Belgian Cities Lead the Way in Top 10 Ranking for Best Healthcare in the EU

Healthcare service providers in Belgium must be doing something right as three Belgian cities are ranked by people among the top ten cities in Europe for healthcare services in the city, the European Commission Report on the Quality of Life in European Cities, 2023, has revealed.

Antwerp, Liege and Brussels are the three Belgian cities that were highly acclaimed for their healthcare services, with 91 per cent of survey respondents claiming they are satisfied with such services provided in Antwerp, which is ranked third best among the top European cities.

Liege, for which 89 per cent of respondents appreciated its healthcare services, ranking the city fifth overall, while the Belgian capital of Brussels ranked tenth, with 87 per cent of respondents being satisfied with the services.

However, Zürich in Switzerland has ranked the highest for its healthcare services in the city, with 93 per cent of respondents claiming so. Groningen, in the Netherlands, ranks second with a score of 92 per cent, while Antwerp is third (91 per cent).

The second Swiss city on the list is Geneva, which scored 91 percentage points on the level of satisfaction among residents regarding the healthcare services in the city, ranked fourth, followed by Liege and Munich (Germany) with 89 percentage points. Luxembourg ranks seventh with 88 percentage points, the same as Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Oslo (Norway), who hold the eighth and ninth rankings, respectively. Brussels, as mentioned earlier, ranks tenth.

In the EU countries in 2022, almost one-quarter of the population (20 per cent) was aged 65 or above. This indicates the necessity for good healthcare services, which was especially noticed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across all cities, seven out of ten residents are satisfied with local healthcare services, although there are large differences between cities.

Member States have higher satisfaction levels (84 per cent), indicating that nine in ten residents appreciate the healthcare services in their city, compared to the eastern Member States, where five in ten residents are satisfied (53 per cent).

For the 76 cities for which a comparison with 2019 data is possible, the largest increase can be observed in Warsaw (PL, 47 per cent, + six percentage points); however, the level of satisfaction is below the survey average (67 per cent). Conversely, the largest decreases are observed in Ljubljana (SI, 54 per cent, – 16 pp) and Podgorica (ME, 36 per cent, – 12 pp), consistent with a general decline of – seven percentage points in Western Balkan countries.

The survey also reveals that the Czech cities of Prague (82 per cent) and Ostrava (80 per cent) performed better than the average of cities in eastern Member States. Similarly, the Italian cities of Bologna (80  per cent) and Verona (77 per cent) have satisfaction rates well above the average of cities in the southern Member States (61 per cent).

In addition, people living in the capital cities were noticed to be less satisfied with their healthcare services (62 per cent) compared to non-capital cities (71 per cent).