying for Long-Term Care (2011)
  
  

Further reading

• Health Spending Projections to 2030 - New results based on a revised OECD methodology (2019)
• Health Reform: Meeting the Challenge of Ageing and Multiple Morbidities (2011)
• Long-term Care for Older People (2005)
• Long-term Care for Older People: OECD study (2001-2004)
• G7 Health Ministerial meetings
  
  

Contact us

• Ms. Ana Llena-Nozal: ana.llena-nozal@oecd.org

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