Thursday
Jul222010
World Cesarean Rates: OECD Countries
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 7:53AM
By Jill—Unnecesarean
OECD Health Data 2010, released on 29 June 2010, is a comprehensive source of comparable statistics on health and health systems across OECD countries. According to its website, “it is an essential tool for health researchers and policy advisors in governments, the private sector and the academic community, to carry out comparative analyses and draw lessons from international comparisons of diverse health care systems.”
The following table shows the cesarean rates of OECD countries from 2004 to 2008.
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | ||||
| OECD countries | ||||||||
| Australia | 29.1% | 30.0% | 30.3% | 30.6% | ||||
| Austria | 25.4% | 26.9% | 27.5% | |||||
| Belgium | 17.8% | 0.0% | 17.3% | |||||
| Canada | 25.3% | 26.2% | 26.3% | 26.6% | ||||
| Chile | ||||||||
| Czech Republic | 16.0% | 17.1% | 18.4% | 19.6% | 20.5% | |||
| Denmark | 20.0% | 19.4% | 20.4% | 21.4% | 22.1% | |||
| Finland | 16.4% | 16.3% | 16.1% | 16.3% | 16.5% | |||
| France | 18.6% | 19.1% | 19.4% | 19.9% | 19.9% | |||
| Germany | 26.0% | 26.7% | 27.8% | 28.5% | 29.4% | |||
| Greece | ||||||||
| Hungary | 27.1% | 29.2% | 29.3% | 30.3% | 31.4% | |||
| Iceland | 16.4% | 15.6% | 17.2% | 16.9% | 16.1% | |||
| Ireland | 24.5% | 25.1% | 24.6% | 25.4% | ||||
| Italy | 39.4% | 39.4% | 39.7% | 39.8% | ||||
| Japan | ||||||||
| Korea | 36.7% | 36.3% | 35.1% | 35.3% | 35.3% | |||
| Luxembourg | 27.1% | 27.6% | 27.5% | 29.2% | ||||
| Mexico | 37.0% | 38.2% | 39.5% | 40.7% | 43.9% | |||
| Netherlands | 13.6% | 13.6% | 13.8% | 14.0% | ||||
| New Zealand | 22.3% | 22.8% | 23.9% | 22.8% | 22.8% | |||
| Norway | 15.2% | 15.9% | 15.9% | 17.2% | ||||
| Poland | 16.3% | 18.9% | 19.6% | 18.8% | 19.3% | |||
| Portugal | 27.0% | 27.8% | 31.0% | 31.2% | 32.7% | |||
| Slovak Republic | 19.2% | 20.7% | 21.9% | 23.5% | ||||
| Spain | 24.0% | 24.8% | 26.0% | |||||
| Sweden | ||||||||
| Switzerland | 25.7% | 26.7% | 28.8% | 30.0% | 31.6% | |||
| Turkey | 29.7% | 36.0% | 37.7% | |||||
| United Kingdom | 22.7% | 23.6% | 23.2% | 23.6% | 23.7% | |||
| United States | 29.1% | 30.3% | 31.1% | 31.8% | 32.0% | |||
| Accession countries | ||||||||
| Estonia | 17.2% | 18.9% | 19.0% | 20.0% | 19.9% | |||
| Israel | 17.8% | 19.1% | 18.6% | 18.8% | 19.2% | |||
| Slovenia | 14.3% | 15.5% | 16.4% | 16.8% | 17.0% | |||
| SOURCE: OECD Health Data 2010 - Version: June 2010 | ||||||||
| Surgical procedures by ICD-9-CM, Caesarean section | ||||||||
Download an Excel spreadsheet of OECD Cesarean data from 1990 to 2008 [.xls]
Reader Comments (4)
Does anyone really believe that those rates indicate medical need? If so, why would they be so wildly discrepant across borders?
It seems likelier that local and regional rates are being determined by local and regional practice habits. You do what the other guys are doing. Behavior is catching like that - for example, studies showing that smoking and obesity spread in social networks.
Very interesting. It's intriguing to note which countries stay basically the same...which ones experience continuous incremental rise...and which ones experience sharp jumps!
Does anyone know WHY c/s rates are increasing basically everywhere? Is there an actual reason for that?
Also is there a similar spreadsheet showing maternal/infant mortality rates in parallel with these figures?
Wow, so so interesting. More please.
Isn't Germany one of those countries we hold up as having a great midwife model with only high risk births going to an OB? Why is their rate so high?