Greece has most mammography units in EU

Greece has the highest availability of mammography units in the European Union, new data from Eurostat has shown.

In 2021, Greece had 7.1 and Cyprus 5.9 machines per 100,000 female inhabitants aged 50-69 years.

The rate of mammography units, which are designed exclusively for taking mammograms, was also high in Belgium (3.6), Italy (3.4) and Croatia (3.3).

By contrast, the lowest availability was observed in Germany (0.5 units), France (0.7), Romania (0.9), and Poland (1.0), followed by Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Estonia (all with 1.1 units).

The largest increases between 2011 and 2021 in the availability of mammography units per 100,000 inhabitants were recorded in Greece (+1.6 units), Cyprus and Bulgaria (both +1.2).

By contrast, the availability of these units decreased in 9 out of the 24 EU countries with data available. The largest decreases were registered in Malta (-1.0), Luxembourg (-0.5), Slovenia, Poland and Denmark (all -0.3 units).

In 2021, the top three countries with the highest breast cancer screening rates for women aged 50 to 69 years, who had received a mammography within the previous two years, were the Nordic EU countries: Denmark (83.0%), Finland (82.2%) and Sweden (80.0%).

Malta (77.8%) and Slovenia (77.2%) followed closely behind. At the other end of the range, the lowest breast cancer screening rates were registered in Bulgaria (20.6%), Cyprus (24.6%), Slovakia (25.5%), Hungary (29.8%) and Latvia (30.8%).

Compared with 2011, breast cancer screening rates increased in 6 of the 20 EU countries with available data, with the largest increases observed in Malta (+26.9 percentage points), Lithuania (+12.9 points) and Estonia (+7.7 points). In 13 EU countries, breast cancer screening rates decreased between 2011 and 2021. Decreases exceeding 10 points were observed in Luxembourg (-16.3 points), Ireland (-12.1 points) and Hungary (-10.6 points).

There was no data available on screening rates in Greece.