Health and diseases

How many are suffering from various diseases? And how many go through surgery?

Note: Below, we provide links to Statistics Denmark and others who make statistics on the subject. In some instances, the sources referred to below have content in Danish only or limited content in English.

Where can I get a general overview of the population health?

The Danish Health Authority and the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) are behind the National Health Profile, which includes e.g. data on health behaviour, weight, self-assessed health and morbidity:

• The most recent publication on the national health profile is "Danskernes sundhed - Den nationale sundhedsprofil 2021" (in Danish)
• Results from the surveys 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2021 are available in the database "Danskernes Sundhed” (in Danish)
• Figures from 1987, 1994, 2000 and 2005 are available in the health and morbidity report "Sundhed og sygelighed i Danmark 2010“ (in Danish)

The National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has publications on health-related population surveys as well as special analyses based on these surveys.

How often and how are we in contact with the health authorities?

• On Statistics Denmark’s subject page on health and in StatBank Denmark, you can find tables on visits to physicians, admissions to hospital, bed days etc.

How many are suffering from various diseases?

At the request of the Danish Health Authority, the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has carried out a major study of the burden of disease in Denmark. In February 2023, updated versions of the reports on diseases and risk factors were published.

• "Sygdomsbyrden i Danmark - Sygdomme"
  This report (in Danish) compares a number of disease groups - different types of cancer, diabetes, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, dementia, ischemic heart disease, apoplexy, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), pain in the neck and lower back, osteoarthritis and alcohol-related morbidity based on various parameters such as prevalence, mortality, treatment, sickness absence, premature retirement, health economics and loss of production
• "Sygdomsbyrden i Danmark - Risikofaktorer"
  This report (in Danish) deals with health risk factors, and looks into selected consequences of smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity, sleep disorders, loneliness, unhealthy diet, severe obesity and air pollution
• "Sygdomsbyrden i Danmark: Ulykker, selvskade og selvmord"
  This report (in Danish) on accidents, self-harm and suicides was published in 2017

In September 2023, 'Local Government Denmark' (KL) published an analysis (in Danish) of the prevalence of seven chronic diseases: asthma, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, COPD, rheumatoid arthritis and dementia. The analysis also looks at 'multi-disease' - the occurrence of at least two of the mentioned chronic diseases at the same time:

• Kronisk sygdom i befolkningen (Chronic disease in the population)

Other data sources on various diseases:

• Cancer
  Detailed statistics on cases of cancer are available via Cancerregisteret and the database of the Danish Health Data Authority
• Asthma, dementia, diabetes, COPD, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and schizophrenia
  The Danish Health Data Agency is also behind a register on Udvalgte kroniske sygdomme og svære psykiske lidelser (in Danish)
• Chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases
  These are monitored by Statens Serum Institut (SSI). This monitoring can also be followed in figures, graphs and maps at SSI
• Coronavirus / COVID-19
  Statens Serum Institut (SSI) publish all their information and data about COVID-19 on the website: covid19.ssi.dk
  The Danish Health Authority also publishes statistics about corona / COVID-19 (in Danish)

How many go through surgery?

• The Danish Health Authority publish statistics on selected plastic surgery procedures (in Danish) and surgery procedures for obesity (in Danish)
• Other operations can be extracted from the National Patient Register using an advanced extraction tool, which is particularly targeted at users from the health sector or with a good understanding of data (in Danish)

How many donate organs and how many transplants are performed?

• At organdonor.dk, you will find information on organ donation and organ transplantation (in Danish) - including number of organ donors and waiting lists. 
• The Danish centre for organ donation “Dansk Center for Organdonation” has tables on the number of donations (in Danish).
• ScandiaTransplant has tables on performed transplantations and waiting list figures for the Nordic countries.

How extensive is the consumption of medicines? 

• Statistics Denmark has statistics on the sale of prescription drugs, which are coupled with information on the users' gender, age, geography, education and origin. See News-articles (in Danish) and tables in the StatBank Denmark
• The Danish Health Data Authority is responsible for the register of medicines statistics Lægemiddelstatistikregisteret (in Danish), which holds information on all sales of medicines in Denmark. Among other things, the register is used for analyses of the consumption of e.g. antibiotics, diabetes medicine and sleeping medicine.
• In the database Medstat.dk, you can create tables of the annual sales of medicines. Here you can also search using groups of medicines, ATC codes or product names, but NOT popular designations such as happy pills.
• Danmarks Apotekerforening is a Danish association of pharmacists, which publishes a yearbook “Lægemidler i Danmark” (in Danish) on medicines in Denmark and various analyses regarding the use of medicine.

See also

For mental disorders, see FAQ on Stress and mental health disorders

For the mental health of children and young people, see FAQ on Stress and mental health disorders

[This page was last reviewed in April 2023]