| Verified against primary record | |
| Dedicated statistical collection | Yes, under the Official Statistics Programme[1] |
|---|---|
| Official definition of a medical tourist | A foreigner, private individual, travelling outside their country of habitual residence for elective care in Latvia not covered by State budget resources[1] |
| Reporting instrument | State statistical report on healthcare services provided to foreigners, Cabinet Regulation No. 720 Annex 8 from 2020[1] |
| Breakdowns collected | Country of habitual residence, statistical region, age group, total cost and duration of treatment[1] |
| Prior authorisation system | None; removed in 2018[2] |
| Reimbursement requests (2023) | 32 received, 28 granted, 4 refused[2] |
| National contact point | National Health Service[4] |
| Independently reported | |
| Foreign patients (2024) | 40,733 including remote consultations; 14,187 treated face to face[3] |
| Revenue (2024) | Almost EUR 12 million, up 24.2 per cent[3] |
| Average spend per face-to-face patient | United Kingdom EUR 1,669, Czechia EUR 1,218, Estonia EUR 1,152[3] |
| Bands apply only to the rows beneath them. The 2024 patient and revenue figures were attributed to an industry body, the Latvian Health Tourism Cluster, rather than to the state statistical collection described in the upper band, which is why they sit in the lower band. The spending figures are the only per-patient cost figures located for any country in this series and are averages by origin country, not prices for any procedure. The Directive claim counts concern Latvian insured persons obtaining care abroad and are unrelated to the inbound collection. | |
Medical tourism in Latvia is the one case in this series where a government has built a statistical collection for the purpose. Latvia requires medical institutions to report healthcare provided to foreigners through a state statistical report under its Official Statistics Programme, and it defines a medical tourist narrowly enough that the resulting figures describe people who travelled to Latvia for elective private care rather than anyone who happened to be treated there.
A definition built for the purpose
The collection defines a medical tourist as a foreigner, a private individual, who travels outside the country of their habitual residence and receives elective medical services in Latvia that are not covered by State budget resources.[1]
What the definition excludes is as important as what it includes. Out go holders of permanent residence permits, stateless persons with that status in Latvia, refugees and holders of alternative status, asylum seekers, recipients of emergency care including holders of the European Health Insurance Card, detainees and prisoners, certain NATO and EU armed forces personnel and their dependants, and some Ukrainian citizens receiving particular pensions. The published list ends with an abbreviation indicating it is not exhaustive.[1]
Three exclusions do most of the work. Removing residence permit holders separates medical travellers from resident foreigners, a distinction that defeats the published figures of several larger countries. Removing emergency and card-based care separates deliberate travel from falling ill while abroad. And confining the count to services not funded by the state budget separates private medical travel from publicly reimbursed cross-border care, which is counted elsewhere and on a different basis.[1]
What is collected and how
Data come from medical treatment institutions through a state statistical report on healthcare services provided to foreigners. Reporting for 2019 followed Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 10; from 2020 it follows Annex 8 to Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 720. The report is submitted under the Official Statistics Programme, and the contact given is the head of the health statistics unit at the body responsible for disease prevention and control.[1]
The variables collected are country of habitual residence as a two-letter code, with a code for unknown and a separate code for emigrated Latvian citizens; statistical region based on the European regional classification; age group at the start of treatment; total cost of healthcare services; and duration of treatment, measured in days for inpatient stays and in visit days for outpatient and day-hospital services. Average treatment duration per patient and average spending per service are derived from these.[1]
The separate code for emigrated Latvian citizens is a notable piece of statistical design, since diaspora patients returning for treatment are a recognised category of medical travel that most national systems cannot distinguish at all.[1]
The metadata states its own limits plainly: the averages are simple ratios of total duration or spending to patient or service counts; outpatient days are counted once per day even where several specialists are seen; an inpatient admission and discharge date together count as one day; and because the reporting instrument changed in 2020, data for 2019 and later may not be directly comparable. The metadata record was created on 31 July 2025.[1]
Reported volumes and spending
Figures reported for 2024 by Latvian public media put the total number of foreign patients at 40,733 including those treated remotely, of whom 14,187 were seen face to face, a rise of 16 per cent after a 31 per cent rise in 2023. Revenue rose 24.2 per cent to almost 12 million euro.[3]
Average spending per face-to-face patient was reported as 1,669 euro for patients from the United Kingdom, 1,218 euro for Czechia and 1,152 euro for Estonia. The main countries of origin for face-to-face patients were the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Canada and Germany. Patients from the United Kingdom were associated with bariatric surgery, plastic surgery and dental services; those from Lithuania with infertility treatment, diagnostics and phlebology; and those from Canada and Germany with diagnostics first, then therapy and rehabilitation. The most active age groups were 35 to 44 and 45 to 54.[3]
Two cautions apply. These figures were attributed to the Latvian Health Tourism Cluster, an industry body, rather than to the state statistical collection described above, with the disease prevention and control body credited separately for a diaspora breakdown. And the report notes that excluded groups, among them Ukrainian refugees, NATO personnel and families, embassy staff, seafarers, residence permit holders and foreign students, mean the true number of foreign patients treated in Latvia is higher than the medical tourism count.[3]
The separate European figures
Latvia’s cross-border healthcare claims under the Directive are a different and much smaller matter. The Commission records that Latvia has no prior authorisation system, having removed it in 2018, and that for reference year 2023 it received 32 reimbursement requests, granted 28 and refused 4.[2]
It also records a specific complication: nine of those 32 unplanned-care cases were first handled under the social security coordination Regulations, and only the period during which a case fell under the Directive counts toward Latvia’s average processing time. This is a clear illustration of how the two legal routes overlap within individual cases.[2]
Latvia’s designated national contact point for cross-border healthcare is the National Health Service.[4]
Under the Directive the member state of affiliation must reimburse cross-border care where the treatment is among the benefits it covers domestically, capped at the level of costs it would have assumed and not exceeding the actual cost received, with prior authorisation permitted but not required on three defined grounds.[6]
Eurostat separately maintains a collection of hospital discharges of non-residents, with tables for in-patients, day cases, bed days and average length of stay, reporting country of residence where member states can supply it. Individual cell values for Latvia were not retrievable for this article. For scale, the European Court of Auditors estimated about 200,000 patients a year using the Directive across the Union, fewer than 0.05 per cent of EU citizens.[5][7]
Why Latvia matters beyond its size
Latvia is a small country with a modest medical travel sector, and its significance here is methodological. Across the thirty countries examined in this series, it is the only one found to operate a statistical collection designed to count medical tourists as such, with a published definition, a statutory reporting instrument, declared exclusions and stated limitations.[1]
That makes it the natural reference point for anyone assessing another country’s claims. A figure for medical tourists that does not say whether resident foreigners, emergency patients or publicly funded cases are included is not comparable with Latvia’s, and most published national figures do not say.
Limits of the evidence
The statistical collection is documented here from its own metadata; individual cell values from the database were not retrieved for this article, so no figure quoted above comes from it. The 2024 volumes, revenue and spending figures come from public broadcasting and are attributed there to an industry cluster, which is why they are not presented as official statistics. The published exclusion list is stated to be incomplete. The change of reporting instrument in 2020 limits comparison with 2019.
See also
- Medical travellers and resident foreign patients, the distinction Latvia’s definition enforces
- Medical tourism statistics, for which this collection is the methodological benchmark
- Diaspora medical travel, given its own code in the Latvian collection
- Average expenditure per medical traveller, the measure these spending figures report
- Medical tourism in Lithuania, among the main origins of patients counted in Latvia
- Bariatric surgery tourism, associated with British patients in this flow
References
- Centre for Disease Prevention and Control of Latvia. Medical Tourism, reference metadata. Metadata record created 31 July 2025. Verified against primary record: the metadata page was opened and the definition of a medical tourist, the full list of excluded groups and its stated incompleteness, the variables including country of habitual residence with codes for unknown residence and for emigrated Latvian citizens, the statistical region, age group, cost and duration measures, the derived averages, the data source in the state statistical report on healthcare services provided to foreigners, the governing Cabinet of Ministers Regulations No. 10 for 2019 and No. 720 Annex 8 from 2020, the submission under the Official Statistics Programme, and the stated counting conventions and comparability limits were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety. Data on cross-border patient healthcare following Directive 2011/24/EU, reference year 2023. 15 May 2025. Verified against primary record: the report was opened and the record that Latvia has no prior authorisation system following its removal in 2018, the Latvian reimbursement row showing 32 requests received, 28 granted and 4 refused, and the note that nine of the 32 unplanned-care cases were first handled under the coordination Regulations with only the Directive period counting toward processing time were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- LSM English, Latvian Public Media. Medical tourism has had a good year in Latvia. 28 October 2025. Independently reported: the article was opened and the 2024 totals for foreign patients including remote consultations and for face-to-face patients, the growth rates for 2023 and 2024, the revenue figure and its increase, the average spending per face-to-face patient by origin country, the main countries of origin, the treatments associated with each, the most active age groups, the attribution of the figures to the Latvian Health Tourism Cluster with the disease prevention body credited for a diaspora breakdown, and the list of excluded groups meaning the true total is higher were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- United Kingdom government publishing service. EEA countries and contact points. Verified against primary record: the list was opened and the designation of the National Health Service as Latvia’s national contact point was read directly. The document does not state a publication date, which is recorded here as a limitation. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Eurostat. Hospital discharges and length of stay for inpatient and curative care (hlth_hosd), reference metadata. Last updated 15 December 2025. Verified against primary record: the metadata page was opened and the non-resident definition, the statement that country of residence is reported, and the list of non-resident tables were read. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- European Parliament and Council. Directive 2011/24/EU, Chapter III, Articles 7 and 8. 9 March 2011. Verified against primary record: the chapter text was opened and the reimbursement rule in Article 7 and the three permitted but not obligatory grounds for prior authorisation in Article 8(2) were read. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- European Court of Auditors. Special Report 07/2019: EU actions for cross-border healthcare. 2019. Verified against primary record: the report was opened and the annual patient estimate and the share of EU citizens were read. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
Sourcing note: the statistical collection is documented from its own published metadata, and no figure in this entry is taken from the database itself, whose cell values were not retrieved. The 2024 volume, revenue and spending figures are placed in the lower band and attributed to an industry cluster as the broadcaster attributes them, not presented as official statistics, and the broadcaster’s own note that excluded groups make the true number of foreign patients higher is reproduced. The claim that Latvia operates the only purpose-built collection of its kind is limited to the thirty countries examined in this series.