What does health spending buy?

Health spending buys longer lives up to a point, then the curve flattens. Some countries sit well above the curve for what they spend, and some, including the United States, sit below it.

Each dot in the chart is one of 191 countries. The correlation between Health Spending per Person (on a log scale) and Life Expectancy at Birth is 0.83, a very strong relationship: about 69% of the differences in Life Expectancy at Birth from place to place line up with Health Spending per Person. Ranked instead of measured, the link is 0.84.

The highest Life Expectancy at Birth is in Monaco (86.5), San Marino (85.8) and Kuwait (84.6); the lowest is in Nigeria (54.6), Chad (55.2) and Central African Republic (57.7). The median place has 73.7 for Life Expectancy at Birth and $470 for Health Spending per Person.

The biggest exceptions sit furthest from the trend line. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Syria have a much higher Life Expectancy at Birth than their Health Spending per Person would predict, while Nauru, Nigeria and Lesotho have a much lower one.

This is a comparison across places, not proof that one causes the other: both can follow from something else, such as income, age or how urban a place is. Health Spending per Person is from 2023 and Life Expectancy at Birth from 2024.