European Hospital Discharges from EUROSTAT

This dataset consists of a collection of separate files retrieved from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, as part of the GeoAI4EI project.

The files contain statistical data on hospital discharges across European countries, providing information on healthcare service utilization and hospital activity. Hospital discharge data are relevant for monitoring, analyzing, and assessing healthcare service provision, as well as for epidemiological purposes.

The dataset covers different aspects of hospital activity, including:

• Hospital discharges: number of patients discharged following inpatient and day-case hospital stays.

• Bed-days: total number of days spent in hospital by patients.

• Average length of hospital stay: average duration of inpatient hospital episodes.

• Primary diagnosis: hospital discharges classified according to the main condition diagnosed at the end of the hospital stay, using the International Shortlist for Hospital Morbidity Tabulation (ISHMT).

Where available, data are further disaggregated by age group, sex, geographical area, and patients' country of residence, as well as by type of hospital admission (inpatient or day-case). The databases may also distinguish between residents and non-residents.

Temporal and geographic coverage

The dataset covers European countries, with geographical coverage varying according to data availability in the individual Eurostat databases. Data are primarily provided at the national level, while regional breakdowns are also available in some datasets according to the NUTS classification.

Temporal coverage varies across the individual files, with some time series extending up to 2025. The availability of geographical and demographic breakdowns also differs between datasets, reflecting national reporting practices and data availability.

All files are provided separately and have been preserved in their original downloaded format, without modifications, processing, or harmonization. The original data and associated metadata are available through the Eurostat database (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat).

This collection is intended to support comparative analyses of hospital activity, healthcare utilization, and disease-related hospitalization patterns across European countries and regions, contributing to the assessment of healthcare system capacity and preparedness for public health emergencies, including pandemics.