In 2025

Proportion of persons who reported having had medical consultations increased, while the perceived weight of financial healthcare expenses decreased

The Regional Directorate of Statistics of Madeira (DREM) today releases a set of health indicators for the population aged 16 years or over residing in the Autonomous Region of Madeira (ARM). These indicators include variables relating to the frequency of consultations and the share of financial expenses associated with healthcare. The information results from the triennial “Health” module of the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) carried out in 2025 and refers to the 12 months prior to the interview.

In 2025, 73.2% of the resident population in the ARM aged 16 or over indicated that they had consulted a general practitioner in the 12 months prior to the interview, a value 3.7 percentage points (pp) higher than that recorded in 2022. Among persons who consulted a general practitioner, 49.4% did so once or twice (47.1% in 2022) and 23.8% three or more times (22.4% in 2022). This value is 6.3 pp lower than that observed in the same period in Portugal (79.5%), where 51.4% of the population reported having consulted a doctor of this specialty once or twice and 28.1% three or more times.

Around three in every five persons aged 16 or over (60.4%) reported having had consultations with a dentist or orthodontist in the 12 months prior to the interview, of whom 43.6% consulted once or twice and 16.8% three or more times. Compared with 2022, this indicator increased by 4.9 pp (55.5% in 2022), exceeding the national average. In Portugal, 59.6% of the population aged 16 or over consulted a dentist or orthodontist, with 40.0% doing so once or twice and 19.6% three or more times.

The proportion of the resident population aged 16 or over who reported having consulted doctors of other specialties (excluding general practitioners, dentists and orthodontists) in the 12 months prior to the interview was 54.1%, of whom 33.2% consulted these professionals once or twice and 20.9% three or more times. Compared with 2022, consultations with these professionals were those that recorded the greatest increase (+6.4 pp), with a 3.9 pp rise in the proportion of persons who consulted these specialists three or more times. At the national level, 53.3% of the resident population had consultations with other specialists, 32.7% once or twice and 20.6% three or more times.

In 2025, there was an improvement in the perception of the share of financial healthcare expenses. Around half of households (50.7%) considered that, in the 12 months prior to the interview, the costs that the household had with medical care represented a somewhat heavy or very heavy burden, reflecting a decrease compared with that observed in 2022 (54.2%). The assessment of expenses on medicines and on dental care also reflected an improvement in 2025: 54.7% of households classified expenditure on medicines as a somewhat heavy or very heavy burden (60.4% in 2022) and 53.7% attributed the same classification to the costs of dental care (61.3% in 2022). For these three types of care, the national proportions remained lower than those observed in the Region, also registering a decrease compared with 2022. In Portugal, 39.4% of households assessed expenditure on medical care as a somewhat heavy or very heavy burden in 2025 (45.8% in 2022), 45.7% in the case of medicines (49.7% in 2022) and 47.2% in the case of dental care (51.2% in 2022).

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