U.S. and International Comparison of Health Statistics
Established in 1961, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a membership organization that provides comparable statistics of economic and social data worldwide and monitors trends of economic development. Currently 34 countries, including the United States, are members of this organization. Their budget is derived from the member countries; the United States contributes 25% of the budget. The OECD produces, on a continual basis, a health data set of the 34 member countries as well as candidate and key partner countries when possible (Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Russian Federation, and South Africa) (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2016). The following are highlights from the OECD health data (OECD, 2015).
Health indicators such as infant mortality rates , average life expectancy, and health risk behaviors are used to evaluate the health status of a population. Because the United States spends the highest per capita on health care in the world, it is expected that U.S. health indicators would rank superior to all other countries’ healthcare indicators.