How to read this page. Figures come from named papers and agencies. They are not a diagnosis and they are not your personal risk. Definitions, hospital coding, and case-finding differ between studies, so numbers should not be compared as if they were one dataset. Unverified or unsourced estimates are not shown.
This page is not medical advice. Medical disclaimer.
Pancreatitis is common enough to matter for European hospitals, and uncommon enough that many people have never heard of it until an attack. Acute disease is far more often recorded than chronic disease. Incidence varies widely by country and by whether researchers count hospital admissions, first attacks only, or modelled estimates.
Europe — acute pancreatitis
A structured review of studies from 1989 to 2015 covering 17 European countries found that reported incidence of acute pancreatitis ranged from 4.6 to 100 per 100,000 population. Incidence was usually highest in eastern or northern Europe, though rates often varied with how cases were identified. (Roberts SE et al. The incidence and aetiology of acute pancreatitis across Europe. Pancreatology. PubMed: 28159463)
Of 20 studies that reported trends, all but three showed increases over time (overall median increase 3.4% per year; range −0.4% to 73%). The authors concluded that acute pancreatitis continues to increase throughout most of Europe. (Roberts et al.)
Gallstones versus alcohol, by region
The same review found a clear north–south and east–west pattern:
- Highest gallstone-to-alcohol ratios in southern Europe, including Greece, Turkey, Italy, and Croatia (often more than 5:1, sometimes more than 10:1)
- Alcohol more often dominant in eastern Europe (examples in the paper include Latvia, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Russia, and Lithuania)
- More even mixes in much of northern and western Europe
Gallstone disease was the dominant aetiology in Mediterranean and other southern countries including Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, and Croatia. (Roberts et al.; open PDF via Swansea: Cronfa copy)
One Croatian hospital series (North Adriatic)
A ten-year study (2000–2009) of 922 patients admitted with confirmed acute pancreatitis in the North Adriatic region of Croatia reported:
- annual incidence 24 to 35 per 100,000 (around 30 per 100,000 over the decade)
- mean age 60 ± 16 years
- 53% men, 47% women
- biliary stones 60%, alcohol 19%
The authors described this as typical of Mediterranean epidemiology. This is a regional hospital series, not a national census. (Štimac D et al. Gastroenterology Research and Practice, 2013; PMC 3586513)
Europe — chronic pancreatitis
HaPanEU (United European Gastroenterology) states that incidence in European countries ranges from 5 to 10 per 100,000 inhabitants. With a median survival of about 20 years, they calculated prevalence around 120 per 100,000. They also note that published incidence elsewhere has been quoted from 1.6 to 23 per 100,000. (Löhr JM et al. HaPanEU. United European Gastroenterology Journal, 2017; PubMed 28344786)
A Danish nationwide study (1994–2018) found a mean incidence of 12.6 per 100,000 person-years (women 8.6; men 16.7), with standardised incidence remaining around 12.5 in 2014–2018, while point prevalence in 2016 was 153.9 per 100,000 and had risen from 126.6 in 1996. Mean age at diagnosis rose from 52.1 to 60.0 years. (Olesen SS et al. United European Gastroenterology Journal, 2020)
These European figures are not interchangeable with Global Burden of Disease modelled rates below.
Global Burden of Disease 2021 (modelled estimates)
GBD 2021 produces modelled estimates for 204 countries. It does not always separate acute from chronic pancreatitis in the papers cited here. Treat the following as global modelled burden, not as hospital counts for your country.
Analyses of GBD 2021 report that between 1990 and 2021:
| Measure | 1990 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| New cases | about 1.73 million (UI about 1.50–2.00 million) | about 2.75 million (2.41–3.13 million) — +59% |
| Deaths | 68,490 (60,748–78,272) | 122,416 (109,848–141,362) |
| DALYs | 2.58 million years | 4.10 million years |
| Age-standardised incidence (ASIR) | 37.62 per 100,000 | 32.81 per 100,000 |
| Age-standardised mortality (ASMR) | 1.69 per 100,000 | 1.45 per 100,000 |
Absolute numbers rose with population growth and ageing; age-standardised rates fell globally. (Li et al., BMC Gastroenterology, 2024; Liu et al., BMC Gastroenterology, 1 September 2025)
Eastern Europe in GBD 2021
Several GBD 2021 papers find Eastern Europe has the highest age-standardised incidence, death, and DALY rates. Liu et al. (2025) report for Eastern Europe:
- ASIR 99.35 per 100,000 (UI 82.69–117.93)
- ASMR 5.60 per 100,000 (5.15–6.07)
- ASDR 240.99 per 100,000 (211.60–278.40)
Countries with the highest DALY rates in that analysis included the Russian Federation, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine. High alcohol use accounted for about 16% of global pancreatitis-related deaths in GBD’s risk-factor framework (a higher share in men than in women). (Liu et al., 2025; Li et al., 2024)
Li et al. also report ASIR in 2021 of 51.99 per 100,000 in high-income North America and 47.94 in Central Asia, versus 16.63 in tropical Latin America. (Li et al., 2024)
United States (for comparison, not Europe)
NIDDK (last reviewed November 2017 on the pages cited): about 275,000 hospital stays for acute pancreatitis each year in the United States; about 86,000 hospital stays for chronic pancreatitis. Acute pancreatitis has become more common for reasons that are not clear. It is rare in children, but numbers in children have grown. Men are more likely to get pancreatitis than women. (NIDDK — Definition & facts)
ACG describes pancreatitis as one of the most common gastrointestinal reasons for hospital admission in the US. (ACG)
Mayo Clinic’s news service has used the same ~275,000 US admissions figure in later research coverage. (Mayo Clinic News Network, 8 November 2024)
What we are not claiming
- We do not have a verified national 2025–2026 incidence rate for every EU country, so we do not invent one.
- GBD estimates, hospital case series, and HaPanEU’s 5–10 / 100,000 chronic incidence are different methods. Do not average them.
- “High alcohol use” in GBD is a modelled attributable fraction, not the same as the gallstone/alcohol split in Roberts et al.
- Severity percentages from a single Croatian hospital (Ranson/APACHE in Štimac et al.) are not applied here as Europe-wide facts.
For clinical context rather than counts, see Acute pancreatitis and Chronic pancreatitis.
Last editorial check: 29 August 2026.