Ranked: countries with the best healthcare in the world 2023

Japan has the best healthcare in the world according to the latest report from the Legatum Institute. We take a look at who else performed well

If you’re one of the millions of people working remotely or following a career as a digital nomad, then access to quality healthcare will undoubtedly be one of the most important factors in your choice of destination.

According to the Legatum Institute, a UK-based think tank and charity focused on lifting people out of poverty, Japan has the best healthcare in the world, followed by Singapore, South Korea, Norway and Taiwan.

Now in its 15th year, the institute’s Prosperity Index ranks countries in regard to prosperity and development based on 12 sub-indexes, or ‘pillars’, one of which is health.

Evaluating healthcare

The Prosperity Index sources data from a number of organisations including UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS to assess the quality of healthcare systems in 167 countries and territories.

It measures the extent to which people are healthy and can access the necessary services to maintain good health including treatment, care systems, preventative measures, provisions for mental health illness, risk factors and mortality rates.

best healthcare in the world

Since last year, Japan has taken top spot, pushing Singapore into second place. Taiwan has lept 13 places to fifth position, meaning four of the top five countries are in Asia.

Meanwhile, the USA has slipped nine places from 59th to 68th despite spending more on healthcare than other high-income nations. The UK has fallen six places from 25th to 31st following years of underfunding.

The following 10 countries have been assessed as providing the best healthcare for their population.

Japan
Singapore
South Korea
Norway
Taiwan
Israel
China
Iceland
Netherlands
Sweden

“For a nation to truly prosper, its citizens must have good health. Those who enjoy good physical and mental health report high levels of wellbeing. An effective health infrastructure is critical for sustaining per capita income. Poor health keeps people from fulfilling their potential.”
– Baroness Philippa Stroud, CEO of the Legatum Institute

The Legatum Institute draws on years of data to evaluate which countries have improved the most. A number of factors contribute to improving healthcare in a country.

These factors include:

Behavioural Risk Factors
Preventative Interventions
Care Systems
Mental Health
Physical Health
Longevity

One obvious factor is longevity (life expectancy). The life expectancy of people in Zimbabwe has increased by more than 15 years from 2009 to 2019, more than in any other country.

Legatum Institute Ethiopia has the most improved healthcare

It was noteworthy that the report found that although the region continues to lag behind all others, eight out of the 10 of the most improved nations since 2011 were all African.

The countries with the weakest healthcare were as follows:

Central African Republic
South Sudan
Chad
Lesotho
Somalia
Sierra Leone
DR Congo
Eswatini
Liberia
Nigeria

Healthcare during a pandemic

The planet has seen near-universal progress in health over the past decade, with all but 12 countries seeing an improvement during that time.

In particular, expansions in immunisation programmes have resulted in a greater proportion of the global population being inoculated against life-threatening diseases.

This, combined with antenatal care now covering over 90% of women across the globe, has led to the improvement observed in preventative care.

“There is never a good time for a global health crisis, but if there has to be one, the progress that has been made over the last decade provides emerging nations with a better context in which to tackle it.”
– Baroness Philippa Stroud, CEO of the Legatum Institute

However, these improvements came under threat as the health of many nations were put under considerable strain due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Initially, a particular concern was how nations with poorer healthcare systems would cope with the virus. However, we now know that the virus disproportionately affects the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.

This demographic is generally more commonly found in more developed countries. For example, the median age in Italy is 47.3, whereas the median age across Africa is around 20. Similarly, the obesity rate in the USA stands at over 40%, compared to around 15% in Africa.

As such, it is generally the health systems of more developed nations that have been in greater danger of being overwhelmed.

Types of healthcare

Countries around the globe take vastly different approaches to providing healthcare to their population. Many developed countries have universal government-funded healthcare (also known as single-payer healthcare).

In this system, healthcare is available to all citizens regardless of their income or employment status. This system is used by countries such as Australia, Canada, Norway, Singapore and the UK.

two runners in Singapore — Shutterstock Singapore has the world’s second-best healthcare

Another popular option is to use a universal public insurance system where the government usually withholds part of workers’ wages which goes towards healthcare insurance. This system is used by China, France, Japan and South Korea among others.

Several nations, including the Netherlands and Switzerland, use a universal private health insurance system. Low-income citizens who cannot afford insurance are then subsidised by the government.

A final group of countries, which includes the Demo cratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and the USA, uses a non-universal insurance system.

In this case, some citizens have private health insurance, some may receive subsidised public healthcare, while some are not insured at all.

best healthcare in the world 2023: complete rankings

The health pillar of Legatum’s report measures a country’s performance in three areas: basic physical and mental health, health infrastructure and preventative care.

NB: Some countries and territories have been excluded due to insufficient data.

Rank	Country	Score
1	Japan	86.6
2	Singapore	86.1
3	South Korea	84.1
4	Norway	84.0
5	Taiwan	83.4
6	Israel	82.8
7	China	82.8
8	Iceland	82.3
9	Netherlands	82.2
10	Sweden	82.1
11	Malta	81.7
12	Luxembourg	81.5
13	Switzerland	81.5
14	Finland	81.4
15	Hong Kong	81.3
16	Germany	81.1
17	Italy	81.1
18	Denmark	80.6
19	Belgium	80.6
20	France	80.5
21	Spain	80.5
22	Australia	80.2
23	Slovenia	80.2
24	New Zealand	79.7
25	Austria	79.6
26	Ireland	79.5
27	Thailand	79.4
28	Cyprus	79.1
29	Cuba	79.0
30	Czechia	79.0
31	UK	78.8
32	Colombia	78.7
33	Costa Rica	78.4
34	Canada	78.4
35	Uruguay	78.1
36	UAE	77.8
37	Seychelles	77.8
38	Portugal	77.6
39	Qatar	77.6
40	Sri Lanka	77.3
41	Estonia	77.3
42	Argentina	77.2
43	Slovakia	77.0
44	Malaysia	77.0
45	Kuwait	76.9
46	Greece	76.8
47	Vietnam	76.5
48	Panama	76.5
49	Peru	76.4
50	Uzbekistan	76.3

Rank	Country	Score
51	Hungary	76.3
52	Croatia	76.1
53	Chile	75.7
54	Bahrain	75.4
55	Belarus	75.3
56	Poland	75.2
57	Oman	75.2
58	Turkey	75.1
59	Turkmenistan	74.9
60	Jamaica	74.9
61	Iran	74.8
62	Romania	74.7
63	Bulgaria	74.7
64	Saudi Arabia	74.5
65	Armenia	74.5
66	Trinidad & Tobago	74.1
67	Lithuania	74.1
68	USA	73.9
69	North Macedonia	73.9
70	Albania	73.8
71	Kazakhstan	73.8
72	Latvia	73.8
73	Kyrgyzstan	73.4
74	Azerbaijan	73.4
75	Serbia	73.3
76	Nicaragua	73.0
77	Jordan	72.9
78	Ecuador	72.9
79	Mexico	72.7
80	Indonesia	72.7
81	Algeria	72.5
82	Belize	72.4
83	Mauritius	72.4
84	Moldova	72.3
85	Dominican Rep	72.1
86	Brazil	72.0
87	Cabo Verde	71.9
88	Morocco	71.7
89	Russia	71.6
90	Tajikistan	71.5
91	Paraguay	71.4
92	Tunisia	71.4
93	Georgia	71.3
94	Cambodia	71.2
95	Montenegro	70.6
96	São Tomé & Príncipe	70.5
97	Venezuela	70.5
98	Bosnia & Herzegovina	70.0
99	El Salvador	69.7
100	Lebanon	69.7

Rank	Country	Score
101	Philippines	69.7
102	Bangladesh	69.0
103	Honduras	68.7
104	Ukraine	68.7
105	Guatemala	68.2
106	Myanmar	67.7
107	Mongolia	67.7
108	Libya	67.5
109	Egypt	67.2
110	Syria	67.1
111	India	67.1
112	Bolivia	65.9
113	Iraq	65.5
114	Rwanda	65.2
115	Kenya	64.6
116	Laos	64.6
117	Ghana	64.2
118	Nepal	64.1
119	Suriname	63.9
120	Senegal	63.4
121	Guyana	62.9
122	Djibouti	62.4
123	Sudan	60.9
124	Tanzania	60.8
125	Malawi	60.5
126	Namibia	59.9
127	Zambia	59.8
128	Ethiopia	59.8
129	Comoros	59.8
130	Pakistan	59.5
131	Botswana	59.5
132	Burkina Faso	59.1
133	Uganda	58.2
134	Mauritania	58.0
135	Burundi	57.8
136	Eritrea	57.5
137	Yemen	57.0
138	Gabon	56.8
139	Benin	56.7
140	South Africa	56.6
141	The Gambia	56.1
142	Madagascar	55.5
143	Togo	54.9
144	Congo	54.8
145	Zimbabwe	54.8
146	Mali	54.4
147	Papua New Guinea	54.2
148	Niger	54.1
149	Côte d’Ivoire	53.5
150	Mozambique	53.1
151	Haiti	52.7
152	Guinea-Bissau	51.2
153	Afghanistan	51.0
154	Cameroon	50.7
155	Equatorial Guinea	50.5
156	Guinea	50.4
157	Angola	50.3
158	Nigeria	49.1
159	Liberia	49.1
160	Eswatini	49.0
161	DR Congo	48.6
162	Sierra Leone	48.4
163	Somalia	43.3
164	Lesotho	40.7
165	Chad	37.7
166	South Sudan	35.5
167	Central African Rep	32.8

The latest Legatum Prosperity Index can be downloaded here.