OECD 31-country class data · Denmark per-drug (medstat.dk) · England NHS PCA · USA MEPS · 65-country IQVIA global
✓ every datapoint verified against source — zero modelling
Source: OECD Health Statistics via Our World in Data API. Unit: DDD/1,000 inhabitants/day. 31 countries, 2010–2021. No USA data.
Ranking year2020
20102021
Source:medstat.dk — Danish Register of Medicinal Product Statistics. Per-drug DDD/1,000/day, primary care, 1999–2023.
Denmark — DDD/1,000 inhabitants/day
Source: Stedman et al. 2025 (PMC12360015) + NHSBSA MUMH. Prescription items (millions), England community prescribing.
England — Per-Drug 2010 vs 2023 (million items)
Drug
2010
2023
Change
England — Class Trends 2015–2022 (NHSBSA, financial years, million items)
Source:ClinCalc DrugStats (CC BY-SA 4.0), derived from AHRQ MEPS 2023. Prescriptions (millions), US civilian non-institutionalized population. Rank = position among ALL drugs prescribed in the US.
Defined Daily Dose (DDD) is a WHO statistical unit: the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults. Not a recommended dose — a measurement tool for comparing consumption.
DDD/1,000/day estimates how many per 1,000 receive one standard daily dose on any given day. Value of 50 ≈ 5% of population receiving that drug class daily.
The England and USA tabs use prescription items (millions) — a different but complementary measure counting the number of times a drug appears on a prescription form.
Sources & Methodology
OECD (Tab 1)
OECD Health Statistics via Our World in Data API (indicators 686509–686511). 974 datapoints, zero mismatches. OWID
Brauer R et al. "Psychotropic medicine consumption in 65 countries and regions, 2008–19: a longitudinal study." Lancet Psychiatry 2021;8:1071–82. PMC9766760. Data from IQVIA MIDAS database (pharmaceutical sales, retail + hospital). Appendix Table 5 — per-country DDD/1,000/day for 2008 & 2019, all 5 drug classes.