Healthcare

Editorial summary. Qualitative drivers are general industry context written by Invest Global, last reviewed 2026-10-08. They are not forecasts. Figures elsewhere on this page are sourced and dated.

• Price controls and procurement delays
• Payment arrears from public payers
• Counterfeit and quality control issues
• Regulatory approval timelines
• Workforce shortages

Investing in frontier and emerging markets carries significant risk, including total loss. This list is illustrative and not exhaustive.

1. Research and manufacturing
2. Distribution and supply chain
3. Provider networks
4. Payers and insurance
5. Digital and diagnostic services

Ranked by exposure score, a weighted percentile of sourced indicators. Select Sources on any row to see each input, its period, source and as-of date.

Top countries by Healthcare exposure score

#	Country	Score	Band	Why
01	Japan	81	High	Health spending is 10.7% of GDP; 30.0% of the population is aged 65 or over (2023, 2025). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.05
02	France	80	High	Health spending is 11.5% of GDP; 22.5% of the population is aged 65 or over (2024, 2025). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.02
03	Canada	79	High	Health spending is 11.3% of GDP; health spending is $6,378 per person (2024). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.15
04	United States of America	79	High	Health spending is 16.7% of GDP; health spending is $13,473 per person (2023). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.05
05	Finland	78	High	Health spending is 10.5% of GDP; 24.2% of the population is aged 65 or over (2023, 2025). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.01
06	Germany	78	High	Health spending is 12.3% of GDP; 23.7% of the population is aged 65 or over (2024, 2025). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.01
07	Belgium	77	High	Health spending is 10.8% of GDP; health spending is $5,931 per person (2023). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.01
08	United Kingdom	77	High	Health spending is 11.1% of GDP; health spending is $5,860 per person (2024). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.00
09	Switzerland	76	High	Health spending is 11.7% of GDP; health spending is $11,784 per person (2023). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.11
10	Austria	75	High	Health spending is 11.8% of GDP; health spending is $6,739 per person (2024). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.06
11	Liechtenstein	75	High	Health spending is $11,495 per person; 21.4% of the population is aged 65 or over (2023, 2025). Sources
12	Slovenia	75	High	Health spending is 9.9% of GDP; 22.2% of the population is aged 65 or over (2024, 2025). Sources Economy-wide FDI restrictiveness (OECD, 0 open to 1 closed): 0.04

Exposure scores describe how large and relevant a sector is in a country's economy and opportunity set relative to other countries. They are not a measure of attractiveness, expected return or risk. Educational content only, not investment advice.

Exposure scores show relative weight. This ranking shows absolute size on one sourced measure: health expenditure. World Bank current health expenditure (percent of GDP) times GDP of the same year.

Largest countries by Health expenditure

#	Country	Health expenditure	Period
01	United States of America	$4.64 trillion	2023
02	China	$1.09 trillion	2023
03	Germany	$575 billion	2024
04	Japan	$471 billion	2023
05	United Kingdom	$411 billion	2024
06	France	$365 billion	2024
07	Canada	$257 billion	2024
08	Brazil	$213 billion	2023
09	Italy	$201 billion	2024
10	Australia	$180 billion	2023
11	South Korea	$163 billion	2024
12	Spain	$149 billion	2023

Derived from the cited sources as described above. A larger economy ranks higher on absolute measures even when the sector is a smaller share of its output.

Largest listed companies tagged to this sector in the Invest Global capital markets dataset, ranked by market capitalisation in US dollars. Coverage is the markets in that dataset, so it is not a global census.

Largest listed companies in Healthcare

#	Company	Country	Market cap	Basis
01	Roche RO	Switzerland	$361 billion	Invest Global sector tag
02	Novartis NOVN	Switzerland	$276 billion	Invest Global sector tag
03	AstraZeneca AZN	United Kingdom	$258 billion	Invest Global sector tag
04	Novo Nordisk NOVO.B	Denmark	$171 billion	Invest Global sector tag
05	Medtronic MDT	Ireland	$113 billion	Invest Global sector tag
06	Argenx ARGX	Netherlands	$60.0 billion	Invest Global sector tag
07	CSL CSL	Australia	$59.7 billion	Invest Global sector tag
08	UCB UCB	Belgium	$46.6 billion	Invest Global sector tag
09	Samsung Biologics 207940	South Korea	$46.6 billion	Invest Global sector tag
10	Teva Pharmaceutical Industries TEVA	Israel	$45.7 billion	Invest Global sector tag
11	Novonesis NSIS B	Denmark	$30.2 billion	Invest Global sector tag
12	Genmab GMAB	Denmark	$21.7 billion	Invest Global sector tag
13	IHH Healthcare IHH	Malaysia	$17.9 billion	Invest Global sector tag
14	Eurofins Scientific ERF	Luxembourg	$15.1 billion	Invest Global sector tag
15	Fisher & Paykel Healthcare FPH	New Zealand	$15.0 billion	Invest Global sector tag

Not recommendations. A list of the largest companies is not a list of suggested investments. Sector tags marked Invest Global are an editorial classification of each company's main business. Market capitalisation is a snapshot, not a live quote.

Regulatory summaries are general and change often. Confirm current rules with local counsel. Not legal advice.

• Listed healthcare and pharmaceutical firms
• Healthcare sector funds
• Private hospital and diagnostic platforms, for qualified investors
• Contract manufacturing and distribution partnerships

• XLV
  State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF
  SELECT SECTOR SPDR TRUST
• VHT
  Vanguard Health Care Index Fund
  VANGUARD WORLD FUND
• IBB
  iShares Biotechnology ETF
  iSHARES TRUST

Examples, not recommendations. Each fund is confirmed in the SEC series and class file. These are US-listed funds whose holdings are mostly developed-market issuers; check each prospectus for current holdings, fees and domicile. No prices, yields or fees are shown because none are verified here.

Charts show historical data from the cited sources. Past levels do not indicate future results. Commodity series are World Bank nominal US dollar monthly benchmarks.

Each score is a weighted average of percentile ranks. For every indicator, a country's latest observation (not older than 2014) is ranked against all other countries with data (mid-rank percentile, 0 to 1). Where a lower raw value signals more headroom (for example electricity access), the rank is inverted. The weighted average of the available percentiles is scaled to 0 to 100. A cell is published only if indicators holding at least 60 percent of the weight are available; otherwise the country is omitted for that sector.

The score describes how large and relevant a sector is in a country's economy and opportunity set, relative to other countries. It is not a measure of attractiveness, return or risk, and it is not investment advice.

• World Bank, World Development Indicators CC BY 4.0
• U.S. SEC, Investment Company Series and Class Information U.S. Government work, public domain
• companiesmarketcap.com (via the Invest Global capital markets dataset) Third-party data carried over from the existing Invest Global capital markets dataset; reuse licence to be confirmed
• OECD FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index CC BY 4.0 (OECD content published from 1 July 2024)

Data version 2026-10-09. Every datapoint carries its source and as-of date; hover or tap a dotted value to see them.