{"version":1,"asset_type":"statistical_series","data_type":"time_series","slug":"europe-hospital-beds-by-country","url":"https://apiardata.com/statistics/europe-hospital-beds-by-country","html_url":"https://apiardata.com/statistics/europe-hospital-beds-by-country/","title":"Hospital Beds per 100,000 Inhabitants in Europe by Country (2024)","description":"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.","domain":"health","category":"Health","keywords":["Health","Hospitals","Health Infrastructure","Europe","Eurostat"],"publisher":"Eurostat","frequency":"Annual","temporal_coverage":"2005/2024","unit":"per 100,000 inhabitants","last_updated":"2026-07-25","last_updated_text":"25 July 2026","data_as_of":"2024","variable_measured":"Hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants","license":"https://apiardata.com/data-license","is_accessible_for_free":true,"sources":[{"name":"Eurostat","url":"https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/HLTH_RS_BDS1/default/table"}],"meta":[{"label":"Frequency","value":"Annual"},{"label":"Reference year","value":"2024"},{"label":"Coverage","value":"2005–2024"},{"label":"Countries","value":"33"},{"label":"Last updated","value":"25 July 2026"}],"kpis":[{"label":"Average of the panel (2024)","value":"458","unit":"beds per 100,000 inhabitants","trend":{"direction":"down","value":"-3 vs 2023"}},{"label":"Highest","value":"870","unit":"Bulgaria"},{"label":"Lowest","value":"187","unit":"Sweden"},{"label":"Countries ranked","value":"33","unit":"with a published figure"}],"series":[{"key":"value","label":"Average hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants"}],"observation_count":20,"observations":[{"period":"2005","value":568},{"period":"2006","value":562},{"period":"2007","value":557},{"period":"2008","value":551},{"period":"2009","value":533},{"period":"2010","value":523},{"period":"2011","value":518},{"period":"2012","value":515},{"period":"2013","value":506},{"period":"2014","value":502},{"period":"2015","value":497},{"period":"2016","value":493},{"period":"2017","value":491},{"period":"2018","value":482},{"period":"2019","value":479},{"period":"2020","value":477},{"period":"2021","value":474},{"period":"2022","value":466},{"period":"2023","value":461},{"period":"2024","value":458}],"table":{"columns":[{"key":"rank","label":"#"},{"key":"country","label":"Country"},{"key":"value","label":"per 100,000 inhabitants"},{"key":"yoyChange","label":"Change vs 2023"}],"rows":[{"rank":"1","country":"Bulgaria","value":"870","yoyChange":"+6"},{"rank":"2","country":"Germany","value":"759","yoyChange":"-8"},{"rank":"3","country":"Romania","value":"731","yoyChange":"+2"},{"rank":"4","country":"Austria","value":"655","yoyChange":"-5"},{"rank":"5","country":"Czechia","value":"639","yoyChange":"-1"},{"rank":"6","country":"Hungary","value":"637","yoyChange":"-14"},{"rank":"7","country":"Poland","value":"627","yoyChange":"unchanged"},{"rank":"8","country":"Serbia","value":"606","yoyChange":"+4"},{"rank":"9","country":"Croatia","value":"558","yoyChange":"-7"},{"rank":"10","country":"Slovakia","value":"558","yoyChange":"-8"},{"rank":"11","country":"Belgium","value":"536","yoyChange":"-3"},{"rank":"12","country":"Lithuania","value":"536","yoyChange":"-13"},{"rank":"13","country":"France","value":"534","yoyChange":"-6"},{"rank":"14","country":"Latvia","value":"497","yoyChange":"+4"},{"rank":"15","country":"Greece","value":"423","yoyChange":"-2"},{"rank":"16","country":"Switzerland","value":"420","yoyChange":"-17"},{"rank":"17","country":"Estonia","value":"413","yoyChange":"+1"},{"rank":"18","country":"Slovenia","value":"399","yoyChange":"-6"},{"rank":"19","country":"Luxembourg","value":"392","yoyChange":"-2"},{"rank":"20","country":"Malta","value":"391","yoyChange":"-3"},{"rank":"21","country":"Montenegro","value":"387","yoyChange":"+8"},{"rank":"22","country":"Portugal","value":"331","yoyChange":"-3"},{"rank":"23","country":"Cyprus","value":"329","yoyChange":"+10"},{"rank":"24","country":"Norway","value":"320","yoyChange":"-10"},{"rank":"25","country":"Turkey","value":"314","yoyChange":"+1"},{"rank":"26","country":"Italy","value":"312","yoyChange":"+8"},{"rank":"27","country":"Ireland","value":"293","yoyChange":"+3"},{"rank":"28","country":"Spain","value":"283","yoyChange":"-5"},{"rank":"29","country":"Finland","value":"248","yoyChange":"-12"},{"rank":"30","country":"Denmark","value":"226","yoyChange":"-7"},{"rank":"31","country":"Netherlands","value":"221","yoyChange":"-4"},{"rank":"32","country":"Liechtenstein","value":"220","yoyChange":"-3"},{"rank":"33","country":"Sweden","value":"187","yoyChange":"-1"}]},"qa":[{"question":"Which European country has the most hospital beds per capita?","answer":"Bulgaria, with 870 beds per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024, followed by Germany, Romania and Austria. The pattern is a hospital-centred model: in central and eastern Europe a dense inpatient network inherited from the Semashko system, and in Germany and Austria a large number of small general hospitals with comparatively long average stays."},{"question":"Which European country has the fewest hospital beds, and is that a problem?","answer":"Sweden at 187 per 100,000 inhabitants, with Liechtenstein, Netherlands and Denmark also near the bottom. These are deliberate choices rather than failures: the Nordic countries and the Netherlands moved treatment to day surgery, outpatient clinics and municipal or home-based care for older patients over three decades. Whether the resulting capacity is too thin is genuinely contested, and the 2020 and 2021 surge periods gave both sides material."},{"question":"Why has the number of hospital beds in Europe been falling?","answer":"Because the work moved out of the ward. Day surgery, shorter post-operative stays, better pharmaceutical management of chronic disease and the shift of long-term care into dedicated facilities have all reduced how many inpatient nights a given population needs. The panel average is 458, -3 on 2023, and the 20-year window runs consistently downward. Bed counts are an input measure, and a declining one; they are a description of how care is organised rather than of how well it works."}]}