The Nordic region has one of the world’s oldest populations and over the past decades, the health and care of elderly people have attracted more and more attention, as the proportion of elderly people in the population is increasing. This trend is expected to continue in the coming decades.

The aim of this report is to provide a general statistical description of the care and treatment of elderly people in the Nordic region from the age of 65, with a focus on the 80+ age group. Another aim is to develop and improve NOMESCO’s annual statistics, and revisions to the statistics are proposed where necessary. Some of the OECD indicators are used to highlight and compare certain aspects of health care that are particularly important for elderly people.

The report is based on available Nordic statistics collected continually by NOMESCO and other international organisations, and on statistics collected especially for this project from the national patient, cancer, prescribed drugs, and cause of death registers. The statistics show, for example, the occurrence of disease, pharmaceutical prescriptions and mortality in different age groups over 65, distinguishing between women and men, in the Nordic countries. Most of the data is from 2015. Information from national interview surveys is an important complement to the registry data, enabling health trends in the population to be monitored over time. Over several decades, the Nordic countries have developed their own surveys of living conditions, which are adapted to national circumstances. This means there are certain differences between the countries in survey methods and degree of coverage.