Hospital utilisation
How many patients use the Danish hospitals? This statistics provide insight into the number of patients and the number of stays at public and private somatic and psychiatric hospital wards, as well as characteristics of the patients in terms of age, gender, labour market affiliation, education, origin, and next-of-kin status.
Explainer on…
One or more contacts involving physical attendance by a person at one or more hospitals or healthcare institutions. A contact may, for example, be a consultation, examination, admission or similar. Multiple contacts are considered part of the same hospital stay if no more than four hours pass between the end of one contact and the beginning of the next.
Selected statistics on Hospital utilisation
Development in the number of patients
External sources: The National Patient Registry, provided by the Danish Health Data Authority. The National Patient Registry contains information on all contacts with Danish public and/or private somatic and psychiatric hospitals. From 2012 to 2015, data from the National Patient Registry were provided by the Statens Serum Institut, and prior to 2012, by the Danish Health Authority. LPR3 data are available for the years 2019–2025, and the annual (LPR3) data delivery was resumed in 2022. LPR2 data were received annually until 2019.
Internal sources:
- The register of population statistics (municipality and ancestry)
- The Employment Classification Module (labour market affiliation (SOCIO13))
- The Education Register (highest completed level of education)
- The Relatives Register (relatives, partner)
Age and sex of patients
External sources: The National Patient Registry, provided by the Danish Health Data Authority. The National Patient Registry contains information on all contacts with Danish public and/or private somatic and psychiatric hospitals. From 2012 to 2015, data from the National Patient Registry were provided by the Statens Serum Institut, and prior to 2012, by the Danish Health Authority. LPR3 data are available for the years 2019–2025, and the annual (LPR3) data delivery was resumed in 2022. LPR2 data were received annually until 2019.
Internal sources:
- The register of population statistics (municipality and ancestry)
- The Employment Classification Module (labour market affiliation (SOCIO13))
- The Education Register (highest completed level of education)
- The Relatives Register (relatives, partner)
On the statistics – documentation, sources and method
See the documentation of statistics to learn more:
The purpose of the Hospital Utilisation Statistics is to shed light on the connection between hospitals stays and social and demographic conditions. The statistics have been compiled since 1990, but are comparable in their current form only from 2017 onwards.
The purpose of these statistics is to display the quality level of municipal services in the elderly care. The statistics are a part of a cross-public cooperation, intended to ensure coherent documentation of important areas of municipal service, as well as to increase the comparability of the services provided in the different municipalities. The statistics are used to determine impact targets, frameworks and results requirements for key management initiatives and are comparable from 2008 onwards. Statistics Denmark is responsible for the composition and publication of the statistics.