65,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests treated in Germany last year

Some 65,000 patients in Germany received resuscitation treatment from emergency services outside hospital last year, according to the German Resuscitation Registry's 2025 out-of-hospital annual report, presented in Nuremberg on Friday.

Approximately 350 people a day suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Germany last year. Two thirds of those affected were men and more than half were over 70 years old.

The survival rate has remained stable at 11% for several years. However, emergency services again failed to meet their target of reaching 80% of patients within eight minutes of being alerted - the actual rate was only 70%.

The annual report is based on data from 208 emergency physician and rescue services across Germany, with a reference group of 56 locations providing high-quality data used for the nationwide projections.

In more than half of cases, bystanders had already begun resuscitation before emergency services arrived - often with telephone support from emergency dispatch centre staff. 

In more than 12% of cases, first aiders and first responders were involved - volunteers with specialist knowledge who can reach the scene quickly.

"Our data show that the chain of survival today rests on significantly more shoulders than just a few years ago," said Jan-Thorsten Gräsner, spokesman for the German Resuscitation Registry. 

"There is still great potential, particularly in telephone resuscitation guidance and in expanding alerted first-responder systems, to ensure that resuscitation begins as early as possible before emergency services and doctors arrive - because every minute counts," he said. 

The use of defibrillators was still limited and could be significantly expanded, he added.