For many people nowadays, the first port of call upon discovering an unusual rash or feeling a worrying pain is not the doctor, but rather Google. Figures from Eurostat show the countries which are relying the most on medical information from the internet. In Finland, 8 out of 10 respondents said that they had turned to the web for health-related information - an increase of 22 percentage points on 2011. Denmark recorded similar levels of reliance on Dr. Google - 75 percent.
In Spain in 2011, just 38 percent of adults professed to seeking medical information online, but as our infographic shows, there has been a huge increase, with 69 percent now saying they turn to Google et al for health advice. A similarly large increase was also recorded in Ireland. In Germany, however, reliance on the internet for these topics saw a decrease between 2011 and 2021 - from 54 to 45 percent.
