Hospital Beds per 100,000 Inhabitants in Europe by Country (2024)
Hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants across 33 European countries in 2024: 870 in Bulgaria down to 187 in Sweden, against a median of 413. Eurostat figures.
Data
| # | Country | per 100,000 inhabitants | Change vs 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bulgaria | 870 | +6 |
| 2 | Germany | 759 | -8 |
| 3 | Romania | 731 | +2 |
| 4 | Austria | 655 | -5 |
| 5 | Czechia | 639 | -1 |
| 6 | Hungary | 637 | -14 |
| 7 | Poland | 627 | unchanged |
| 8 | Serbia | 606 | +4 |
| 9 | Croatia | 558 | -7 |
| 10 | Slovakia | 558 | -8 |
| 11 | Belgium | 536 | -3 |
| 12 | Lithuania | 536 | -13 |
| 13 | France | 534 | -6 |
| 14 | Latvia | 497 | +4 |
| 15 | Greece | 423 | -2 |
| 16 | Switzerland | 420 | -17 |
| 17 | Estonia | 413 | +1 |
| 18 | Slovenia | 399 | -6 |
| 19 | Luxembourg | 392 | -2 |
| 20 | Malta | 391 | -3 |
| 21 | Montenegro | 387 | +8 |
| 22 | Portugal | 331 | -3 |
| 23 | Cyprus | 329 | +10 |
| 24 | Norway | 320 | -10 |
| 25 | Turkey | 314 | +1 |
| 26 | Italy | 312 | +8 |
| 27 | Ireland | 293 | +3 |
| 28 | Spain | 283 | -5 |
| 29 | Finland | 248 | -12 |
| 30 | Denmark | 226 | -7 |
| 31 | Netherlands | 221 | -4 |
| 32 | Liechtenstein | 220 | -3 |
| 33 | Sweden | 187 | -1 |
About this Dataset
Bulgaria maintains 870 hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants; Sweden maintains 187. A cleaner comparison sits inside the table: Germany, second at 759, holds around 4 times as many beds per head as Sweden at 187, and the two countries produce broadly comparable health outcomes.
A bed is an input, and a shrinking one. Europe has removed inpatient capacity for two decades while treating more patients, because day surgery, shorter stays and community care moved the work out of the ward.
Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Austria and Czechia head the table. What they share is a hospital-centred model: in central and eastern Europe, the dense inpatient network inherited from the Semashko system and never fully converted to outpatient care; in Germany and Austria, a large number of small general hospitals, long average lengths of stay, and payment rules that gave little reason to shorten them. Germany has been attempting to consolidate its hospital sector since 2023, and its position here is the reason.
Sweden, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Denmark and Finland sit at the bottom, against a median of 413 and a panel average of 458. The Nordic countries and the Netherlands closed inpatient capacity deliberately and over a long period, shifting older patients into municipal and home-based care. The 20-year panel shows the aggregate declining almost every year, -3 in 2024 alone. The pandemic did not reverse it: the surge capacity created in 2020 was temporary, and it does not show up in these counts.
Every row is the figure published for 2024; no value is carried over from an adjacent year to fill a gap. Albania, Iceland and North Macedonia have not published a 2024 figure and are left out rather than carried forward from an older year. The chart tracks a fixed panel of 30 countries: those reporting in every year from 2005. The line therefore moves because the countries moved, not because the sample changed. Beds are counted under Eurostat HLTH_RS_BDS1 and cover all beds regularly maintained and staffed for inpatients, including curative, rehabilitative, long-term and psychiatric care. Countries differ in how much long-term care they classify as hospital provision, which lifts the figures for systems where nursing-home capacity sits inside the hospital sector.
Country pages: Bulgaria · Germany · Romania · Austria · Czechia · Hungary · Poland · Serbia · Croatia · Slovakia · Belgium · Lithuania · France · Latvia · Greece · Switzerland · Estonia · Slovenia · Luxembourg · Malta · Montenegro · Portugal · Cyprus · Norway · Turkey · Italy · Ireland · Spain · Finland · Denmark · Netherlands · Liechtenstein · Sweden