The line graph illustrates the proportion of people satisfied with their healthcare systems in Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States across three time points: 1991, 1998, and 2006.
Overall, the Netherlands maintained the highest satisfaction levels throughout the period, while the USA consistently recorded the lowest figures. Most countries experienced a decline in satisfaction by 1998 before recovering slightly by 2006, with the notable exception of Canada, which saw a dramatic fall over the entire period.
In 1991, Canada and the Netherlands began with comparably high satisfaction rates, at approximately 57% and 48% respectively. The United Kingdom stood at around 27%, while the USA recorded the lowest figure of roughly 10%. By 1998, however, a striking divergence had occurred: Canada’s satisfaction rate plummeted to approximately 24% – a fall of over 30 percentage points – whereas the Netherlands rose marginally to around 53%, consolidating its leading position.
Over the same period, the UK experienced a modest decline to nearly 23%, closely mirroring Canada’s figure by that year. The USA, despite remaining the lowest-ranked country, showed a slight upward trend, reaching approximately 18% by 1998.
By 2006, the Netherlands had declined somewhat to around 45%, yet it remained the highest-performing country. Canada, the UK, and the USA all converged at approximately 30%, 32%, and 19% respectively, suggesting a degree of stabilisation across the three nations. Notably, Canada’s prolonged decline contrasted sharply with the UK’s modest recovery during the final period.