The Burrow
Oct 2, 2024
The human body is capable of many incredible things, but it is also susceptible to a number of illnesses and diseases that can negatively impact our health.
Globally, people face a range of diseases, and to equip themselves with knowledge, many turn to online search websites like Google.
As experts in health insurance, we wanted to investigate some of the most Googled diseases and illnesses, and how private health insurance may contribute towards treatment for them.
To do this, we gathered average monthly search volume from 28 different countries to find the total monthly search volume for each disease, as well as the average monthly number of searches per capita for each nation.
See the results listed below.
The number one most Googled illness is pneumonia, based on the volume of online queries for the term. Almost two million people take to the internet every month on average to learn about it and, when accounting for populations of the 28 countries, it had a per capita search rate of 76.887. Both are the highest stats in each category.
It was the most searched disease in Australia, Canada, Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States.
When you learn more about pneumonia, it’s not surprising it was the top result in so many countries.
The illness causes inflammation in the lungs, affecting a person’s ability to breathe. It ranges in severity from mild to deadly and is especially dangerous for babies and the elderly.1 In 2021 it was estimated to account for 2.18 million deaths worldwide.2
This disease needs no introduction. The respiratory virus that brought the world to its knees was the second highest in both total monthly search volume and average monthly searches per capita in our data. Almost 1.5 million people searched the term COVID every month across the 28 countries we looked at – with an average monthly search rate per capita of 72.513.
COVID-19 was the most searched disease per capita in France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Morocco and Sweden.
If the data had been collected during the peak of the pandemic, it would likely be the number one disease on our list.
The disease typically leads to mild symptoms, but is more severe among pregnant women, people with other health conditions, and the elderly.3 It’s estimated to have led to the deaths of 343.53 people per 100,000 across the world since the pandemic began in January 2020.4
The third-most Googled disease on our list is meningitis. This disease had over a million search queries per month in total, and an average search rate of 57.841 per capita. Meningitis was the most searched per capita disease in Germany (tied with Influenza) and Spain, while also ranking highly in the results across most other countries.
Meningitis is rare but can be very dangerous, especially for young children and infants. It is an infection of the membranes round the brain and spiral cord – and can lead to a wide range of symptoms, such as fevers, vomiting, seizures and drowsiness. Babies and small children may also get pale or blotchy skin, and purple-red rashes and bruises.5 In 2021, meningitis killed an estimated 213,962 people, with the majority of those cases being children under five years old.6
The table below shows the total monthly search volume and average monthly searches per capita for 20 different diseases and illnesses across 28 countries. Country specific data can be found here.
| Diseases | Total monthly search volume | Average monthly searches per capita |
| Pneumonia | 1,963,700 | 76.887 |
| COVID-19 | 1,491,100 | 72.513 |
| Meningitis | 1,149,590 | 57.841 |
| Chickenpox | 1,088,380 | 49.262 |
| Influenza | 665,280 | 47.017 |
| Lyme disease | 900,500 | 45.286 |
| Tuberculosis | 1,024,680 | 44.983 |
| Measles | 727,050 | 35.586 |
| HIV | 700,900 | 33.768 |
| AIDS | 639,800 | 32.644 |
| Hepatitis | 695,810 | 29.783 |
| Yeast infection | 695,690 | 27.386 |
| Malaria | 481,720 | 23.361 |
| Rabies | 324,440 | 21.577 |
| Tetanus | 420,490 | 19.945 |
| Sexually transmitted diseases | 372,160 | 19.883 |
| Polio | 274,970 | 19.814 |
| Whooping cough | 338,640 | 18.663 |
| Ebola | 257,090 | 15.384 |
| Dengue fever | 315,080 | 15.202 |
Diseases can be dangerous and may require a trip to a hospital for treatment. Australians may be wondering if there is any need for private health insurance for diseases and illnesses, given public hospital emergency departments and Medicare exist.
Compare the Market’s Executive General Manager of Health, Steven Spicer, explained that while diseases may not be the primary reason why Australians get health insurance, it does have some benefits.
“Health insurance can help you stay on top of your health and maintain good wellbeing before illnesses and diseases become more of a problem. If in-hospital treatment is required, then a private hospital insurance policy can pay a benefit towards treatment in a private hospital, provided you hold an appropriate level of cover,” says Mr Spicer.
“Additionally, you may benefit from having an extras policy that can pay towards some prescription medications not on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, as well as eligible vaccines and health programs. Having private health insurance helps give you more choice when it comes to your health.”
We used Google Ads Keyword Planner tool to find online search volume for different diseases, getting a monthly average based on the past 12 months. Data was sourced between the 18th and 19th of June.
The total searches per month was calculated by adding each country’s search volume together. The average searches per capita was calculated by calculating the per capita result for each country, and then averaging those figures for each disease. Population data for these calculations was sourced from the Data Commons Place Explorer tool.
The countries studied include:
References: