section_path: Demographics/Health
section_name: Health
paragraph_text: Health
  
  In 2025, Portugal ranked as 23rd best healthcare system in the world, which was visibly lower than the previous 12th place in the 2000 World Health Organisation ranking of best public health systems in the world. The health system is characterised by three coexisting systems: the National Health Service (Serviço Nacional de Saúde, SNS), special social health insurance schemes for certain professions (health subsystems) and voluntary private health insurance. The SNS provides universal coverage. In addition, about 55% of the population is covered by the health subsystems, 43% by private insurance schemes and another 12% by mutual funds.
  
  The Ministry of Health is responsible for developing health policy as well as managing the SNS. Five regional health administrations are in charge of implementing the national health policy objectives, developing guidelines and protocols and supervising health care delivery. Decentralisation efforts have aimed at shifting financial and management responsibility to the regional level. In practice, the autonomy of regional health administrations over budget setting and spending has been limited to primary care. The SNS is predominantly funded through general taxation. Employer (including the state) and employee contributions represent the main funding sources of the health subsystems. In addition, direct payments by the patient and voluntary health insurance premiums account for a large proportion of funding.
  
  Similarly to other 'Eur-A countries', (Western Europe), most Portuguese die from noncommunicable diseases. Mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is around 30,000 deaths per year, a third of all annual deaths, but its two main components, ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, display inverse trends compared with the Eur-A, with cerebrovascular disease being the single biggest killer in Portugal, with more than 11,000 deaths per year. Oncological diseases represent 22% of all deaths in the country, with lung and breast cancer cases being lower, and cervical and prostate cancer being more frequent. Diabetes mortality rates have been decreasing, from 4.5% in 2010 down to 2.8% in 2021.
  
  Portugal's infant mortality rate (IMR) stood at 2,25 deaths per 1,000 live births as of 2024. A Eurostat opinion-poll in 2023 found that 55.4% of adults rated their health as good or very good, the third lowest rate collected in the European Union. The largest university hospital in the country is Hospital de Santa Maria, Lisbon.
  
  Despite good economic development, the Portuguese have been the shortest in Europe since around 1890. This emerging height gap started in the 1840s and increased. A driving factor was modest real wage growth, given late industrialization and economic growth compared to the European core. Another determinant was delayed human capital formation.