Introduction:
Cardiovascular diseases cause over 4 million deaths each year in the societies of fifty-three countries of the World Health Organization’s European region. Over 1.9 million deaths occur in European Union countries. In 2010, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reported that 13% of deaths in European Union countries were a consequence of coronary artery disease. The aim of the work was to analyze the socio-economic burden of cardiovascular diseases as well as the sources and costs of the healthcare in Poland and selected Central European countries.

Material and Methods:
European Statistical Office and Polish Central Statistical Office data were analyzed. The literature data comes from journals indexed in the Medline database.

Results:
The European Union’s economic burden of cardiovascular diseases was estimated at € 210 billion in 2015. The biggest part of that – 52% – was healthcare expenditures, 25% was lost productivity and 21% was private care costs. The amount of funds allocated to cardiovascular disease therapy by European Union countries is highly diversified. Cardiovascular diseases absorb 16% of funds allocated for the healthcare system in Poland, while only 3% in Denmark and Sweden, 7% and 8% in France and Germany respectively and about 12% in Central European countries, e.g. the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and 19% in Hungary. A growth in state healthcare expenditures was one of the consequences of Poland’s accession to the European Union. According to the European Statistical Office, Poland spent over € 18.45 billion, that is 4.49% of the Gross Domestic Product, on the healthcare system in 2014.